And now, 20 Final Thoughts from Week 7. Who’s ready for Indiana, Georgia Tech, Texas Tech and Navy in the College Football Playoff semifinals?

1. College football history is littered with stories of coaches lifting longtime doormats to glory: Bill Snyder at Kansas State, Bill McCartney at Colorado, Rich Brooks at Oregon, Frank Beamer at Virginia Tech, among others. The common theme: slow, steady progress, with the payoff finally coming three, four, five years down the road.

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Indiana’s Curt Cignetti, by contrast, has pulled off one of the most impressive transformations in the history of the sport in the span of just 19 games. Why waste time with the traditional “cute, cuddly underdog” phase when you can go straight to “big, bad bully that can beat anyone in the country”?

2. The seventh-ranked Hoosiers (6-0, 3-0 Big Ten) went to Autzen Stadium, where No. 3 Oregon was 22-1 at home under Dan Lanning, and left zero doubt they were the better team in a 30-20 win. The more physical team, too. Indiana’s defense held the Ducks’ (5-1, 2-1) normally potent offense to 267 yards, sacking Heisman front-runner Dante Moore six times.

It appeared Oregon had seized momentum early in the fourth quarter when freshman Brandon Finney Jr. picked off Fernando Mendoza and returned it 35 yards to tie the score at 20, but Mendoza turned around and led a 75-yard touchdown drive, after which IU’s defense picked off Moore twice to seal the victory.

Cignetti’s surprise 11-win team in 2024 mostly won with its skill talent. Its offensive line got exposed when it ran into superior foes Ohio State and Notre Dame (the latter in the CFP). That did not happen this time. IU protected Mendoza well against Oregon’s athletic defensive front. The potential first-rounder wasn’t great (20 of 31, 215 yards, one TD, one INT), but he connected repeatedly with stud WR Elijah Sarratt (eight catches, 121 yards, one TD).

Curt Cignetti and Indiana notched the first top-five road win in program history. (Ben Lonergan / USA Today Network via Imagn Images)

3. Obviously, the transfer portal makes it possible to flip a program faster than prior generations could, but signing a bunch of transfers is no guarantee of anything. Ask North Carolina. Cignetti has hit on his portal additions at an astounding rate. Mendoza (Cal), Sarratt and LB Aiden Fisher (James Madison), RB Roman Hemby and OLB Kellan Wyatt (Maryland) and OT Kahlil Benson (Colorado) all played major roles Saturday.

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But Cig