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With the Seattle Seahawks winning Super Bowl LX on Sunday just a few weeks removed from Indiana of all teams capping off a 16–0 season to win the College Football Playoff national championship, the teams share a lot in common and reaffirm an adherence to a simple blueprint to building a championship winner.
What lessons can we learn from these two unlikely trophy hunters?
The right quarterback, even if others doubt it
Last spring in the middle of the NFL combine, I drove down to Bloomington, Ind., to visit with Curt Cignetti. Ever the film junkie, he was watching red zone clips and continued as we started chatting. The conversation inevitably turned toward his newly acquired quarterback, Fernando Mendoza.
Cignetti is never overly effusive in praise, but the underlying message that he got a good one from California in the transfer portal was pretty clear. Mendoza had the makeup he was looking for (even turning down another Manning Passing Academy invite to remain in town and train with his teammates), the requisite tools of a strong arm and prototypical size, plus that extra bit of moxie that makes signal-callers capable of leading you to wins when the pressure peaked late in games.
Mendoza’s arrival at Indiana didn’t make waves like others, but it wound up as a masterstroke, leading to a Heisman Trophy in the football facility and the most improbable title in the sport’s history. That was a testament not just to the quarterback who likely will be selected with No. 1 pick in the 2026 NFL draft in a few months, but also to Cignetti and the Hoosiers for making sure they found the right guy even if other schools were throwing more money and attention at more celebrated players.
The Seahawks, too, can be lauded for their belief in Sam Darnold, whose roller coaster of a career led him from being the next big thing out of USC, to a bust with the Jets, to the reclamation project of all projects the last few years as he finally found a perfect offensive fit in his last two stops. Nobody ever really questioned if Darnold could physically be a guy who leads his team to a Super Bowl—he ticks off all the boxes there—but it was often between the ears that led to several teams’ hesitation over what his actual ceiling could be as a franchise QB.
In Seattle general manager John Schneider, though, he found a believer who made Darnold the missing piece amid an equally impressive roster overhaul in the Pacific Northwest. Keep in mind that the team off-loaded Russell Wilson before his flaws became apparent to all and traded away Geno Smith in order to create the opportunity for Darnold to seize.
There’s often this belief that you need somebody on Patrick Mahomes’s level in order to win a Super Bowl. Last year over the offseason, we were all drooling over quarterbacks in college like Drew Allar, Garrett Nussmeier, Cade Klubnik and, of course, Arch Manning.
As we’ve seen this season though, having a big name doesn’t mean everything and finding the right fit with your signal-caller remains far more paramount to success no matter what external doubts might be swirling around at taking an unorthodox guy.
Sure-handed playmakers
In a few weeks at the annual Spandex Olympics that is the combine, NFL evaluators are about to be wowed by fast 40-yard dashes and will break down shuttle times of college receivers down to the tenth of a second. This has been an annual offseason occurrence for decades, but you have to wonder if the Al Davis–esque fascination with how fast a player moves has a chance to finally take a back seat to how they catch the football.
At least one can hope after both Seattle and Indiana leaned into guys who didn’t wow with their testing numbers but had sure hands and playmaking ability on third downs and in the red zone where it matters most.
Indiana veteran Elijah Sarratt, after all, led the country in touchdown receptions and seemed to perfect the art of the back-shoulder throw along with his quarterback. Omar Cooper Jr. remained a criminally underrated option for the Hoosiers in the passing game and finished tied for third in FBS in finding the end zone. Then there is Charlie Becker, who emerged on the depth chart late in the season and blossomed into a star overnight with his body control and tightrope-walking capabilities.
Likewise, the Seahawks got a banner year out of Jaxon Smith-Njigba to the point where he was AP Offensive Player of the Year and All-Pro by miles. They knew Cooper Kupp still had plenty in the tank and let him do his thing in clutch situations, while tight end AJ Barner wound up becoming an incredible escape valve for tight-window throws from Darnold.
It can be tantalizing to go after players who look the part getting off the bus when you’re trying to hoover up playmakers for a roster, but when it comes to finding the right fits on a championship team, looking for the guys who have that bit of natural stickum remains paramount.
Special teams matter
Well-coached teams don’t let the third phase of the game wallow, they instead double down on it and both the Seahawks and Hoosiers did so quite notably.
Seattle devoted more cap space to its special teams unit than any other team in the league this season and that was quite apparent in the Super Bowl, where both kicker Jason Myers and punter Michael Dickson had decent cases to nudge Kenneth Walker III over as Super Bowl MVP. Both were superb, pinning opponents deep and effortlessly making kicks to keep putting up points on the board. The front office also traded midseason for Rashid Shaheed, not only bringing in an added element of speed at receiver but also a top-notch return man who tilted the field in his team’s favor with numerous long runbacks.
Though Indiana has a bit more roster flexibility on special teams at the college level, it was still notable how often key starters made huge plays. Terrific defensive back D’Angelo Ponds was a dynamic punt returner and tailback Roman Hemby was the primary kick returner. Defensive end Mikail Kamara’s stretching punt block against Miami in the national title game led to a huge touchdown that was recovered by veteran linebacker Isaiah Jones.
Far too often coaches make special teams the last period of practice as their players are pining to get off the field. Those who don’t, those who emphasize winning in the margins like on special teams, can instead wind up much more like the two major football champions this year.
Execution and turnovers must be hallmarks
Seattle didn’t commit a turnover during the entire playoffs, the first time a Super Bowl champion can lay claim to that. Indiana lost just one fumble in 16 games (Week 1 against Old Dominion, no less), led the country in turnover margin and was a remarkable +14 in the second half of the season. The Hoosiers had the second-fewest penalty yards per game last season across the FBS, while the Seahawks cut their numbers down from 2024 and ranked in the top quarter of the league in both yardage and flags thrown.
No matter how much talent a roster might have, the ability to execute like that and hold onto the football wins games—often including the last one.
A different approach at head coach, but someone who is always hands-on
Finally, it goes without saying that the most recent NFL and college football champions are also a testament to their approaches in hiring a head coach two years ago.
Of the eight franchises that had openings during that cycle, two went with an internal candidate who was a former player, two others went with a hot-shot offensive mind to pair with recently drafted No. 1 quarterbacks, and three others went with experienced candidates who were previously NFL head coaches. Only Seattle opted for a young, first-time, defensive-minded head coach in Mike Macdonald—somebody who learned from some excellent program builders (both Jim and John Harbaugh in particular) but also had an edge on the field in terms of his ability to call a defensive style that was finding a lot of success at the time. The bold move paid off as Macdonald became the first head coach to be his team’s defensive play-caller in winning the Lombardi Trophy.
Likewise, Indiana went a bit against the grain in hiring Cignetti, who won everywhere he coached but was viewed by many as much older than was ideal. Though he didn’t have a reputation for being some kind of X’s and O’s play-calling savant, preferring to trust assistants like Mike Shanahan and Bryant Haines with that, he was incredibly dialed into every aspect of the programs he was in charge of. Cignetti is the de facto general manager at Indiana, the one pulling the strings on game day and someone who is accounting for every minute of the day for every Hoosier.
It’s paid off and a good reason why Indiana authored the most remarkable turnaround in college football history this past season. The Seahawks don’t quite rise to that kind of significance with their Super Bowl title but, in both of this year’s champions at the highest levels of football, they each offer plenty of lessons for others to reflect on, debate, and, of course, steal as they try to be the ones who hold up trophies next year and leave a new blueprint for others to follow.
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BRYAN FISCHER
Bryan Fischer is a staff writer at Sports Illustrated covering college sports. He joined the SI staff in October 2024 after spending nearly two decades at outlets such as FOX Sports, NBC Sports and CBS Sports. A member of the Football Writers Association of America's All-America Selection Committee and a Heisman Trophy voter, Fischer has received awards for investigative journalism from the Associated Press Sports Editors and FWAA. He has a bachelor's in communication from USC.
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