Indiana Upsets Oregon: 4 Key Plays from CFP Semifinal Win

Mercedes-Benz Stadium (Atlanta) — Indiana freshman wide receiver Davion Chandler stopped just inside the tunnel to sign autographs for a boy following the most important win in school history.

As he did, an Oregon player watched while absentmindedly picking red and white confetti out of his head. The look on his face was one of bemusement and awe. In this, he probably shared that feeling with Oregon fans across the country who watched as Indiana fans basked in what seemed improbable to many in August.

The country’s largest living alumni base made itself heard, and, more importantly, felt inside the stadium. More than 75,600 fans — 4,000 more than listed capacity inside the stadium — found their way to the College Football Playoff semifinal game at the Peach Bowl to witness No. 1 Indiana’s 56-22 victory against No. 5 Oregon on Friday.

The Hoosiers rocked the Ducks to keep their undefeated season and national championship hopes alive, and Indiana’s fan base traveled to do its part. Hoosiers fans were loud from the start — so loud that I wondered, could Oregon’s offensive players hear the snap count?

“There’s nothing like having a home semifinal game,” Cignetti said on stage after the dominant win.

Ducks quarterback Dante Moore was startled by just how many Indiana fans there were inside the dome.

“I thought it was just the red seats,” Moore said in his post-game press conference. “But it was Indiana fans. They had a ton of fans here.”

Here are my takeaways from Indiana’s blowout semifinal win against Oregon:

1. Indiana’s defense remains practically unstoppable

Unlike the Hoosiers’ 38-3 demolition of No. 9 Alabama in the CFP quarterfinal at the Rose Bowl, this game got out of hand much faster.

Oregon opened with the ball, and the first play from scrimmage was a pick-six from Indiana All-America cornerback D’Angelo Ponds, who finished with six total tackles.

“It was just [an] amazing feeling just to get in the end zone and see the fans all here,” Ponds, the Peach Bowl Defensive MVP, said on stage after the game. “I feel like it’s a home game, man.”

Moore had thrown just nine interceptions before that one. But he threw three total picks against the Hoosiers in five quarters this season.

When Oregon’s 20-year-old passer led a 14-play, 75-yard drive that ended in a passing touchdown, he left no doubt that he was up for the fistfight to come. But after three turnovers from his hands and 14 first-half points scored off them, it was clear that the Indiana defense was going to outplay the Ducks.

By the end of the first half, Indiana led 35-7 against the country’s No. 5 team, which had beaten every opponent it played except this Hoosiers squad that has now thrown the Ducks into an oven and cooked them. Twice.

At halftime, Oregon coach Dan Lanning was asked just what needed to happen to cut into the 28-point deficit his team faced when it came out to play the second half in the same venue where Georgia destroyed Oregon, 49-3, in Lanning’s first game as the Ducks head coach in 2022.

“It starts with protecting the quarterback and taking care of the ball — two things we haven’t done in the first half,” Lanning told the broadcast. “We’ve gotta go out there and get a stop on defense. We start stacking those things together, and we create some momentum for ourselves.”

In the CFP so far, Indiana crushed the No. 5 team and No. 9 Alabama with a combined score of 94-25.

“I think every man can learn from adversity, right?” Lanning said after a consecutive lopsided loss in the CFP to end his team’s season. “I just told that whole locker room, right? This is going to be about, how do you respond in life? This is going to be a life lesson that a lot of people never get. We just got our butt kicked. That’s gonna happen in life.”

2. Fernando Mendoza continues stunning with unprecedented CFP performances

Friday against the Ducks, Mendoza finished 17 of 20 for 177 yards with five touchdowns and no turnovers, and against Alabama on New Year’s Day, he was 14 of 16 for 192 yards and three touchdowns. That’s three more touchdown passes than incompletions through two playoff games.

That makes the Indiana quarterback the first player ever to have multiple games in the CFP with three or more touchdown passes while completing at least 85% of his attempts, per FOX Sports Research. Mendoza has a 72.3 completion percentage on the season.

“I thought he was incredible. He was great,” Cignetti said in his post-game press conference. “I also thought our receivers made some nice contested catches. I thought [widereceiverElijah]Surratt was on fire. [Receiver] Charlie Becker made some big plays. [ReceiverOmar]Cooper got in the act as well. And when it wasn’t there, Fernando used his legs. I mean he was on top of the game.”

Mendoza is now the fourth player to throw five or more touchdown passes in a CFP game, joining LSU’s Joe Burrow, Alabama’s Mac Jones and Ohio State’s Justin Fields.

[2025CFPTitleOdds:Indiana Favored Over Miami in National Championship]

3. Indiana plays like Curt Cignetti talks

Indiana dominated in the CFP semifinals in the stadium that plays home to the reigning SEC champion. As Cignetti moves one step closer to winning the national title, it’s becoming clearer he might be the real successor to former Alabama coach Nick Saban — many already believe it’s Georgia coach Kirby Smart — as he engineered one of the best turnarounds in 157 years of the sport. Much of what you see in Indiana was characteristic of the Crimson Tide under Saban, for whom Cignetti was an assistant coach from 2007-2011.

And Cignetti did it not just his way, but also after waiting a quarter-century to lead his own program, first at Indiana University Pennsylvania, then Elon and James Madison. When he finally earned his chance to coach at the Power 4 level at Indiana, he knew exactly what to do and exactly how he needed to do it.

“When you go into a losing program,” Cignetti told reporters Wednesday, “you gotta change the way people think. You gotta have a blueprint, a plan, standards, expectations.”

He’d also tell you it’s about the people he hired and the people he recruited to play for him. His talent as well as character evaluation must be — and is — elite.

[Let’sDebate:Most Impactful, Most Perplexing Transfer Portal Additions]

“We’re all on the same page, and I think that’s critical,” Cignetti said. “Getting everybody to think alike, and developing those intangibles as a unit in-season. But we’re process-driven with standards, expectations and accountability.”

Cignetti sugar-coats little. He smiles less. He is satisfied only when his team is kicking another team’s ass — but seldom shows it.

“I’m pretty direct in my messaging with the team,” he said. “I try to make every word count. I don’t put up with BS.

“I’m a little old-school. You gotta meet the bar. I mean if you can’t consistently meet the bar, you’re in the wrong place. So my coaches do a great job, and we have smart guys that are good players. When you have veterans, smart guys that can do a lot, you can do a lot.”

4. The transfer portal hustle takes its toll on lame Duck coordinator(s)

When Indiana scored its 42nd point with 8:52 in the third quarter, Duck fans must’ve wondered if Lanning asking his defensive coordinator to remain at Oregon for the postseason was the right decision.

When Oregon’s offense took the field after a half filled with three sacks, three turnovers, just 121 yards of offense and nine rushing yards, the Ducks must have asked the same question of Lanning when allowing that unit to be run by a man who wouldn’t be around by January 21 anyway.

It’s eerie now to have filed my notebook with this sight: Oregon defensive coordinator (and Cal head coach) Tosh Lupoi descended steps leading from the suite level to the concourse at Mercedes-Benz Stadium after 9 p.m. ET on Wednesday night, fewer than 48 hours before kickoff, talking into his phone.

As he weaved between media members and behind Oregon offensive coordinator (and Kentucky head coach) Will Stein, he stopped just short of a seat with his name card to button-up his conversation.

“You just look at the NFL talent on Cal’s roster,” Lupoi said to a recruit.

After he hung up on the job he was doing as Cal’s coach, he began taking questions as Ducks defensive coordinator, including balancing two jobs: managing to recruit players out of the transfer portal for the Golden Bears and preparing his defense for the challenges Indiana’s offense posed.

What’s that like, Tosh?

“Absolutely wonderful, so awesome,” he said with sarcasm layered over every syllable uttered. “What a great time to have the transfer portal open.”

He hadn’t slept much. He FaceTimed often. He drank a lot of coffee and a lot of Red Bull. For Lanning, who needed to prepare his team for Friday night with two Oregon lame ducks, this was an unfortunate champagne problem.

“They’ve been going at 100 miles an hour since they both kind of hit that cycle where they have to do both,” Lanning said Thursday at the College Football Hall of Fame. “I give them a lot of credit for the work that they’ve done the way they’ve been able to maintain focus in a piece that’s extremely difficult.

“But again, I’ve said it before, they realize they don’t have those jobs if it isn’t for the players in our team, and they feel like they owe their best effort to give them everything they have to continue to make the season special. And they’ve done a great job of doing that.”

Cignetti felt the crunch of recruiting the portal, too, despite Indiana holding onto both its offensive and defensive coordinators for the 2026 season. After defeating Alabama in the Rose Bowl, his team returned to Bloomington at 3:30 a.m. the next day, and he arrived at his office later that day at 2 p.m.

“I knew I was gonna lose some time the following day,” Cignetti said at the College Football Hall of Fame at his joint press conference with Lanning.

“I probably lost six hours of prep. And I’m highly involved in our day-to-day, situational preparation, particularly on offense. … I lost a valuable six hours there, and probably three or four the next day too. So I was playing catch-up most of the week.”

Cignetti caught up just fine.

4 1/2. What’s next?

The College Football Playoff national championship game is officially set: No. 1 Indiana will face No. 10 Miami in the title matchup Jan. 19 at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida. The Hoosiers are playing for an undefeated season and their first-ever national championship and the chance to be college football’s first 16-0 team ever. The Hurricanes are playing for their first title since 2001 and sixth overall.

RJ Young is a national college football writer and analyst for FOX Sports. Follow him @RJ_Young.

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