Indiana’s football team experienced a resurrection under head coach Curt Cignetti, who ended decades of losing play and brought the program to the College Football Playoff title game against Miami.
But the team’s meteoric rise under Cignetti has also been surrounded by rumors of cheating from the program, with detractors claiming that the Hoosiers have an uncanny ability to sniff out plays from opponents while on defense.
Those rumors are being strongly addressed amid Indiana’s run for a national title.
Indiana Cheating Rumors Put to Rest
The rumors appeared to begin with an offhand statement from Fox Sports reporter, who praised the team’s defense without directly accusing them of wrongdoing.
“Itâs almost like Indiana knows what play/look is coming almost every down. They are so well prepped,” Fallica shared in a post on X.
That post took on a life of its own, spurring comments accusing the Hoosiers of cheating by stealing signs from opponents.
“Not only has Indiana been hacking into the VEO/ Pixellott software to watch practice film of other teams, but they have infiltrated most cloud based system which teams keep their game plans on,” one unnamed person posted in response to Fallica, not offering any evidence of the claim.
The rumors grew as Indiana tore its way through the College Football Playoff to a matchup with Miami on Monday.
Now, some college football insiders are putting an end to the rumors. Pat Forde of SI.com wrote that there is no basis to the rumors that Indiana is cheating.
“The theories are irresponsible,” Forde wrote. “Passive-aggressive posts were making the rounds on social media and message boards over the weekend, suggesting that the Hoosiers were suspiciously well-positioned to make plays most of the night against Oregon. The inference: Indiana had access to the Ducksâ practice film, headset communications or other advanced intel.”
Dan Treacy of The Sporting News added that the Indiana cheating rumors appear to be building from a trend of other sports cheating scandals and have no basis in reality. He noted that Cignetti brought a total change of culture at Indiana, taking a perpetually losing program into a national title contender in just two years.
That is hard for many college football fans to accept, he wrote.
“Some people want a simpler explanation than reality offers,” Treacy wrote.
Other College Football Coaches Sound Off on Indiana Cheating Rumors
Forde consulted with other college football coaches who agreed — the Hoosiers are simply that much better than their opponents this year.
âI think itâs asinine,â one coach told Forde. âI just think theyâre really [expletive] good. I didnât see anything when they played us other than really good players who are really well-coached.
âI didnât see their game against Ohio State [in the Big Ten championship], but I went back and watched the all-22 [game film] and they just whipped âem up front. Those interior guys on the D-line get no credit, but theyâre really good. And the O-line is dominating. Thereâs nothing suspicious about winning up front.â
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