Curt Cignetti checks a lot of boxes for the Indiana job. Most importantly, he is a winner.
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- We now know the answer to that question as Indiana Athletics Director Scott Dolson is wrapping up details of hiring the James Madison coach after a whirlwind tour meeting with potential candidates for the open head football coach position. Did Indiana get the guy who can move the immovable object that is Indiana football? I believe they did, but this time Indiana has to or there might be some serious consequences for an athletics program that has been steeped in success. Five NCAA men's basketball national championship banners hang in Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall. The women's hoops team hung a Big Ten championship banner of their own last season and are currently ranked in the Top 25. The jerseys of the Hoosiers' men's soccer team currently sport 8 stars and they are one match away from making it to a record 23rd College Cup (Final Four) where they could add a 9th national championship to the legacy of the most decorated and best soccer program in collegiate history. Let's talk swimming and diving. The Indiana Hoosiers have won 24 NCAA national championships and one AIAW national championship, in addition to 145 NCAA individual national championships.
There are other success stories, but one place you will find little to no success is on the gridiron. Indiana football has been nothing short of a laughing stock for, a while. Officially there have been 29 football coaches at Indiana going back to 1887. Of those there have been 6 that left Bloomington with a winning record. The last to do it was Bo McMillin who went 63–48–11 (.561) over 14 seasons from 1934-1947. McMillin's tenure was the longest of any coach in the program's history and with the help of George Taliaferro and Ted Kluszewski the only one to go unbeaten and win an outright Big Ten Title. But we're talking ancient history here.
Yes, Indiana made it to the Rose Bowl in 1968, they enjoyed the roller coaster antics of Lee Corso for a decade and had a solid run under Bill Mallory in the 80's going to 6 bowl games in an 8 year span. With lots of losses in between we fast forward to the Tom Allen era which would offer some pretty big highs in 2019 and 2020 getting to within one in-season Big Ten rule change of making the Big Ten Championship game. But ultimately, even though Tom Allen is one of the most well liked coaches you'll find, the program would crash back to earth with a 3-24 Big Ten mark over his final three seasons. Going 1-6 against Purdue did not help his cause either.
Now what does Indiana do? In 2021 the world of college athletics bagan morphing into something no one could have foreseen with student-athletes legally raking in wheel-barrels of cash after the approval of Name Image and Likeness by the NCAA. That probably would not have been such a big deal except that the sport that makes the most money is football. And unfortunately for Indiana, basketball will always be King and Queen. Then came conference realignment and football became the undisputed champion of TV and the almighty dollar no matter what state you lived in, including Indiana.
That is a big problem when your football stadium is half empty for most games and your offerings for suite holders covers only 3 sections of the stands. The facilities at Indiana rank at or near the bottom in the Big Ten. You used to be able to get away with that, but those days are gone. Indiana has to quickly come up with a plan to build a new pressbox with suites to generate income. They need to modernize the stadium in many ways. Then there are the football facilities themselves which need to be brought into the modern era. But most of all the Hoosiers have to begin fielding a football team that can at the very least compete on the level of the rest of the schools in the Big Ten or they face the real possibility of being left behind sooner rather than later.
Most of the things I have talked about can be built, made, created, purchased, etc. The one that cannot, asisde for NIL money of course, is fielding a successful football program. There is not much of an argument to be made that Indiana has long ignored football as a relevant or viable sport. While it was forced upon the administration, I think it is finally clear to all. From IU President Pam Witten to AD Scott Dolson, there has to be a new day in IU athletics where football carries the same, or dare I say it, more importance than basketball. The hiring of Indiana's next football coach is possibly the most important hire since Bob Knight in 1971. How do you get lightning to strike twice? Well, it might take some luck and faith, but it can be done. Indiana is known as the worst football program in NCAA D!. Guess who had the 2nd worst? Kansas, another basketball school. But they learned a lesson after hiring Les Miles and found a magician doing winning things at a place called Buffalo. How the hell can a school like Buffalo success in football and basketball? They had a pair of coaches names Lance Leipold and Nate Oates who had the basketball and football programs ranked in the Top 25.
Indiana had to find its Lance Leipold and I think it might be Curt Cignetti. He reminds me of Kalen DeBoer in that he just wins. He's NEVER had a losing record as a head coach. He has football pouring out of his veins. Cignetti was born in the football city Pittsburg. His father, Frank Cignetti, Sr., coached for Bobby Bowden at West Virginia before becoming head coach of the Mountaineers compiling a record of 199-77-1. Curt was a member of Nick Saban's first staff at Alabama. And he has already coached at Indiana University (of Pennsylvania that is). Is Cignetti Indiana's answer? If I knew that for sure I would take a cut from the next contract. Personally, I think he just might be the guy to be able to do what others have not been able to. That means very little from someone who's job is not on the line for this hire like I believe Scott Dolson's could be after having to hand Tom Allen a negotiated down $15 million check to not work at Indiana.
But Cignetti checks a lot of boxes for the Indiana job. Indiana's roster is leaking like water through a net right now so the $3 million NIL pledge will help him hit the ground running. Whether it's Curt Cignetti is a great hire some of these players will stay and some will find homes elsewhere. Scott Dolson did a bang-up job getting through a myriad of candidates, but seems to have found the right one and wisely pulled the trigger on Cignetti. Is there a possibility we will see him tomorrow night at halftime of the IU - Maryland game?? Maybe. But I think this is more than a solid hire. It's a winning hire.
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