College Football Coach Hire Grades: Indiana

Indiana Hoosiers: Curt Cignetti

Why the job was open: Indiana football is such a tough job. Success here is very difficult to find for even a season, and sustaining it is even more difficult. Tom Allen found some success, he nearly got Indiana to 9 wins in 2019 but they blew a late lead against Tennessee in the bowl game. 2020 became a magical season for the program as they took down Penn State in the opener, got a rare dominating victory over Michigan and even brought Ohio State to the wire, they spent a lot of the season in the top 15 in the polls but Covid struck late in the year they had a lot of cancellations late and didn’t have their full compliment of players for the bowl game. Then 2021 came around and Indiana’s natural state of being returned, they plummeted and never found their way back.

Coach Profile: Cignetti doesn’t have a usual career path. He spent a lot of time as an assistant at Pitt, NC State and Alabama before his first head coaching job at Indiana University (PA.) IUP struggled prior to his arrival but he went 53-17 there with 3 playoff appearances. Cignetti then moved up to the FCS level with the Elon Phoenix and found immediate success there. They made the FCS playoffs both seasons he was there and in 2018 he led Elon to a stunning upset win at James Madison something that is extremely rare. James Madison was so impressed they hired him as a head coach the next offseason. Cignetti helped JMU remain at the pinnacle of FCS football, they never fell short of the semifinals or finished lower than 3rd to end the season. He then led James Madison in their transition to FBS, where they immediately were one of the top teams in the Sun Belt going 8-3 in 2022 and 11-1 in 2023.

Why he will succeed: Cignetti is a rising star in the coaching ranks. He has a cocky personality but isn’t overbearing with it. Still his attitude is what this program needs. He and his staff’s ability to find and develop players is among the best you can find and he’s familiar with winning at places where winning isn’t common. There is of course a lot of Big Ten TV money to help too.

What obstacles are in the way of success: Indiana is a tough job. There’s no history of winning here. Indiana’s 2019 and 2020 seasons was their best stretch and since 1994 and their first winning season since 2007. Indiana hasn’t won 9 games since 1967 and they’ve never won 10 games. 1944-1946 is the only time they’ve strung together 3 consecutive winning seasons. It’s only getting tougher, now the Big Ten is oversized and even more difficult to find ground. It feels like the best case is for him to have a couple good seasons and move on.

Grade: A+ – Cignetti is about the best hire I could imagine Indiana getting, in fact he is probably better than the program deserves. If it’s possible to find success here, Cignetti will find it.