Last newsletter of the 2025 season. Thank you for riding with me during my first season since 2019 writing about this sport like this. See you Tuesday when I\u2019m on my way back from Miami. Anything important going on there in the meantime?<\/p>\n When has anything like Curt Cignetti\u2019s Indiana turnaround happened before? In college football, at least? A question that\u2019s become more and more popular over the last 12 months or so.<\/p>\n Bill Snyder\u2019s\u00a0Kansas State overhaul\u00a0is the most frequent answer, one I\u2019ve offered myself. Before Snyder\u2019s 1989 hire, the Wildcats were one of the most miserable power-conference programs in the country (along with Northwestern). Four years later, they began a streak of eight straight top-20 finishes and nearly made 1998\u2019s BCS title game.<\/p>\n As of Jan. 16, 2026, comparing Indiana to K-State still works well. Sure, Cignetti vaulted to title contention much more quickly than Snyder did, but there\u2019s context. Snyder didn\u2019t have Indiana\u2019s huge and well-off alumni base, let alone a portal.<\/p>\n But what if Indiana wins on Monday night, completing not just a\u00a0shocking rise, but also one of the most\u00a0dominant postseasons\u00a0in college football history?\u00a0A Hoosiers title would so dramatically exceed even the Wildcats that it could only really be compared to other national champs.<\/strong><\/p>\n But that\u2019s where it gets tricky. Major college football has long been a uniquely hostile sport for upstarts.\u00a0Eww! Boise State got a nice tournament spot!\u00a0Change the rules!<\/em>\u00a0Gate-crashing champs are extremely rare, at least at the FBS level. So in any kind of modern era, there are almost zero viable Indiana counterparts.<\/p>\n If Indiana wins a title by beating the Hurricanes, there will be one valid modern comparison, though.\u00a0<\/strong>That comparison: well, the Hurricanes themselves.<\/p>\n In the 1970s, the main topic surrounding Miami\u2019s football program was whether to shutter it. It\u2019d been mediocre and\/or bad for almost all of the previous 20 years. Few locals cared about the small, private \u201cSuntan U\u201d (1974 enrollment: 8,775) or its independent football team, not when Don Shula\u2019s champion Dolphins were right there in the same stadium. Miami\u00a0dropped basketball\u00a0in 1971 for financial reasons and\u00a0was paying\u00a0local radio to carry its football games.<\/p>\n In 1979, a madman named Howard Schnellenberger showed up,<\/strong>\u00a0proclaiming that a program with a 14-29 record over the previous four years would win a national title within the\u00a0next<\/em>\u00a0four years. This was far bolder than even Cignetti\u2019s \u201cGoogle me,\u201d since Schnelly had little track record worth boasting about. The former Shula assistant\u2019s only previous head-coaching gig was going 4-13 with the Baltimore Colts.<\/p>\n The hard job remained hard. Upon taking over the Canes, \u201chis staff literally had to scrounge for nickels and dimes to call their recruits from the corner pay phone,\u201d\u00a0Bruce Feldman wrote. Cignetti might\u2019ve had to do that kind of thing back in Division II, but not at Indiana.<\/p>\n However, Schnellenberger\u2019s Canes hit that four-year deadline anyway, beating the almighty Nebraska Cornhuskers in 1983\u2019s de facto title game. Out of nowhere, a team without a single first-team All-American beat one of the bluest bluebloods (at the time, yes). Miami even started that season 0-1, losing 28-3 to rival Florida, just to make the whole thing as improbable as possible.<\/p>\n As with Cignetti\u2019s\u00a0masterful use\u00a0of Indiana\u2019s resources, Schnellenberger did it partly by making full use of overlooked riches.<\/strong>\u00a0In the days before cheap flights, digital film and direct messages made it so everyone can recruit South Florida, he sought to establish a \u201cState of Miami\u201d wall around his backyard\u2019s talent \u2014 astoundingly underappreciated, at least in hindsight.<\/p>\n In a run-first era of college football, the former NFL OC deployed future first-round QB Bernie Kosar in a pro-style passing offense long before that term became a clich\u00e9. (Unlike with Cignetti\u2019s veteran-heavy roster, Schnellenberger also worked his players\u00a0extremely hard.)<\/p>\n After 1983, the gold-chain Canes\u2019\u00a0non-stop parade of future Pro Bowlers\u00a0would also win three of the next eight titles. That sentence would\u2019ve sounded incomprehensible to anyone who\u2019d just returned from a decade on a desert island, about as farfetched as Indiana being 15-0 right now. By 1995, Sports Illustrated was calling for The U to\u00a0drop its rule-breaking football program\u00a0\u2026 just 16 years after locals were barely aware the program even existed.<\/p>\n Cinderella\u2019s coronation in 1983 was at the old Orange Bowl in Miami, by the way.\u00a0<\/strong>About 13 miles from where she\u2019ll wear crimson on Monday night. This time, the Canes are the multi-time champ, though they\u2019re also once again the underdog (-8.5 at BetMGM). Get the feeling they like it that way.<\/p>\n More title game:<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \ud83d\udc4f Ever wonder\u00a0when and why\u00a0clapping replaced the long-iconic \u201chut, hut, hike!\u201d as the way for a college QB to call for a snap?<\/p>\n \ud83c\udfc6 Nebraska\u2019s Ndamukong Suh and Pitt\u2019s Aaron Donald, college football\u2019s two best defensive tackles of this century, will enter the College Football Hall of Fame in the same class. Also in: Heisman winner Mark Ingram, coaches Gary Patterson and Chris Petersen\u00a0and 17 more.<\/p>\n \ud83e\udee9 At this week\u2019s annual American Football Coaches Association conference in Charlotte,\u00a0everyone was very tired. (Also an interesting note in there on G5 coaches tracking whether transfers to Power 4 teams are logging significant snaps. If not, they can argue players might be better off sticking around.)<\/p>\n Days after Oregon\u2019s season ended, QB Dante Moore decided against being a likely top-10 2026 NFL Draft pick, returning for his second year as a starter (along with parts of a rough 2023 at UCLA).<\/p>\n \u201cComing back is the best thing for me, to make sure that when that day does happen, that I\u2019m fully prepared,\u201d he said live on \u201cSportsCenter\u201d two days ago.<\/p>\n Three things:<\/p>\n Elsewhere in portal stuff, as 2026\u2019s only transfer window closes today:<\/strong><\/p>\n More next week, wrapping up the portal. And, uh, the season itself. At the same time. Yeah, they really gotta fix this calendar. Holler at untilsaturday@theathletic.com if you wanna!<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/athletic\/uploads\/wp\/2023\/08\/28112043\/Group-660936-300x67.png\")
Until Saturday Newsletter<\/strong> \ud83c\udfc8\u00a0| This is The Athletic<\/em>\u2019s college football newsletter. Sign up here to receive Until Saturday directly in your inbox.<\/p>\nDavid vs. David: Miami, CFB\u2019s greatest Cinderella \u2026 for now<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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Quick Snaps<\/h3>\n
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Portal Stuff: Ripple effects everywhere<\/h3>\n
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