This post was updated Oct. 23 at 11:31 p.m.

Curt Cignetti changed Indiana football overnight.

It is the kind of program turnaround UCLA has waited decades for. The kind fans began demanding as soon as former coach DeShaun Foster was shown the door.

In 2024 – Cignetti’s first season as the Hoosiers’ head coach – he led them to their first 10-win season in program history and their first College Football Playoff appearance.

One year later, the Hoosiers have done everything but fall back to earth – reaching their highest-ever AP rank Sunday. The 2025 campaign is the program’s second consecutive 7-0 start – another program first.

But the Bruins have also had their own resurgence – even if it has been just a month.

If new-life UCLA football (3-4, 3-1 Big Ten) is going to extend its seemingly improbable win streak to four, it will have to take down No. 2 Indiana (7-0, 4-0) on Saturday at Memorial Stadium in Bloomington, Indiana.

“It’s not going to matter who we’re playing or where we’re playing at,” said interim head coach Tim Skipper. “We’ve identified our style of play and what we want to be. Now we’ve got to back it up.”

By Cignetti’s own admission, the Bruins are not the team they were at 0-4 – instead referring to Skipper’s squad as a 3-0 team Monday.

But UCLA has simply not faced a team like Indiana yet.

Even against then-No. 7 Penn State, former head coach James Franklin was already on the hot seat after a double-overtime loss to then-No. 6 Oregon on Sept. 27.

Two weeks later, Indiana beat then-No. 3 Oregon 30-20, with Cignetti signing an eight-year, $93 million extension five days later on Oct. 16.

Former Indiana quarterback Kurtis Rourke came to Bloomington after spending five seasons with Ohio, before being drafted in the seventh round of the 2024 NFL Draft after just a single season as a Hoosier.

It was a level of single-season development the Bruins attempted – and failed – to capture by poaching the since-departed Tino Sunseri from Indiana to serve as Westwood’s offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach.

But the magic stayed in Bloomington.

Fernando Mendoza threw for 3,004 yards on a 68.7 completion percentage with 16 passing touchdowns and six interceptions for California in 2024.

This season, Indiana’s quarterback already has 1,755 yards on a 73.5% clip with 21 touchdowns through the air and just two interceptions – stats that have him second in Heisman odds.

“They don’t make mistakes,” said senior defensive analyst Kevin Coyle, the Bruins’ defensive playcaller. “You can tell how well-coached they are. … They want to run the football, they want to control the clock, they got a quarterback that doesn’t make any mistakes, they protect the passer – it’s a huge challenge for us.”

Challenge, however, is exactly why Coyle came to Westwood.

Coyle was already a senior defensive analyst at Syracuse when former defensive coordinator Ikaika Malloe departed. But with Skipper – his former middle linebacker at Fresno State – asking him to come to UCLA in light of its coaching exodus, Coyle jumped ship.

Since Coyle started orchestrating the defense, UCLA has allowed an average of 315.3 yards against Northwestern, then-No. 7 Penn State, Michigan State and Maryland – a significant improvement from the Bruins’ 431 yards allowed per game through the first three games of the season against Utah and two Mountain West programs.

“It’s been a huge impact (having Coyle),” said redshirt sophomore defensive back Cole Martin. “He has a mind for DBs (defensive backs). … It’s just elevated our game to tremendous levels.”

As for the offense, quarterback Nico Iamaleava participated in practice this week after suffering an apparent knee injury Saturday that required him to be helped off the field, before the redshirt sophomore returned for the Bruins’ game-winning drive.

Running back duo junior Jaivian Thomas and redshirt junior Anthony Woods were not available at the end of Saturday’s game due to injury, Skipper said Monday, but both were seen practicing Tuesday.

ESPN has UCLA as 25.5-point underdogs Thursday. Big Noon Kickoff is going to Bloomington.

Whether they want it to happen or not, few would be surprised if the clock strikes midnight and the Bruins’ Cinderella run comes to a halt.

But Skipper’s club has been cast aside before.

“We’re going to a hostile environment. We’re going to play in front of a national TV audience; it’s going to be early in the morning – all those things are there,” Skipper said. “But really, what it comes down to is what are we going to do between the white lines?”