HOPE IS A DANGEROUS THING. I half-expected some spice in Curt Cignetti's Monday press conference. Yet, the Indiana coach who once said Purdue, Michigan and Ohio State "suck" and "I win, Google me" avoided bulletin board material in the 13-minute media session.
"Excited about this week's opportunity against Ohio State. Obviously, an excellent football team, one of the favorites to win the national championship, a lot of great players, extremely well-coached and their tradition speaks for itself," Cignetti said in his opening statement. "We have to stack moments, meetings, practices and days to be successful on Saturday. I'm confident in our team that we will prep well this week, play well, play with poise and play our game."
That's the message Cignetti has sent reporters.
I'm convinced the message Cignetti has sent his team is much different.
Ohio State has 29 consecutive victories over Indiana, the longest active win streak in college football. But this Hoosiers team isn't like the previous 29. No, not at all. This season, Indiana has demolished its competition - so much so that the team's No. 106 strength of schedule translates to the No. 6 strength of record - and it intends to achieve the same result in Columbus.
"It's a big game for us because it's the game coming up," Cignetti said. "We treat them all alike."
Coachspeak. But confident coachspeak!
"I think it's all out there," Cignetti said of Indiana's goals. "I think any P4 school with the proper commitment is capable of being successful. Really, the difference between victory and defeat in most of these games is very slim. It's all attainable. We put ourselves in a position right now to be talked about quite a bit. That's nice. But it doesn't help us prepare. It doesn't help us play any better.
"We've got some great opportunities ahead of us. This is a team that's capable. The only limitations on this football team would be those we put on ourselves between the ears. But this is a group of guys that do not think that way. We're going into the next game confident, believing. We're going to go out there, and we're going to play well."
Confident and capable, Indiana will have hope this weekend.
But Red (Morgan Freeman) said it best in Shawshank Redemption: Hope is a dangerous thing. Hope can drive a man insane. And what's the definition of insanity? Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different outcome - like losing to a team 29 straight times and expecting you'll break the streak before it reaches 30.
STOCK UP/DOWN. Eleven Warriors reporter Andy Anders determines stock prices around these parts. However, I've decided to set a couple of them for him this week. (He'll have more in the Stock Report later this morning.)
STOCK UP: The 12-team College Football Playoff
STOCK DOWN: Those who said the 12-team College Football Playoff would make the regular season irrelevant
In a decade of the four-team CFP, 15 teams made the postseason tournament: Alabama (eight appearances), Clemson (six), Ohio State (five), Oklahoma (four), Georgia (three), Michigan (three), Notre Dame (two), Washington (two) and Cincinnati, Florida State, LSU, Michigan State, Oregon, TCU and Texas (one).
Three weeks out from the 12-team CFP selection show, less than half of those programs are in contention for a spot - Alabama, Clemson, Ohio State, Georgia, Notre Dame, Oregon and Texas - while a dozen other teams, including Penn State, Indiana, BYU, Tennessee, Miami (FL), Ole Miss, Boise State, SMU, Texas A&M, Colorado, Army and Tulane, among others, are also in the running after 12 weeks.
That rules.
College football's most important games this weekend involve Army, Arizona State, BYU and Indiana. The undefeated Golden Knights are on the road at Notre Dame, and a win moves them one step closer to an AAC Championship Game and a potential CFP berth. The Sun Devils and Cougars will battle with a spot in the Big 12 Championship Game and CFP on the line. And Eleven Warriors has documented what's at stake for the Hoosiers.
That also rules.
Again, I write all of that three weeks out from the CFP selection show, which means we haven't seen what the 12-team tournament will look like. Considering what we know about it - non-bluebloods in the field, at least one Group of Five team, home playoff games and four rounds to determine a champion - I think it will be crazier than we can even imagine.
ALWAYS SONNY IN COLUMBUS... AND CHICAGO? With two sacks and two pass breakups on Saturday, Styles was named Eleven Warriors' Second Star and Ohio State's Defensive Player of the Game over the weekend. His performance also included six tackles, extending his lead for the team lead in takedowns with 63 this season.
"We need Sonny to be as productive as he was today," Ryan Day said Saturday. "When you can do it in man coverage, you can do it in zone coverage, you can blitz and you start to mix in all these different things you can, then you just become more of a weapon."
Styles' improvement has felt linear this fall.
After an offseason move from defensive back to linebacker, the 6-foot-4, 235-pound athlete had some rough moments in August and September. But as the calendar has turned to October and into November, Styles has played his best football, collecting 40 tackles, 4.5 tackles for loss, three sacks and three pass breakups in Ohio State's past six games.
The Pickerington, Ohio, native is one of 15 semifinalists for the Butkus Award, an honor presented to the best linebacker in college football. I think - I think! - that makes him a lock to land on an All-Big Ten team with fellow Butkus candidates Aiden Fisher (Indiana), Jay Higgins (Iowa) and Carson Schwesigner (UCLA).
Not bad for someone who's been a linebacker for 10 games.
DOWNS WITH A SWING AND A DRIVE! Before this Skull Session ends - and most of the discussion about Ohio State's win over Northwestern ends with it - I have to discuss Caleb Downs' baseball swing celebration after he made one of the greatest form tackles I have ever seen on Saturday.
A freshman All-American at Alabama, Downs was one of the most coveted transfers in college football this past offseason. Ohio State won the sweepstakes for his services and has reaped the rewards in 2024, as the 6-foot, 205-pound defensive back continues to look the part as one of the best defenders in the sport.