{"id":862643,"date":"2026-09-27T17:06:30","date_gmt":"2026-09-27T17:06:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/862643\/"},"modified":"2026-09-27T17:06:30","modified_gmt":"2026-09-27T17:06:30","slug":"curt-cignetti-drops-insane-pearl-harbor-line-after-indiana-squeaks-by-northwestern","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/862643\/","title":{"rendered":"Curt Cignetti drops insane &#8216;Pearl Harbor&#8217; line after Indiana squeaks by Northwestern"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p data-layout-index=\"5\" class=\"speakable\">Defending champion Indiana <a data-omtr-intcmp=\"fnc_outkick-sports_article_main-content_article-body_6_11506145\" href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/outkick-sports\/indiana-coach-curt-cignetti-message-antsy-hoosiers-fans-dont-complain-38-0-win\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">survived a scare<\/a> Friday night against Northwestern, eking out a 29-23 win in the 2026 Big Ten opener.<\/p>\n<p data-layout-index=\"5\" class=\"speakable\">The Hoosiers were nearly three touchdown favorites most of the week, but that never came close to hitting. In fact, for most of the first quarter, Indiana led Northwestern by a robust score of &#8230;<\/p>\n<p data-layout-index=\"5\">2-0.<\/p>\n<p class=\"affiliate-disclaimer\">This page may contain affiliate links to legal sports betting partners. If you sign up or place a wager, FOX News may be compensated. This content was created by a team that works independently from the FOX newsroom.<\/p>\n<p data-layout-index=\"5\"><a data-omtr-intcmp=\"fnc_outkick-sports_article_main-content_article-body_6_11506146\" href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/outkick-sports\/indiana-qb-josh-hoover-delivers-greatest-football-guy-moment-season\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">INDIANA QB JOSH HOOVER DELIVERS THE GREATEST &#8216;FOOTBALL GUY&#8217; MOMENT OF THE SEASON SO FAR<\/a><\/p>\n<p data-layout-index=\"5\">That&#8217;s right. 2-0! Nothing like a little Friday night pitcher&#8217;s duel in Bloomington. It&#8217;s rare to see a 2-0 score in a football game, by the way. Duh.<\/p>\n<p data-layout-index=\"5\">So when it happens, you have to soak it in.<\/p>\n<p data-layout-index=\"5\">Amazing. I could watch it all day. Again, you just don&#8217;t see it. Old school football, baby!<\/p>\n<p data-layout-index=\"5\">Anyway, it was a struggle for Indiana most of the night. The Hoosiers had leads of 2-0, 5-0, 12-0, and 12-7 before Northwestern closed the gap to 22-20 midway through the fourth quarter.<\/p>\n<p> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/indiana-hoosiers-curt-cignetti-032626.jpg\" alt=\"Indiana Hoosiers head coach Curt Cignetti after defeating the Miami Hurricanes in the College Football Playoff National Championship game at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida on Jan. 19, 2026.\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\"\/> <\/p>\n<p>Indiana Hoosiers head coach Curt Cignetti after defeating the Miami Hurricanes in the College Football Playoff National Championship game at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida on Jan. 19, 2026. (Mark J. Rebilas\/Imagn Images)<\/p>\n<p data-layout-index=\"5\">The defending champs prevailed, but it wasn&#8217;t pretty. Perhaps opening the game with back-to-back false starts \u2014 followed by a turnover on downs at the goal line \u2014 was a harbinger of things to come.<\/p>\n<p data-layout-index=\"5\">At least that&#8217;s what head coach Curt Cignetti took away &#8230;<\/p>\n<p data-layout-index=\"5\">Sort of:<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0Curt Cignetti is a college football content machine<\/p>\n<p data-layout-index=\"5\">&#8220;We got Pearl Harbored the first two offensive plays.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p data-layout-index=\"5\">Well, that&#8217;s certainly one way to put it. I&#8217;ll be honest, I&#8217;ve never heard that one. Good stuff here from Cignetti. Nobody does it quite like him.<\/p>\n<p data-layout-index=\"5\">The guy is just a content machine. It&#8217;s Cignetti, Lane Kiffin, and then everyone else.<\/p>\n<p> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/curt-cignetti-indiana-hoosiers-football_001.jpg\" alt=\"Curt Cignetti stands following a college football game at Memorial Stadium in Bloomington, Ind.\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\"\/> <\/p>\n<p>Indiana Hoosiers head coach Curt Cignetti is seen following a college football game between the Northwestern Wildcats and Indiana Hoosiers on Sept. 25, 2026, at Memorial Stadium in Bloomington, Ind. (Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)<\/p>\n<p data-layout-index=\"5\">Cig has owned <a data-omtr-intcmp=\"fnc_outkick-sports_article_main-content_article-body_6_11506147\" href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/category\/sports\/ncaa-fb\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">college football<\/a> for the better part of a year now. He came into Indiana, made the Hoosiers a football school, led them to a national title and he doesn&#8217;t appear to be slowing down this season.<\/p>\n<p data-layout-index=\"5\"><a data-omtr-intcmp=\"fnc_outkick-sports_article_main-content_article-body_6_11506148\" href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/outkick-sports\/cocky-curt-cignetti-called-out-sec-should-google-indiana-laughable-schedule-first\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">COCKY CURT CIGNETTI CALLED OUT THE SEC, BUT HE SHOULD GOOGLE INDIANA&#8217;S LAUGHABLE SCHEDULE FIRST<\/a><\/p>\n<p data-layout-index=\"5\">Magical quotes like this, of course, are a dime a dozen from Cignetti. Remember, this is the guy who started his tenure at Indiana by telling a group of reporters to &#8220;Google me.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p data-layout-index=\"5\">We mocked him them. Nobody&#8217;s laughing now.<\/p>\n<p> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/curt-cignetti-11026.jpg\" alt=\"Indiana football coach Curt Cignetti\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\"\/> <\/p>\n<p>Indiana Hoosiers head coach Curt Cignetti hoists the George P. Crumbley Trophy after defeating the Oregon Ducks in the 2025 College Football Playoff Semifinal at the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Jan. 9, 2026 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Jonathan Bachman\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<p data-layout-index=\"5\">The Hoosiers are sort of coasting their way through the first part of the season. Not a ton of folks talking about them.<\/p>\n<p data-layout-index=\"5\">But the schedule goes up a notch in October with Michigan and Ohio State looming.<\/p>\n<p data-layout-index=\"5\"><a href=\"https:\/\/foxnews.onelink.me\/xLDS?pid=AppArticleLink&amp;af_dp=foxnewsaf%3A%2F%2F&amp;af_web_dp=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.foxnews.com%2Fapps-products\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP<\/a><\/p>\n<p data-layout-index=\"5\">Cignetti said it best last night.<\/p>\n<p data-layout-index=\"5\">There&#8217;s a war brewing.<\/p>\n<p>Zach Dean is a writer for OutKick.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Defending champion Indiana survived a scare Friday night against Northwestern, eking out a 29-23 win in the 2026&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":862644,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[2205,399,6815,398,140712,396,397,13425,259870,99],"class_list":["post-862643","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ncaa-football","tag-betting","tag-football","tag-indiana-hoosiers","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-fb","tag-ncaa-football","tag-ncaafootball","tag-northwestern-wildcats","tag-outkick-sports","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/862643","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=862643"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/862643\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/862644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=862643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=862643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=862643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}