When the Indiana Hoosiers hired Curt Cignetti to be the 30th head coach in program history last November, there wasn't anyone disputing that Indiana had hired a good football coach. If you didn't know who Cignetti was, a simple Google search would've let you know that Cignetti has won everywhere he's gone. He brought a 119-35 career record with him to Bloomington, but in Bloomington, there is no long track record of football success.
Was this unsung coaching veteran who had previous stops at IUPUI, Elon and James Madison really going to be the guy who changed that?
There's no telling where the Indiana football program will go after 2024, but this season, Curt Cignetti's impact has been undeniable. The Hoosiers are off to their first 8-0 start since 1967 and in great position to earn a berth in the newly expanded College Football Playoff. But for as big of a surprise as Indiana's historic start has been to the rest of the country, this is exactly what Cignetti planned for.
“Look, I wasn’t going to take four or five years to win,” Cignetti said, per Nicole Auerbach of NBC Sports. “Like, back in the day, you just try to build a program by your fourth year. Nowadays, you’ve got to win now, because this is the I-want-it-now society and times. And I’m not used to not winning, so we were going to win now. And it all worked out.”
Though he hasn't finished the job yet, Cignetti made waves back in December when he boldly declared that Indiana would be playing in the Big Ten Championship Game in 2024. Certainly nobody expected that the Hoosiers would be in the Big Ten title hunt come November. Even Indiana athletic director Scott Dolson conceded that he didn't expect such a drastic turnaround, but he also noted that he understands that the timeline to create a contender has changed.
“In this era of college football, it’s about immediate gratification,” Dolson said. “People do want to win, right away, and the reality is not everybody can win, so there’s going to be some, some bumps in the road. You just hope that the lows aren’t too low, and you can rebound quickly from those.”
Curt Cignetti's instant success at Indiana could spark even more Power Four teams to hire sitting head coaches away from Group of Five schools that are coming off of some of the best season's in program history, just as Indiana did hiring Cignetti away from James Madison. Not only will an influx of players likely follow that head coach to whatever new city he'll be coaching in, but there's an assurance that he's someone who understands the rigors of this new-look, transfer-heavy college sports landscape.
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