For the first 26 games of the Curt Cignetti era at Indiana, ESPN college football analyst Paul Finebaum couldn’t get out of his own way.
He gave bad take, after bad take, after bad take, including a comparison, when IU gave Cignetti a contract extension in October, to how Michigan State gave Mel Tucker a raise and a contract extension just before that program imploded.
Well known for his SEC bias, Finebaum continued to embarrass himself by predicting an Alabama win over IU at the Rose Bowl. His takes became so nauseating, even nice guys like IU radio voice Don Fischer called out Finebaum as the Hoosiers pulled away in Pasadena on Jan. 1.
Finally, after IU humiliated the SEC darling Crimson Tide 38-3, and went on to a perfect 16-0 season and a national title, Finebaum paid tribute to Cignetti and the Hoosiers.
“There could be debate on whether Indiana had the best season in college football history, but there can be no debate, it is the greatest story in the history of the game. And what made it even more amazing is how people misunderstood what Curt Cignetti was doing in Bloomington,” Finebaum said in January.
“Let me assure you, nobody was more incorrect in understanding that process than me. Almost everything I said throughout the season about him and about Indiana was wrong, and it was an epic failure on my part. There was no question Indiana was the best team, and yes, the Big Ten is the best conference in the country.”
Finebaum’s mea culpa was a necessary step if he intended to retain any measure of credibility as an analyst of the sport.
But his transformation has continued.
Auburn has lost six straight games to its bitter rival Alabama. Typically, a new Auburn head coach is measured by whether he can beat the Crimson Tide.
A program that claims nine national titles, Auburn has won nearly 300 more games all-time than Indiana, college football’s program with the second-most losses.
But fast forward four months, and now Finebaum has established Indiana, rather than Alabama, as the gold standard against which Auburn football should be measured.
During the offseason, Auburn hired Alex Golesh as its new head coach.
Like Cignetti a couple years ago, Golesh brought several key members of his staff and several key players from his last stop at South Florida. That has prompted many to wonder if Auburn can be the next Indiana — including Finebaum, who called it “quite a comparison” to be mentioned in the same breath as Cignetti and IU.
“To compare it to coach Cignetti and what they did at Indiana, I would say probably, if that’s the expectation, awesome,” Golesh told Finebaum.
“What those guys did in that two-year run that they’ve had so far is unprecedented. This can be, and I’m okay if that’s the expectation, like you come to Auburn, you come to this conference because you want real expectations. So I’m okay with that. If that’s the floor of where we get to in two years, I’d be happy. I think you’d be happy. We may be talking about Auburn more often.”
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