Holy smokes: Curt Cignetti lights Nebraska and Matt Rhule up in his postgame comments

Curt Cignetti just took Matt Rhule's mother out for a nice seafood dinner, only to never call her again. I have seen some Big Ten ass kickings in my decade-long career covering college football, and then there is whatever Cignetti's Indiana Hoosiers decided to do to Matt Rhule's Nebraska Cornhuskers. After the Scott Frost era, the only thing I thought could be worse for Nebraska was a 311 breakup.

Instead, the Huskers are 5-2 and still have not crossed the important threshold of getting to bowl eligibility with a sixth win. As for Indiana, the Hoosiers are doing more for their school this football season than anything we have seen at Assembly Hall in the last quarter century. Bob Knight is slinging folding chairs across the court of wherever he is at because he is missing these good times.

Just look at this quote from Cignetti in his postgame press conference and try not to laugh out loud.

"Good win against a team that's got a good tradition and history that a lot of people thought was a good football team," said Cignetti, h/t Indiana football's official website.

Nebraska used to be good. What the hell happened? Well, failing to realize that 9-3 is in fact the new ceiling this program largely contributed to this. Yes, Rhule will get this team to six or seven wins this year before probably pushing to 10 in year three on the job, but look at what Cignetti is doing in year one at IU. The Hoosiers have seven wins on the year. They have won seven games twice since 2000.

Indiana is a football school now, and we need to accept that Cignetti is a top-10 coach in the sport.

Curt Cignetti is the cowboy killer of college football up-and-comers

I love this. This is not the same, oh, aww, shucks Sonny Dykes nonsense from two years I have no patience for. You don't have to act like you've been in the end zone before. Vanderbilt rarely has, but the FirstBank Stadium goal posts now reside at the bottom of the Cumberland River forever. Diego Pavia is The Live Dog, and Coach Cig is doing more for Marlboro than Sam Darnold's late grandfather.

I mean, Dick Hammer was the freaking Marlboro Man! He didn't see ghosts, he pushed product, for better or worse, until the end. In a way, Cignetti is doing the exact same thing in the land of Bobby Knight. There is nothing pretty about that other than Indiana's unblemished record on the season some eight weeks in. What if I told you there is a chance this team goes 12-0?

Should Indiana do something I think Nebraska has no chance at this weekend by upsetting Ohio State, the Hoosiers may get to go to Indianapolis after all. From there, IU will be playing with enough confidence to beat Oregon, Penn State or whoever in the conference title bout. Cignetti was overlooked forever. Indiana has played a soft schedule, but the Hoosiers are winning emphatically.

Cignetti is doing more for football in Indiana than Peyton Manning and Daniel Ruettiger combined!