Indiana head coach Curt Cignetti and the Hoosiers aren’t going to be tourists this weekend in Pasadena.
As Indiana, who’s off to a 2-0 start to the season, ventures westward for a Saturday showdown with UCLA at the Rose Bowl this weekend, the Hoosiers aren’t going to fall victim to the awe and the excitement of the historic venue.
The Rose Bowl, the site for Indiana’s Big Ten opener against UCLA, is widely regarded as one of the most iconic locales in all of sports. Named a National Historic Landmark in 1987, it has played host to multiple Super Bowls, national title games and even a couple of Olympic finals.
Nonetheless, Cignetti seems rather disinterested in the storied tradition surrounding the setting for his Big Ten debut. If you ask him, the game might as well be played in a random parking lot.
“The Rose Bowl has a lot of tradition for people that follow football,” Cignetti said Monday. “For me and the team, it’s more of a business trip. Whether we’re playing in the Rose Bowl or in a parking lot, it’s all the same.”
Those comments are similar to what Cignetti said back in July at Big Ten football media days, although he used slightly more colorful language back then.
“We’re just going to an old stadium to kick somebody’s ass,” Cignetti said in July. “That’s not directed to UCLA — that’s the objective every week. Look, I know: 1967, we were there and haven’t been there since, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. We’re not going out on a cruise or a tour.”
While that mindset may start at the top with Cignetti, he’s far from the only person in the Indiana locker room who believes it. The players, many of whom Cignetti brought with him this offseason from James Madison, have wholeheartedly bought into what their head coach is selling.
“It’s cool; it’s a great experience, but at the end of the day football is football,” defensive end Mikail Kamara said Tuesday. “Once the pads are on and once the ball is kicked, it’s football. It doesn’t matter what stadium we’re in.”
Venue aside, Indiana’s early season trip to Pasadena will also mark plenty of firsts for both teams involved.
Not only is it Cignetti’s Big Ten debut, but it is also Indiana’s first – and only other – trip to the Rose Bowl since the 1967 season and the Hoosiers’ first time meeting one of the Big Ten’s newest members. It’s also the official introduction to the conference for UCLA, as well as the first ever meeting on the gridiron between the Hoosiers and the Bruins.
For Cignetti and company, all of that is simply outside noise.
He and his team aren’t paying any attention to any of those storylines, including the fact that Indiana is favored in a conference road game for the first time since the 2020 season.
“That’s a big part of my job,” Cignetti said when asked how he keeps his players mentally engaged playing in an environment like the Rose Bowl, “to make sure we eliminate the noise and the clutter and have everybody understand why we’re there. The guys that make that trip will understand that.”
Of those Hoosiers making the trip, nearly three dozen of them are transfers, and a handful of them are from small schools in small conferences, including James Madison transfer wideout Elijah Sarratt.
Before sporting the cream and crimson, Sarratt spent the 2023 season with the Dukes. Before that, he began his collegiate career at Saint Francis (Pa.), where he played in front of fewer than 3,000 fans a game. Just two years later, he’s set to play on one of the biggest stages in all of sports.
“You always have to appreciate the moments that you’re in,” Sarratt said Tuesday. “I try to do that every single day because I don’t know the next time I’m going to be in the Rose Bowl. I’m just going to try and take in the moment and enjoy it while I can.”
While many Hoosiers, like Sarratt, may take some time pregame to stop and soak in the incredible sight that is the Rose Bowl, once they get in between those lines, it’s all about one thing: winning.
That mentality is a microcosm of the culture shift underway in Bloomington. Ever since the 63-year-old Cignetti took over the Hoosiers’ head coaching gig back in late November, he’s pushed the idea of a “new Indiana,” one not burdened by the program’s past history – or lack thereof.
“I think this is a game where we go out there and prove to everybody that [Indiana] is for real,” Kamara said. “Going in and doing what we need to do against UCLA can start this change that we’re looking for. All the guys that stayed [this offseason] are committed to changing this program.”
It’s that type of buy-in and belief that has Bloomington buzzing and salivating at the heights these Hoosiers can reach. All offseason long, there was a tangible excitement around the team, bolstered by the brazen swagger Cignetti flaunted almost daily.
That excitement has grown even further following the Hoosiers’ dominant 2-0 start to the season that includes a 31-7 home win over Florida International to open the year and a record-breaking 77-3 battering of Western Illinois in Week 2.
On Saturday, with a 3-0 start to the season in sight under the bright lights of the Rose Bowl, Indiana will approach its conference opener like any other game on the schedule.
“Every game is the most important game,” Cignetti said. “You guys can write your stories and your angles on how important X game is relative to Y game, but they all count as one game. It’s the first conference game, so we’re excited about that, and we want to get off to a good start.”
This is a different team and a different program than in years past, ready to announce themselves on the big stage and welcome the Bruins to the Big Ten.
“We know what we’re there for,” Sarratt said. “We’re there to handle business.”
How to watch Indiana vs. UCLA
- Date: Saturday, September 14th
- Time: 7:30 p.m. ET (Pregame coverage begins at 7:00pm ET)
- Venue: Rose Bowl Stadium in Pasadena, California
- Watch: NBC, Peacock
About the Author
Zach Browning is a junior at Indiana University and is a senior writer for TheHoosier.com, a website powered by the Rivals Network that covers Indiana athletics. Zach also broadcasts Indiana sports for WIUX Sports, Indiana’s student-run radio station, as well as Big Ten Plus, a student-run broadcasting program powered by the Big Ten Network StudentU program.