Indiana has reached its peak.Staying there can be even more difficult than riding

After his program's first title, Kurt Chinetti shared the secret sauce for his Indiana football team's success. Good people, hard work, attention to detail and a hands-on approach.Can the Hoosiers maintain that formula in the national championship spotlight?

With a piece of red confetti hanging around his neck, Kurt Signetti shared the secret to Indiana football's success: great staff, hard work, attention to detail and a rigorous approach.

The Indian kept his circle tight, keeping his faith with equal authority and more closely, the infiltrators and unbelievers more heavily armed.

Of course, it's easier to do when someone has to step in. For two glorious years, Cignetti built Indiana exactly the way he wanted, regularly identifying the players he wanted to coach.He went to them, most of them, because only a few people had come.

But somewhere between Fernando Mendoza's heroic touchdown and Jamara Sharp's national championship game, things changed for Indiana, even if no one knew it.

"When you climb a mountain, you become a mountain," former Alabama coach Nick Saban and Cignetti mentor told Sports before the game.

"People will come because they want to be a part of it. They won't join in. It won't save itself. Success doesn't last. It's temporary and as soon as you think that anything you've done in the past will affect your success, you've become infected with success. That's the challenge of having a successful program."

Capture even the best.

Like Cignetti, Jay Wright built Villanova basketball around the players he recruited, not those who recruited him.He carefully selected players who were a good fit for him and consciously built the Wildcats.Until 2009, the payment was a place in the Final Four.Suddenly everyone wanted to become a Wildcat.

Two years later, Villanova lost eight of its last 10 games and fell to 13-19 in 2011-12.

At the end of the year, Wright and his longtime assistant Billy Lang jumped into a car and drove down Interstate 95 to visit recruiting offices.The two spoke honestly about the incident and agreed that he had lost his way as a coach.This success meant scavenging among recruits, and Wright stopped picking the players he thought he should do instead of picking the ones he wanted.

He deliberately went back to his roots, always stressing that he was not shying away from talented players;He wanted to make sure even the best shared his values. Villanova won two national championships in three years and Wright was in the Hall of Fame.

This will now be difficult for Cignetti, a challenge made even more difficult by the emergence of the NIL and the transfer portal.Other programs will bring cash to Cignetti's players and staff, while other players suddenly want to sign with Indiana.

It bart al.

The cleaning crew had just finished cleaning the Hard Rock Stadium field before the doors started rolling.Strength coach Derek Wings left for Tennessee, and hours after his extended family gathered in an emotional celebration, Alberto Mendoza was at the portal.

But with the Hoosiers on their way to the championship, Signetti went out and grabbed TCU's Josh Hoover and hired the younger brother of his Heisman Trophy winner.Alberto Mendoza insisted Saturday that he would stay there and fight for his shot to become a starter.

On Monday he looked for another place.

"I'm going to face the underclassmen going to the NFL tomorrow and who knows what else," Cignetti said on the postgame podium.

The ironic turn is that exactly what has allowed the Hoosiers to reach the top is exactly what they have to guard against.In normal times, Cignetti could not have built a Championship standard duties list so fast.Rebuilding often takes time, which requires one recruitment class to conceive the next and to the working age of her magic on teenagers who become stars.

Instead, Cignetti brought in 13 players from James Madison, allowing the coach to establish the culture of how he wanted to do things.Talking about being a policy maker is one thing;finding people who understand what the process is is another thing entirely.The JMU transfer helped and allowed Cignetti to build a foundation that would otherwise have taken years.

The average age of the Hoosiers this season was 22.5 years old, a remarkable jump in two years.

With an established foundation, Cignetti was able to selectively bring in transfer players.He found players similar to him, who didn't have a big opportunity right away and who had something to prove.Fernando Mendoza started at Cal and Elijah Sarratt started at Saint Francis.Both talented, they also understood that they were entering a program that, as Saban said, was climbing.

But now Indiana is on top.Both the national championship and the Heisman will be held in Bloomington.Cignetti insisted that his NIL budget was not as deep as people thought, but that was a hard sell when Mark Cuban doubled down on his investment.

If there's anyone who seems determined to protect himself from a Bougie infection, it's Cignetti.His championship dream was to retire to his old chair and catch a cold.While his players laughed dazedly and amused, he talked back to the office to watch a movie.

But he had never seen anything like this before.For a chronic loser who has spent his entire 64 years climbing, this is the first view from the top.

He's already done the impossible in Indiana, but what's next could be even harder.

"When I give speeches and talk about teamwork, I always say there is no 'I' in a team, but there is one 'I,'" Saban said."Individuals make a team, no matter what, but when you become a mountain, everyone wants a piece of you. And you better be ready for that."