As No. 3 Indiana continues to reach new milestones, Cignetti taking a business-as-usual approach

Indiana Hoosiers coach Curt Cignetti stuck to the game plan Monday.

He quickly turned the page on the program’s first road victory over a top-five team and didn’t even bother to mention their new No. 3 ranking — the highest in school history — or the increasing commotion about whether quarterback Fernando Mendoza is a legitimate Heisman Trophy contender.

Instead, the brash, 64-year-old Cignetti took the business approach.

“ I think the key now is our response, but that’s always the response, right?” Cignetti said. “This team has met every challenge to this point because they’re humble, humble and hungry. They’ve prepared properly and put it on the field, which requires commitment, discipline, sacrifice and eliminating the noise and the clutter.”

It may be harder to ignore the fanfare this week when Indiana (6-0, 3-0 Big Ten) hosts struggling Michigan State (3-3, 0-3).

To Cignetti, of course, it’s just another game albeit a chance at another milestone — retaining the Old Brass Spittoon. The Hoosiers haven’t beaten the Spartans in consecutive games since a three-year span from 1967-69.

To Hoosiers fans, though, it’s an entirely different scenario. For a second straight season, they’re undefeated at the midway point and appear headed toward a second straight playoff berth. The game was already sold out before the shocking 30-20 victory over then No. 3 Oregon.

And, amazingly with basketball season beckoning in Bloomington, around campus all anyone wants to talk about is football.

Now, though, the guy who challenged reporters by boasting “I win, Google me” and telling fans at a basketball game “Purdue sucks! So does Ohio State and Michigan!” suddenly wants to rein things in.

After Saturday’s game, Cignetti joked on the telecast he didn’t recognize the guy who uttered those words before acknowledging he needed to say those things to change the program.

Now, with a two-year record of 17-2, no home losses and perhaps the biggest win in program history, Cignetti is content relying on the Hoosiers resume.

“We’ve got a lot of strong character on this football team, and they’re a team,” he said. “And, you know, the team goals supersede the individual goals. Let’s face it, when you enter a season, especially nowadays, because you’ve got a lot of new faces, there’s really a lot you don’t know about your team, how they’re going to respond.”

So far, Cignetti’s players have had all the right answers.

When the critics complained about their “soft” nonconference schedule — Old Dominion, Kennesaw State and Indiana State — Indiana responded with three wins by a combined score of 156-23.

The Hoosiers quieted those same critics the next week by blowing out then No. 9 Illinois 63-10, the most lopsided victory over a top-10 team in school history.

And when those same critics continued howling after the 20-15 win at unranked Iowa, Cignetti used the bye week to prime the Hoosiers for a game that would silence any doubter. Indiana snapped the FBS’ longest active regular-season winning streak at 23 and the longest active home winning streak at 18.

Now comes the biggest test for the Hoosiers, keeping the momentum rolling at home in a game that they’re favored by 26 1/2 points, according to BetMgm.com.

“It depends on what we do with it from here,” Cignetti said Saturday. “It puts us in position — if we can continue to be successful which means we have to show up to work on Monday as a team, humble, hungry and ready to go against Michigan State.”

But around Indiana and around the country, the Hoosiers have become the darlings of college football. Again.

So Cignetti intends to remind his players how they got here in the first place — by sticking to the business at hand.

“This game gives you nothing,” he said. “You’ve got to earn everything, and it’s all about our mindset and our preparation.”

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