BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Indiana football's coaching search has reached its conclusion.
Indiana is set to hire Curt Cignetti as the program's 30th head football coach, in the process of finalizing a deal.
Pete Thamel of ESPN first reported the news. A source later confirmed the report to TheHoosier.com.
The current James Madison head coach emerged from a narrowed down field that included multiple candidates that Indiana sought out in pursuit of filling the vacant head coach role, with desire for the next leader of the Hoosier program to have vetted collegiate experience under his belt.
Cignetti, 62, fits that bill. He holds extensive coaching experience at multiple stops on his way up the college football ladder. More notably, and more likely of importance to Indiana athletic director Scott Dolson – who with the assistance of search firm TurnkeyZRG has been at the forefront of this decision process – and the program going forward, Cignetti has been a proven winner and effective recruiter with each position he's held.
In 2023, he was named the Sun Belt's Coach of the Year.
Cignetti is the son of College Football Hall of Fame inductee Frank Cignetti Sr., who won 199 games at West Virginia and Indiana University Pennsylvania. A Pittsburgh native, the former WVU quarterback earned his first job in coaching as a GA with his hometown school Pitt in 1983. After two seasons with the Panther program, Cignetti then took an assistant role at Davidson for a single season. Further pit stops occurred with Rice, Temple, another stint with Pitt, NC State and a final role on Nick Saban's first Alabama staff before assuming control of his own program – IUP, where his father's career came to a close – for the first time in 2011.
At NC State, Cignetti coached Phillip Rivers and helped recruit Russell Wilson to the Wolfpack. While on the same staff as Saban at Alabama, the Crimson Tide won 29 consecutive regular season games over a three year stretch, including a perfect 14-0 2009 season that was bookended by a national championship.
As the head coach of IUP, Elon and most recently James Madison, Cignetti's 119-35 record speaks for itself. Among his 13 seasons as a head coach, he's never had a losing season – finishing above .500 in both overall and conference play. He's been the navigating leader of the Dukes' football program's ascension to Division I FBS play, a transition JMU is 19-4 since its undergoing.
It's a level of success unforeseen by past precedent in such a move across the sport, but Cignetti's reputation as both a program builder and successful attribute of winning teams has held true amongst every job he's held throughout his career.
Now, at Indiana, he'll be tasked with resurrecting a program that had glimpses of esteem and success frustratingly fade in front of its own eyes in recent years. But he won't do it alone.
Zach Osterman of the IndyStar reported late Tuesday night that Indiana is expected to provide north of $3 million as a baseline in support of name, image and likeness funds. Due to NIL's ever-changing landscape and its impact on collegiate sports, particularly in the area of roster building, the value is not only a strong incentive to the job but should be viewed as a ready-made tool to restructure and assemble a team fairly quickly.
As of now, Indiana currently has around 20 players who have announced intentions to enter the transfer portal and seek opportunities. That, again, is the new nature of the sport, which Cignetti himself likened to "NFL free agency" in a radio interview on Wednesday. With the transfer portal officially opening on Monday, Cignetti has little time to waste in familiarizing himself with the position, personnel and program as a whole – including those who are in the portal. The interest, of course, must be mutual between the parties for a coming back together, but there are a few notable names Cignetti may want to retain.
National signing day looms later once the calendar flips to December, and Cignetti must make decisions upon who he brings to be a part of his staff should he not choose to retain any of the current Hoosier coaches.
These challenges are unlike most Cignetti has likely faced upon taking a new role, especially given the wildly different nature of the entire sport and requirements the job asks of the person who fills it. But the move off of now-former head coach Tom Allen and the incoming support for Cignetti signals both urgency and desired direction for a program that has endured a slide over recent seasons and 'lost momentum,' as Dolson said. That, without understatement, is significant for Indiana.
Outrageously high TV money totals and a new-look conference will further add to the unfamiliarity that comes with being the head coach of a program like Indiana, but there's never been a more important time to value the collegiate cash cow the sport has evolved into.
IU administration is putting trust into Cignetti to sprinkle his magic and rekindle the same favorable outcomes that have littered his prior coaching stops with prestige and respect to his name.
A much-welcomed boost to the university's NIL efforts and a 2024 slate that features eight contests in Bloomington will be paired with a coach of winning pedigree and recruiting prowess at his prior stops.
In Cignetti, IU has the head coach it will hope to head forward with.
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