Indiana’s Curt Cignetti to put winning history to test

INDIANAPOLIS — Curt Cignetti climbed a few steps, sat at a table and looked out at a swath of media members gathered to listen to him.

“Holy cow,” the 63-year-old said with a wry smile. “You guys all want to talk to Indiana? What’s up with that?”

What’s up is Cignetti himself, a longtime coach injecting life — and normalizing higher expectations — into a program that has been to five bowl games since 1993. For 30 minutes, he held court in front of 50-plus people in a crowd comparable to what Michigan star running back Donovan Edwards — featured on the cover of EA Sports’ “College Football 25” video game — drew 20 yards away on the Lucas Oil Stadium turf.

Cignetti — set to host Nebraska on Oct. 19 — took the main stage earlier Thursday morning at Big Ten Media Days, acknowledging that many onlookers probably had been “waiting for me to say something crazy.” He led off noting the preseason media poll that pegged the Hoosiers to finish 17th in an 18-team league, then recalled his own history as a head coach of either being a conference favorite or outperforming low early expectations.

The standard for success at Indiana, he said, should be the same as anywhere. He emphasized the point with a little language uncommon on BTN live broadcasts.

“You don’t bring your kids up (like), ‘Johnny, I want you to be fourth best. I want you to be 10th best,’” Cignetti said. “Bulls—. We want to be the best.”

Cignetti’s demeanor, supremely confident with a dash of snark, is rooted in a history of winning. He owns a combined record of 119-35 (.773) in 13 seasons as a head coach at Indiana University of Pennsylvania (NCAA Division II), Elon (FCS) and James Madison, which transitioned from FCS to FBS the last two years. He spent four campaigns at Alabama (2007-10) as Nick Saban’s recruiting coordinator and receivers coach and served as quarterbacks coach for Philip Rivers at NC State in the early 2000s.

“I’m not going to tolerate not being successful,” Cignetti said.

The coach takes over for seven-year Hoosiers coach Tom Allen, who went 8-5 in 2019 and 6-2 in 2020 but otherwise compiled a 19-41 record with IU, an also-ran in the stacked East Division. The Hoosiers’ latest schedule sets up for a quick start, absent of Oregon and USC and no Michigan or Ohio State until November.

Cignetti dropped big statements all over the field Thursday. “They have to adjust to me too,” he said about the Big Ten challenge. When asked about his excitement for playing UCLA in the Rose Bowl on Sept. 14 he replied, “We’re just going into an old stadium to kick somebody’s ass.” And later: “We wanna be so good we’re a lot of people’s rivals.”

Why so bold? College football is as much entertainment as it is coaching, he said. He spent the last eight months stirring up interest in Hoosiers football. Meanwhile, Indiana added more than 20 transfers including a slew of one-year veterans led by likely starting quarterback Kurtis Rourke, a sixth-year player and former MAC Offensive Player of the Year at Ohio.

Indiana representatives on hand grinned at the mention of the man they call Coach Cig.

“From the first team meeting I knew he was a no-B.S. guy,” said senior offensive lineman Mike Katic, who stayed through the transition. “You’re going to get in, you’re going to do the work and if you don’t, you’re not going to play.”

“He’s always going to demand excellence because he knows what he can get out of his players,” said linebacker Aiden Fisher, who followed Cignetti from James Madison. “You’ve seen his track record — he wins a lot of football games and he knows how to do that at a high level.”

Cignetti brings a background to major college football similar to that of Kansas coach Lance Leipold, who also dominated the sport’s lower levels before also taking over at a traditional football sleeper in a power league. Leipold is 17-21 in three seasons at KU, which continues on an upward trend.

Cignetti wants a quicker turnaround. Both his coordinators have been with him for at least eight years, with other staffers also following him to Indiana. NIL resources are more than adequate.

A place not known for winning on the field is suddenly flush with people used to it.

“You probably wonder how you say that inheriting a program like this,” Cignetti said. “But in this day and age in the portal, you can change things real fast.”