JD Vance dropped a congratulations for Indiana football coach Curt Cignetti on Instagram this week, but there was a catch. He couldn’t resist closing it with “Go Buckeyes.”
The Vice President’s post mentioned Coach Cignetti and the Mendoza brothers gearing up for summer weight room sessions. Then came the twist. “Congratulations to Curt,” Vance wrote, “but I gotta say it, Go Buckeyes!” Think of it like a Marvel post-credits scene – the main story wraps up nicely, and then the real reveal drops right at the end.
Big Ten football fans know exactly what that means. Ohio State and Indiana are conference rivals. Praising Indiana’s coach and then waving the Ohio State flag is like complimenting someone’s cooking and then saying you prefer the place down the street. That kind of move gets you talked about.
Curt Cignetti has built something real at Indiana. He took over the Hoosiers program and quickly turned it into a Big Ten story worth watching. Indiana has historically lived in the shadow of the conference’s powerhouse programs. The Hoosiers’ recent climb under Cignetti has been notable. Having the Vice President name-check you is a win. Getting a “Go Buckeyes” attached to that win is, well, complicated.
The Mendoza brothers also earned a shoutout. They’re being set up as the next generation of the Indiana program – young players with serious upside heading into the new season. Summer weight room work builds programs. Vance clearly knows the talent in Bloomington.
He’s just not rooting for Bloomington.
Vance is from Ohio. He’s never been shy about his roots. Nobody should be surprised he bleeds scarlet and gray. But dropping that in a congratulations post for a rival conference coach? That’s a bold choice from someone with a pretty full calendar these days.
The post pulled in 8,458 likes on Instagram, with zero retweets. That gap is interesting. People were entertained enough to tap the heart. They just didn’t feel the need to amplify it. Maybe the “Go Buckeyes” got a laugh. Maybe Indiana fans needed a second to process the whole thing.
Probably a bit of both.
In college football, this is exactly the stuff that gets screenshotted and sent around in group chats. A sitting Vice President giving a shoutout to a coach and then undercutting it with a rival battle cry makes for solid content. It’s the sports equivalent of showing up to someone’s birthday party in the other team’s jersey. Good-natured, technically, but the message is clear.
Cignetti hasn’t publicly responded as of this writing. The Hoosiers are in offseason mode, and the Mendoza brothers presumably have heavier things on their minds right now. Literally.
The season will settle everything eventually. For now, Vance’s post gave the Big Ten internet exactly what it loves: a little rivalry drama from a very unexpected source.
