- - Indiana's Curt Cignetti ahead of Monday night's national championship: 'You don't go to war with warm milk and cookies'

Nick BrombergJanuary 18, 2026 at 9:33 PM

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Indiana coach Curt Cignetti is ready for the national title game.

During the final news conference ahead of Monday’s championship game, both Cignetti and Miami coach Mario Cristobal were asked what it was like for their teams to practice for the final time this season. Cignetti did not mince words about how he wanted his team to be ready.

“I think leading up to this game, there’s been a lot of pro-Indiana hype, a lot of rat poison out there,” Cignetti said. “I happened to see holy rose thing on social media this morning about our guys hugging each other at the end of practice. It is a close team. I’ve witnessed quite a bit of sentimentalism throughout the week from some of our seniors who we’ve been with quite a long time.

“I think it’s time to sharpen the saw now, throw those warm fuzzies out the door, that sentimentalism. It’s time to go play a game against a great opponent. We’ve got to have a sharp edge going into this game. You don’t go to war with warm milk and cookies.”

If you’re unclear about Cignetti’s holy rose reference, a photographer has sprinkled holy water in the Indiana end zone ahead of each of the Hoosiers’ playoff games so far as the team has beaten its opponents 94-25.

And if you’re a longtime college football fan, you’ll probably also recognize the “rat poison” term from Nick Saban. It’s been one of Saban’s favorite ways of describing how a team can get caught up in its own positive press; Cignetti is a former Saban assistant and worked for the longtime coach at Alabama.

Cristobal is too. He was also an assistant at Alabama before he became Oregon’s head coach in 2017. He also channeled Saban in his answer to the question as he talked about processes ahead of Monday night’s game.

"Well, [Saturday] was a typical Thursday practice and I think the processes themselves are no different than any other Thursday, but every team is unique," Cristobal said. "Every one is uniquely special and different and has brought something different to the lives of all the people around them.

"But I don't see us getting caught up in any nostalgic moments or whatnot. I just really sense that our team was really focused, that they were really intent on carrying out the rest of the day's processes, knowing the tremendous opportunity that we have. That's how we closed out the evening, and that's how we got ready this morning to go and continue our process."

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Source: “AOL Sports”