Don't Name Yourself Too Small For Big Moments

​Before this season, Indiana was college football's biggest loser. But thanks to an undefeated season in 2025, Northwestern now has 718 total losses compared to Indiana's 715, elevating Indiana to the SECOND biggest loser in college football history.

With that in mind, it was a fair question after Indiana won the Rose Bowl yesterday and moved into the college football playoff semi-finals when a reporter asked their Coach, Curt Cignetti, how did you keep your team from feeling like the moment was too big for them?

Without hesitation, without even a blink, Cignetti responded, "Why should the moment be too big, because our name is Indiana"?

What Cignetti was really asking is, "Are we supposed to measure our future opportunities by the reputation of our past - are we supposed to balk at a chance to win it all because we're from a school that historically couldn't win a thing"?

I went to bed last night thinking about that - how so often we put ceilings on our lives because of places we've been, instead of leaning into the opportunities of who we could be becoming.

Cignetti didn't hesitate to take over college football's biggest loser at the time, because he took it on knowing he was a winner. He wasn't going to let the school's reputation make him re-negotiate his. Cignetti knew the future doesn't care about the past, it cares about your mindset today.

How many of us play small because our past is named too small to play big?

How many of us don't rise to the moment because we've always named ourselves too small for the moment?

I think we should all take a message from Coach Cignetti into the new year - a new year where we might meet big moments.

Why should the moment be too big?

Big might be reality; TOO big is a mindset.

Maybe you've spent too much of your life calling yourself too small for big moments in life. Change your name. Change it to plenty big enough.

Why should the moment be too big, because our name is Indiana?

No...

We'll see you in the semi-finals.