“Yeah, it’s pretty simple. I win. Google me.”
With those eight words, declared minutes into his first press conference as the new head coach at Indiana, Curt Cignetti announced his vision for the school’s football program, which had languished at the bottom of the Big Ten standings for years. It became a viral sensation, with many wondering if Cignetti could back up that declaration.
After leading the Hoosiers to the College Football Playoff during the 2024 season, Cignetti took Indiana a step further last year, guiding the school to its first national championship, and helping Fernando Mendoza become the first Heisman Trophy winner in Indiana history.
So just what, if anything, can Cignetti and the Hoosiers do for an encore?
To answer that question, we might need to look back for a minute.
Cignetti’s college football journey began in Morgantown, as a backup quarterback for West Virginia. His father was the head coach for the Mountaineers from 1976 through 1979, and after graduating from Morgantown High School in 1979, he enrolled at West Virginia.
And he was buried on the depth chart behind Oliver Luck and Jeff Hostetler. Cignetti appeared in one game during his time on campus, with one rushing attempt against Virginia during the 1981 season.
After graduating, he immediately moved into coaching, taking a role on the staff at Pittsburgh as a graduate assistant. Cignetti began working his way through the coaching ranks on the offensive side of the ball, ultimately landing on the coaching staff at Alabama, during Nick Saban’s first season in Tuscaloosa, as the team’s wide receivers coach and recruiting coordinator.
During his time at Alabama — stretching from 2007 through 2010 — the Crimson Tide won a national title in 2009, and won 29 consecutive games. Cignetti was credited with helping recruit and develop players such as Mark Ingram II, Dont’a Hightower, and Julio Jones, who Cignetti also coached as his WR coach. The 2008 Alabama recruiting class included several future first-round picks (Hightower, Jones, Ingram, Marcell Dareus, and Mark Barron among them).
But Cignetti had an eye on taking a head coaching job, and was a finalist for the Kent State position, Saban’s alma mater, at the end of the 2010 season. The gig went to Darrell Hazell, and Cignetti turned his attention elsewhere.
Indiana University of Pennsylvania, a Division II program where his father, Frank, won 14 conference titles over two decades.
Saban warned him against taking the job — “you can get lost down there” he said — but Cignetti went anyway.
And started a head coaching career that has yet to end with a losing season.
“I woke up many mornings like, ‘What did I do?’” Cignetti admitted while looking back in 2024. “But we got things rolling.”
After six seasons at IUP, including three trips to the Division II playoffs, Cignetti made his next move, taking the job at Elon. In two years coaching the Phoenix, he led the school to a combined 14-9 record, and two consecutive spots in the FCS playoffs. Then in 2019 he moved within the Colonial Athletic Association, taking the job at James Madison.
In his first three years in Harrisonburg, he led the Dukes to the FBS playoffs all three seasons, including a loss in the title game in 2019 and losses in the semifinals in both 2020 and 2021. Then JMU moved to the Sun Belt Conference for 2022, and again the winning continued. The Dukes finished 8-3 in their first season in the FCS, and improved to 11-1 in 2023, securing a spot in the Armed Forces Bowl.
That’s when Indiana came calling.
When Cignetti arrived in Bloomington, he inherited a team that was coming off a 3-9 record, and had endured three consecutive losing seasons. Indiana went 9-27 in the three years before Cignetti was hired. But as you might expect from Cignetti having seen him — and his resume — he did not intend to start losing in 2024.
“There was sort of a dark cloud lingering over the football program here,” Cignetti said. “A lot of people had given up on it, to be honest with you. That sort of attitude permeated people outside the university, too. I could sense it talking to the media. It was my first day here. I could just feel it and I didn’t like it. I wasn’t going to have any of it.”
Cignetti relied heavily on the transfer portal for his first year in the Big Ten, including 13 players who followed him from James Madison. That list of transfers also included quarterback Kurtis Rourke, who joined Indiana from Ohio.
As Rourke pointed out, it was all part of Cignetti’s plan to transform the culture overnight.
“He started to weed out who was going to help or hurt the team,” Rourke said. “He didn’t care about feelings. He wanted to set a tone and develop a culture. He earned a lot of respect from us.”
Part of that culture shift rested in how the transfers viewed themselves, and mirrored Cignetti’s own path to a Big Ten program. 21 of the incoming transfers for that first season came from either FCS schools or Group of 5 teams, so much so that the group gave themselves the nickname the “Group of Five All-Stars.” Said linebacker Aiden Fisher in 2024, ”[t]hey said we had too many Group of Five players. We’ve put that in the back of our mind. We remember it.
“We’ve all got that edge,” Fisher added. ‘I’ve always deserved to be here in the spotlight.’”
The same could be said for their coach.
“It took me a while, right?” Cignetti described in 2024. “I had to take the path less traveled to get to where I am. A little something to prove.”
Indiana reached the College Football Playoff in that first season, losing just one game in the regular season, at Ohio State. But with Rourke playing on a torn ACL that he was managing the entire season, Indiana struggled in the First Round game against Notre Dame, bowing out by a final score of 27-17.
As for last season? You know how that ended, with Cignetti holding the National Championship trophy aloft, celebrating an undefeated season, and seeing another transfer quarterback, Fernando Mendoza, become the school’s first Heisman Trophy winner and come off the board as the first-overall selection in the NFL Draft.
But the days of celebrating are over, and it is time to get back to work for Cignetti and company.
“Obviously, a lot of people on the outside are still celebrating our success, and maybe the administration and people at the university, but in the building you flip the page,” said Cignetti to Athlon Sports in the outlet’s season preview magazine. “I think we’ve done a good job of that, I really do. There’s a lot of work to be done. Everybody’s 0-0 right now. All the new guys that are out there have done some good things and some not-so-good things, and usually they have a great summer, and they’re a different guy in fall camp and during the season. We’re counting on them being on the same trajectory as the other ones, but I don’t notice anybody resting on their laurels.”
As for those new faces, Cignetti again dipped into the transfer portal to address needs on both sides of the football. With both Omar Cooper Jr. and Elijah Sarratt off to the NFL, Indiana added Nick Marsh from Michigan State, and he’ll line up across from returning starter Charlie Becker.
Cignetti talked about Marsh at the Big Ten Media Days last month.
“I think Nick Marsh is a proven two-year player at wide receiver, very productive. I think you’re probably talking about the golden shoes the first day of practice. We don’t do that where I coach. He got the message, and he’s been great. He had a great summer, and I’m expecting big things from him,” said the Indiana coach.
Outside of Marsh, Cignetti pointed to a pair of transfers from Kansas State as well as running back Turbo Richard as some of the other transfers that has stood out so far.
“The two Kansas State guys, the D-Ends [Tobi Osunsamni and Chiddi Obiazor], I’ve noticed them really starting to take a step. Turbo is very consistent at running back. Joe Brunner [an offensive guard] from Wisconsin. The safety from Wisconsin, [Preston] Zachman, is making nice progress,” said Cignetti to Athlon Sports.
But the biggest transfer is the one tasked with replacing Mendoza. That would be Josh Hoover, who joins the Hoosiers after two years as a starter at TCU.
“He’s a quick thinker who has played a lot of football,” described Cignetti to Athlon Sports. “He moves better than Rourke, but Rourke has some natural quarterback instincts that Josh has, too. Fernando, he’s six-foot-five, could really move. We’ve always tilted more towards the run in terms of the run-pass ratio, although in competitive situations last year, we’re about 50-50.
“Whereas where [Hoover] came from, they’re throwing the ball about 60% of the time. It’ll be a lot different for him, more advantageous. He did turn the ball over at TCU, so we’re going to have to do a great job of protecting the ball.”
At the Big Ten Media Days, Cignetti was asked for a similarity between Hoover, and the QB he is replacing.
Cignetti started with a quip, as you might expect.
“They both played quarterback, they were both starting quarterbacks where they came from,” began the head coach.
“Josh Hoover has won a lot of football games, thrown for a lot of yards, thrown a lot of touchdown passes. He has an innate ability to play the position of quarterback, kind of a natural passer, very accurate, processes very quickly.
“I think the things we’ll ask him to do are different than the things TCU asked him to do. We’re not going to put the ball in his hand and say go win the game and outscore people. We’re going to give him a run game, a defense, and special teams and every once in a while on third down a punch-positive play.”
Cignetti closed his remarks on Hoover by outlining some expectations.
“I’m really anxious to see Josh and the progress he’s made in practice starting on Wednesday and fall camp. All the one-year quarterbacks have followed the same line, and I expect him to, as well.”
As for what to expect from Cignetti and the Hoosiers this season, the new standard is, well, the standard.
“I think we have a lot of nice pieces. I think we excel at development and creating the intangibles, and once we get closer to the season as a staff, it’s extremely beneficial. The staff continuity that I have had, that President Whitten and Scott Dolson make possible, we’re on the same page. They know the blueprint, the process, the plan, okay,” said Cignetti at Big Ten Media Days.
“What it really does, to be honest with you, and we’re still trying to get better, we’re trying to improve the way we do things, is those down times can really be down times for the coaches, which they like their quality of life with me, which I think the players do, too, with the way we practice.
“All I can say is, like, going into this season, I know I’m going to get asked some questions. We’re very process-driven. Our focus is on the things you have to do in the here and now to improve as much as possible. To improve as much as possible today. Those types of things. We don’t talk about product, results. We don’t talk about championships, playoffs, National Championships, those sorts of things, okay.
“I’m a firm believer in our blueprint. Our Monday morning meeting will be very similar to what it was eight years ago. It’ll be about an hour long. There’s certain things we’ll do in there, there’s certain things I’ll say in the team meeting Tuesday night that I said eight years ago. It’s not word for word, but it’s pretty damn close.
“The way we practice, pretty similar to what we did eight years ago. We have a way of doing things. We’ve got guys that have been together, and all we do is win.”
Do not expect any excuses.
“The Big Ten is the best league in football, and a lot of really good football teams it’s hard to win on the road, very physical football teams, very well-coached. It definitely prepares you for the playoffs,” said Cignetti as he concluded his remarks at Big Ten Media Days.
“There’s no doubt about it, the numbers speak for themselves.
“We don’t run a hype machine up here in the Midwest. We believe everything is earned, not given. When we fall short, we say: We fell short. We don’t cry a river, whine and complain. That’s why we’re the best.”
Of course, Cignetti has not seen a losing season yet as a head coach.
Hard to expect him to start now.
