Indiana was once known as the losingest team in college football, but on miraculously capturing the Big Ten title last weekend, two of the team’s top players gave all credit to God in front of millions of people.
Last Saturday, the Indiana Hoosiers won the Big Ten Conference Championship game in football and now they’re set to play in the Rose Bowl on New Year’s Day
The victory was a near miraculous moment for a program that has almost never enjoyed that level of success.
And at the height of their fame and triumph, Indiana players chose to give the glory to God rather than themselves.
Following the game, quarterback and Heisman Trophy hopeful Fernando Mendoza discussed the team’s amazing turnaround in a movingly enthusiastic interview with Fox Sports.
“It’s so beautiful,” he told Fox Sports’ Jenny Taft. “I want to give all the glory to God. We were never supposed to be in this position. But by the glory of God, with great coaches, great teammates, everyone we have around us, we were able to pull this off.”
Wide receiver Charlie Becker also weighed in, saying the team credited God for their incredible season. “Without Him none of this would be possible, so all glory to Him.”
Clearly, these players recognized the truly incredible nature of Indiana’s meteoric rise to the top.
The Road to Glory
That the Hoosiers are anywhere near a bowl game is, in and of itself, pretty miraculous.
Indiana has always been known as a “basketball school,” its men’s team having won five national championships under the guidance of legendary coaches like Bob Knight and Branch McCracken.
By contrast, no one has ever thought of Indiana as a “football school.” In fact, for more than a century, the Hoosier football program has been known as the best at losing.
Indiana lost its first game in 1887, and by 2022, it had lost more than 700 games — the first school to claim that unenviable title.
In 2023, Indiana finished its season with a 3-9 record, the worst in the Big Ten.
But that all changed when head coach Curt Cignetti was hired.
Cignetti, who has been coaching since 1983, worked as a member of numerous coaching staffs until he was hired as a wide receiver’s coach at the University of Alabama in 2007.
There, he got to learn from what can only be described as a mythic coaching staff led by head coach Nick Saban, who won a record setting seven national championships during his tenure at Louisiana State University and Alabama. Saban is considered by many to be the greatest college football coach of all time.
But among his coworkers were also numerous future head coaches, among them Kirby Smart, who in 2016 became the head coach at the University of Georgia and quickly elevated the program into a titan, winning two national championships.
They say iron sharpens iron and working on a team with minds like Saban and Smart obviously helped grow Cignetti. These coaches emphasize obsessive attention to detail, physical toughness, and upholding a standard of success in everything that they do.
After leaving Alabama to serve as head coach for three different teams, Cignetti was hired by Indiana for the 2024 season.
And to everyone’s amazement, he immediately transformed the team from losers to winners, guiding the Hoosiers to an 11-1 regular season and a trip to the College Football Playoff. Though they fell 27-17 to Notre Dame, the eventual national runner-up, Cignetti and the Hoosiers took that loss as a challenge: They were bound and determined to prove they belonged among the elites.
And boy did they ever.
The Hoosiers dominated lesser competition in the first three weeks of the 2025 season but grabbed the attention of both fans and media personalities when they routed then-ninth ranked Illinois by a score of 63-10.
And they never looked back after that.
On Saturday, they planted their flag atop the Big Ten Conference. In a nail-biter, they won 13-10, toppling an Ohio State team that had not only been undefeated but were the defending national champions.
The win broke Indiana’s 30-game losing streak to the Buckeyes.
A Historic Reversal
Indiana was once the losingest program in college football, holding the record for most losses at 715 and the worst winning percentage.
In 2025, Indiana not only became the top team in the Big Ten Conference but finally relinquished its title of all-time biggest loser to Northwestern University — another Big Ten team that suffered its 716th in October.
And now, with the playoffs about to start, Indiana is the only team in the nation without a loss.
On Sunday, the College Football Playoff Committee ranked Indiana No. 1, immediately moving to the second round of the playoff.
Indiana will next face the winner of the matchup between Alabama and Oklahoma, two princes of the sport with the third and sixth most wins of all time, respectively.
But Indiana won’t be intimidated. The Hoosiers already have wins over both the Buckeyes and No. 5 Oregon.
Though the conference championship is historic for Indiana, Cignetti knows Indiana’s miracle season will be a blip in history if they don’t keep winning.
He said he has to make sure his team is hungry for the playoff. “It only counts if you finish it there,” he stated.
More Players Sharing Faith
This story warms the heart in a culture of self-promoters. Some use their platform to brag or put others down. But more and more, athletes are using their fame to praise God.
Saturday was far from the first time Mendoza has used his post-game interview to thank God. He’s been doing so since his time at the University of California, and continued to do so since transferring to Indiana. In interviews, his passion is evident as he speaks about God with a cracking voice and a smile.
Mendoza says that watching daily mass on the day of games and Bible study are his secrets to getting ready to play.
Dominican priest and pastor at Indiana University Fr. Patrick Hyde says that Mendoza doesn’t just talk about God but glorifies Him regularly.
“Fernando Mendoza backs up his talk on TV by giving glory to God at Sunday Mass. I have wrestled with sharing this because he shows up out of love for God, not human praise. But I share because i [sic] hope his witness inspires others to go to Mass,” he posted on X.
Whether Catholic or Protestant, more and more athletes are talking about their religious beliefs.
At last year’s College Football Playoff, numerous young athletes thanked God for His blessings, including Ohio State quarterback Will Howard and Notre Dame’s Riley Leonard, who both led their teams to the national championship game.
It’s all part of a wave of newfound interest in Christianity among young men, as Virgil Walker and I have discussed in articles here and here.
As tens of millions tune in for Indiana’s playoff game at the Rose Bowl, and millions more follow on social media, many who do not know God will hear about Him.
So whoever you root for in the College Football Playoff, maybe say a prayer not only that your team will make that key field goal or that players will be kept safe but also that someone hears about Christ and makes the greatest call they could ever make: to give their life to Him.
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