BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Curt Cignetti looked like legendary Alabama coach Nick Saban heading into Indiana’s pivotal Week 5 game against Maryland.

Cignetti was a wide receivers coach and recruiting coordinator on Saban’s staff at Alabama from 2007 to 2010, including a national title in 2009. Now off to a dominant 4-0 start as coach of the Hoosiers, and on the precipice of Indiana’s First 5 -0 started since 1967, Cignetti knows that danger can come with success.

He’s confident his team will avoid that because of its maturity and the presence of many veterans, but he used a famous Saban phrase to keep the Hoosiers locked up.

“When you win, it’s about maintaining your lead and avoiding complacency,” Cignetti said. “And without those warm fuzzies and without rat poison, right?”

Saban often used the term “rat poison” en route to winning seven national championships. The rat poison he’s referring to is the outside praise from fans and media that comes with success. If a team takes that ‘rat poison’, it can relax too much and not take the next opponent seriously, which can lead to a loss.

Cignetti knows this challenge. He went 52-9 over the past five seasons at James Madison and has a 123-35 record as a head coach, with stops at Elon and Indiana University of Pennsylvania.

He often talks about the role of mental preparation, in addition to the X’s and O’s and the physical attributes a winning team requires. Cignetti wants his team to take a business-like approach and never get too high or too low during and after matches.

After Indiana’s last two wins over UCLA and Charlotte, Cignetti said he’s giving the team 24 hours to enjoy the win before getting back to work. This is not to say that Cignetti discourages trust, but a balance must be struck.

“Success leads to confidence, which leads to success, and so they go hand in hand,” Cignetti said. “But you still have to work hard during the week because everything we do is not fun. You have to pay the price in terms of your level of commitment, making some choices and decisions, good ones, and sacrifices. “But we should be a confident football team now, but we have to work hard at it.”

Indiana’s 4-0 start saw success on both sides of the ball. The Hoosiers rank fifth nationally at 50.5 points per game and 11th at 513.8 yards per game. Indiana was the first FBS team to surpass 200 points in 2024, and the 202 points are the most in a four-game span in program history, breaking the previous record set at the end of the 2015 season.

Defensively, the Hoosiers have allowed 300 total yards or fewer in all four games, the program’s longest stretch since at least 1990. Indiana has forced seven turnovers, and it is one of three FBS teams, along with Georgia and Louisville, who have not done so. turned the ball over.

Starting with Maryland on Saturday at noon ET at Memorial Stadium, the task becomes more challenging. ESPN ranks Indiana’s strength in the schedule at 119th, considering only the games it has played so far, and its remaining strength in the schedule ranks 34th.

And despite the early success, Cignetti is holding his team to a high standard and is not yet satisfied.

“We don’t want to maintain the level. We want to improve the level in everything we do,” said Cignetti. “We want to improve because that is not the case. No one is in a position in college football where they can afford to go backwards. So you have to keep striving. This is a really good football team coming here. We’ll have to play our best game. But I’ll be shocked if our guys don’t understand that.”