MIAMI (AP) — Indiana coach Curt Cignetti has quickly built a winning formula with a recruiting strategy built for a new era in college football.
As it turns out, he’s not the only one with the talent to bring talent to the Hoosiers.
The night before my first trip to Indiana, National title matchCinetti recalled telling his wife he was turning down the opportunity to coach the Hoosiers. He liked James Madison. It felt like home.
Then the phone rang. It was Indiana State Athletic Director Scott Dolson.
“He called me and said, ‘Congratulations, you’re the one.’ Indiana’s new head coach“He didn’t give me a chance to say no, and we’re going to kick some ass,” Cininetti said. He told me I was the new head coach. My wife said, ‘I should have looked you in the eye,’ like, what did I do? ”
Thus a winner was born. This team has gone from perennial losers to 26-2 over the past two seasons and is just one win away from winning the national championship against Miami on Monday night.
It’s been a winding road for the 64-year-old coach. But thanks to his early exposure to the game from a coaching standpoint, he had a pretty clear vision from the jump of what he wanted his future to be.
Long before he led Indiana to its first undefeated regular season and national championship appearance, Cignetti was 7 years old and watched every West Virginia football home game from the field.
That was where his father was. Frank Cignetti Sr.He served as an assistant from 1970 to 1975 and became head coach in 1976, replacing Bobby Bowden.
In 1982, Curt Cignetti got his first taste of Indiana when his father moved on to become director of athletics at his alma mater, Indiana University of Pennsylvania. Frank Cignetti became IUP’s head football coach in 1986 and led the program for 20 years.
In western Pennsylvania, working in the steel mills and coal mines was a natural progression. Frank Cignetti did not go down that path, and his eldest son quietly took notes.
“My father was a great role model from a young age. I’m the oldest of four and he led by example. He had a presence, a great work ethic and a disciplined approach. Growing up in Western Pennsylvania at the time, everyone was working in factories and mines. He then went to college and became an assistant to Bobby Bowden at Pitt in Princeton, West Virginia, and became the head coach,” Sinetti said. “He was my inspiration.”
After graduating from West Virginia University in 1982, Cignetti began his coaching career at the University of Pittsburgh, where he followed his father. He spent the next 24 years working his way up the college football ranks before landing in college. nick saban Worked as recruiting coordinator and receivers coach at Alabama.
It was Cininetti’s last stop before taking over as head coach, and perhaps where he learned the most. He was hired as IUP’s head coach in 2011, just six years after his father left the same position.
“I had a great 5-0 record. I had several daughters in high school who wanted to be doctors. Sam was a freshman at the University of Alabama, and I didn’t want to be a 60-year-old career assistant,” Cininetti said. “I grew up in the business. I followed the families and careers of assistant coaches and I didn’t want to do that. So I bet on myself.”
Fourteen years later, it paid off. After stints at Elon Madison and James Madison, he became the 30th head coach of the Hoosiers football team.
several assistants And 13 players followed Cignetti from JMU to Indiana, including standouts Elijah Surratt, Aiden Fisher and D’Angelo Pons.
Indiana coach was one of the few players to see potential in the Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Fernando Mendozatransferred from Cal.
What’s his pitch? “Look me up on Google.”
Fisher said that was to be expected.
“I trust Coach Cignetti’s plan. He has the blueprint to win,” Fisher said Saturday. “I know a lot of people really doubted that he would come to Indiana University, which hasn’t been a historically great football program. But it was just a matter of trusting him and trusting that he would bring in the right people. And he did, and I was able to grow at JMU under a coach.”
What Cignetti accomplished in his two years in Bloomington caught the attention of the entire sports world. He took a historically failing program to new heights. The Hoosiers have lost just two games in the past two years, qualified for the College Football Playoff twice, and most recently 1st seed After going undefeated in the 2025 regular season and winning the Big Ten title, he won a first-round bye.
The team is currently playing against Miami in the national championship game.
“There’s another chapter to be written,” Cininetti said Sunday morning. “We’ll know (the outcome) within 36 hours.”
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