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Curt Cignetti learned the coaching profession from his College Football Hall of Fame father. Now, like his father, he’s about to get his chance on the big stage.
Indiana University has hired Cignetti as their new coach, school officials announced Thursday. Shortly after the announcement, James Madison University officials in Harrisonburg, Virginia, said Cignetti had resigned.
“I am excited to lead this program forward and change the culture, mindset, and expectation level of Hoosier football,” Cignetti said in a written statement. “I want to thank Director of Athletics Scott Dolson and President Pam Whitten, and I look forward to working with both in building something special at IU. Both share my vision and belief that big things are ahead for the IU program.”
Cignetti will replace Tom Allen, who was fired Sunday after seven full seasons in charge of the Hoosiers.
Cignetti spent the past five seasons at James Madison, where he presided over a Football Championship Subdivision, or FCS, powerhouse and then over one of the most successful transitions to the Football Bowl Subdivision, or FBS, in NCAA history. FBS is the highest level of Division I football
He went 52-9 at Jame Madison, winning three Colonial Athletic Association conference titles at the FCS level before leading No. 24 James Madison (11-1, 7-1 Sun Belt) to East Division crowns in each of its first two seasons in the Sun Belt Conference. The Dukes are not eligible to play in Saturday’s league championship game but will be bowl eligible. The team’s only loss this season came in overtime to Appalachian State University, and it rose as high as 18th in the AP Top 25 college football rankings.
While Cignetti’s experience has been primarily on the offensive side—working with quarterbacks, receivers and tight ends—James Madison’s calling card lately has been a stout defense. The Dukes have allowed just 4.9 yards per play this season (No. 18) and he has two defensive linemen ranked among the top 10 nationally.
What the Hoosiers are getting in the 62-year-old Cignetti is an experienced head coach who was considered one of the hottest names in this year’s coaching ranks. Indiana hired first-time college coaches with each of its last two choices—Tom Allen and Kevin Wilson.
Allen was was 9-27 overall and 3-24 in league play during the three seasons since Indiana finished 6-2 in 2020. Since then the college football landscape has changed dramatically with the introduction of name, images and likeness deals as well as the popularity of the transfer portal.
“We had a very talented and deep pool of candidates, and Curt stood out thanks to an incredible track record of success over more than four decades in college football,” Dolson said. “As a head coach he’s succeeded everywhere he’s been, and as an assistant he has been a part of championship cultures while working alongside some of the game’s best coaches.”
Like Allen, Cignetti learned the game from his father.
Frank Cignetti Sr. won nearly 200 career games before being inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2013. He went 17-27 in four seasons at West Virginia from 1976-79, battling cancer during his final season. Then in 1986, he took the reins at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, where he had been the athletic director since 1982, and finished his career there in 2005. He went 182-50-1 at IUP.
Not surprisingly, there were many similarities between the Cignettis careers.
Both had short tenures as assistants at Pittsburgh and the younger Cignetti also played quarterback at West Virginia.
Both also spent more than a decade climbing the assistant coaching ranks before landing a head coaching job, and now Curt Cignetti, like his father, has landed a job at a Power Five school.
But while the elder Cignetti spent most of his career at smaller schools, the younger Cignetti took a different career trek, primarily working at Division I schools.
Curt Cignetti started his career as a grad assistant on Foge Fazio’s staff at Pittsburgh, coached receivers at Davidson, quarterbacks at Rice, Temple and during a second stint at Pitt. He also was quarterbacks coach and recruiting coordinator at North Carolina State from 2000-06 and served as Alabama’s recruiting coordinator-receivers coach from 2007-10.
Then, the younger Cignetti took the head coaching job at IUP and went 108-34 in 12 seasons, making three playoff appearances. Then it was off to Elon, where he was 14-9 and led the school to playoff appearances in each of his first two seasons. In 2019, he left for James Madison, where he took the Dukes to three straight playoff appearances and a national runner-up finish in 2019 before making the jump to FBS in 2022.
Indiana lost all three of its bowl games under Allen and played its best football in 2023 over the final five games after two second-year players, quarterback Brendan Sorsby and running back Trent Howland, emerged as the starters.
Cignetti was the 2017 CAA coach of the year and finished in the top six in balloting for the Eddie Robinson Award, which is presented to the nation’s top FCS coach.
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Why would Cignetti leave a good job at JMU to take a dead end job at IU?
Likely a larger contract at 62.
Likely to do what he’s done everywhere, move up and win. 🏆. The other, around a $2,500,000 a year raise.
I can think of reasons in the eight figures over the life of the contract, and that’s even if he fails and gets a large sum to go away.
He can also get a $14 million buyout, negotiated down from $21 million or so.
Nothing against being older, but at age 62 – how many years does he have to build a program? He’ll be the second oldest coach in the Big Ten behind Ferentz at Iowa who is 68 – but started in 1999 at age 44, 24 years later (19 bowl appearances) – with a 65% win percentage. Coupled with Woodson at age 65 – get ready to hit the repeat button again and again.
Bingo! Steve W. is the winner!
Cignetti has stated publicly that he plans to coach until he’s 75.
I hope he’s successful although he’s being tossed into the meat grinder with OSU, Michigan, Washington, and UCLA on the schedule next year.
The new successful for IU and Purdue is going a consistent 7-5 and making a bowl, with very, very occasional nine win seasons.
Until IU has NIL money to spend on football, it’s going go be a rough road for any head coach.
Fired football coach may be the best job ever though – $$$$$!
It’s already been announced they have $3 million for NIL this upcoming year and fundraising even more now that Cignetti is official.
No kidding. One good season gets you a massive pension.
I predict with the additional teams next year that eventually there will be teams that will leave the BIG10. They all want to come to the Big 10 because of the money the schools make but there is more to it than that.
Just make sure his buyout is twice Allen’s. Way to negotiate those contracts Kelley School!
I’ve joked that next year, IU’s team will wear cleats, Helmet’s and uniforsm….it is a Big 18 school though and that can be a big stage. Can he recruit?
Can he coach? We’ll know pretty soon.
Big Dummies.
I thought they’d go with Jason Candle from Toledo. He’s 20 years younger, and in 8 years as a head coach has never had a losing season. But I wish coach Cignetti all the best.
Candle will go somewhere so it will be a good comparison in age/experience vs. youth/rising star when it all shakes out.