Was Cignetti's overconfidence a factor in Indiana's poor performance?

Curt Cignetti has been the talk of Indiana football this season, taking the Hoosiers to their first-ever College Football Playoff in his first season with Indiana. Cignetti also brought Indiana to their first 11-win season ever, making this the best season for the Hoosiers in football program history.

A big reason Cignetti has been in the headlines is not just because of his performance at Indiana but what he has said and the mindset he has around coaching. The long-time head coach made headlines this season after his infamous "I win, Google me" comment when people ask about his coaching experience.

Cignetti isn't wrong, he has had great success at every program he has coach, but he is coaching with the big boys now in a power conference, the Big Ten nonetheless, The confidence is needed, but going overboard might have have been a factor in the Hoosier's most recent performance.

Indiana faced Notre Dame in the first round of the first-ever 12-team College Football Playoff, and Cignetti went into the game very confident, just as a head coach should be, but he might have been a bit too confident.

Granted, if Indiana would have won this game, no one would be talking about Cignetti's overconfidence, they would be praising him for his team's win. The reason everyone is making the comments and going after Cignetti now is because Indiana lost and they didn't lose by a close margin.

Cignetti's overconfidence probably didn't distract the team, if anything, it would have fired the team up, but again, because the Hoosiers lost, everyone is talking about what Cignetti said. He probably shouldn't have said what he said because one of the big Top 25 teams that Indiana did play beat them by three scores.

While the Hoosiers lost, that doesn't mean that fans are still happy with the season. This was the most fun Hoosier fans have had during football season in a long time, and that is something worth celebrating.