Curt Cignetti and Fernando Mendoza will forever be remembered together in Indiana football lore. Cignetti turned the IU program around in a major way during his first season, but it wasn't until Mendoza entered the picture in his second season when the Hoosiers transformed from a feel-good story into a National Championship-winning program.
Cignetti's leadership style is well-documented, as his no-nonsense approach and process-driven discipline has completely transformed the Hoosier football program. His style and attitude is exactly what was needed in Bloomington. But according to Mendoza, there's one leadership quality of Cignetti's that stands out from the rest.
Fernando Mendoza points to unity as Cignetti's best leadership quality
Speaking with On3 via Zoom earlier this week, Mendoza spoke about what makes Cignetti such a great leader. Not surprisingly, he had a lot of great things to say about his now-former coach.
But one quote from Mendoza's lengthy interview stood out the most. When discussing Cignetti's coaching style, the Heisman Trophy-winning QB credited Cignetti's ability to bring the roster together as one cohesive unit. Rather than being a team of individuals, the Hoosiers were able to find elite success by staying hungry together as a team. With rosters of 105 players, that can be a tough thing to do. But Cignetti has mastered it.
"If you’re an orange, he’s going to squeeze all the juice out of you. That’s one thing is he’s really good at keeping all the guys hungry and making sure that complacency is not in the building and really providing – especially last year, we really had an equal playing [field] where no one saw themselves as a star player. We all just saw ourselves as part of a machine and a part of a system and end up producing wins, which all brought us happiness and enjoyment."Fernando Mendoza
That kind of approach has worked wonders for Cignetti during his time in Bloomington so far. Having an equal playing field in the locker room where no player sees themselves as a star player is the perfect recipe for success. That style was evident on last year's title team throughout the season, as egos were put to the side in favor of the greater good of the team.
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Look no further than the team's leader, Mendoza, who would constantly push the attention away from himself. Instead, he would regularly highlight the accomplishments of his teammates and the team as a whole. He didn't want to talk about his personal accomplishments.
Mendoza's interviews and press conferences became must-watch TV during Indiana's CFP run, as his raw emotion, true love for his team, and passion for the game shined through on the national stage. It's clear that his selflessness and humility shined through to the rest of the roster as well.
Looking ahead, the Indiana football program will undoubtedly be different without Mendoza. But with Cignetti leading the way, the same selfless and humble should be expected. Hopefully, that mentality continues to yield tremendous results.
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