Indiana finalizing offer to seek the services of Curt Cignetti as new football mentor

Curt Cignetti realized the coaching occupation from his Faculty Football Corridor of Fame father.

Now, like his father, he’s about to get his chance on the massive phase.

The Indiana Hoosiers have hired Curt Cignetti as their new mentor, university officers announced Thursday. Soon soon after the announcement, James Madison officials reported Cignetti had resigned.

“I am enthusiastic to direct this application forward and improve the lifestyle, mentality, and expectation level of Hoosier football,” Cignetti reported in a assertion. “I want to thank director of athletics Scott Dolson and President Pam Whitten, and I appear ahead to functioning with both in developing one thing distinctive at IU. Both equally share my eyesight and belief that large matters are forward for the IU application.”

Cignetti invested the earlier five seasons at James Madison, in which he presided around an FCS powerhouse and then about one particular of the most successful transitions to FBS in NCAA heritage.

There, he went 52-9, successful a few Colonial Athletic Association convention titles at the FCS level before top No. 24 James Madison (11-1, 7-1 Sunshine Belt) to East Division crowns in just about every of its to start with two seasons in the new conference. The Dukes are not suitable to engage in in Saturday’s league championship match but will be bowl-qualified.

Whilst Cignetti’s experience has been mostly on the offensive aspect — operating with quarterbacks, receivers and limited ends — James Madison’s calling card recently has been a stout defense. The Dukes have permitted just 4.9 yards per play this period (No. 18) and he has two defensive linemen rated among the top 10 nationally.

What the Hoosiers are having in the 62-year-previous Cignetti is an knowledgeable head coach who was considered a single of the most popular names in this year’s coaching ranks. Indiana employed to start with-time school coaches with every of its last two possibilities — Tom Allen and Kevin Wilson.

Allen was fired Sunday just after seven entire seasons. He was 9-27 general and 3-24 in league participate in all through the three seasons because Indiana concluded 6-2 in 2020. Considering that then the school football landscape has improved considerably with the introduction of identify, visuals and likeness discounts as nicely as the level of popularity of the transfer portal.

“We experienced a incredibly talented and deep pool of candidates, and Curt stood out thanks to an incredible observe document of good results above far more than four decades in higher education soccer,” Dolson stated. “As a head coach he’s succeeded just about everywhere he’s been, and as an assistant he has been a element of championship cultures though doing work along with some of the game’s most effective coaches.”

Like Allen, Cignetti learned the activity from his father.

Frank Cignetti Sr. gained almost 200 occupation games ahead of staying inducted into the Higher education Soccer Hall of Fame in 2013. He went 17-27 in 4 seasons at West Virginia from 1976-79, battling cancer during his ultimate period. Then in 1986, he took the reins at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, exactly where he experienced been the athletic director considering the fact that 1982, and finished his job there in 2005. He went 182-50-1 at IUP.

Not surprisingly, there were being several similarities in between the Cignettis careers.

Both equally experienced quick tenures as assistants at Pittsburgh and the young Cignetti also performed quarterback at West Virginia.

The two also spent a lot more than a 10 years climbing the assistant coaching ranks before landing a head coaching job, and now Curt Cignetti, like his father, has landed a job at a Energy 5 college.

But when the elder Cignetti expended most of his profession at smaller universities, the more youthful Cignetti took a unique vocation trek, primarily performing at Division I educational facilities.

Curt Cignetti commenced his vocation as a grad assistant on Foge Fazio’s team at Pittsburgh, coached receivers at Davidson, quarterbacks at Rice, Temple and through a 2nd stint at Pitt. He also was quarterbacks mentor and recruiting coordinator at North Carolina Condition from 2000-06 and served as Alabama’s recruiting coordinator-receivers mentor from 2007-10.

Then, the young Cignetti took the head coaching occupation at IUP and went 108-34 in 12 seasons, producing 3 playoff appearances. Then it was off to Elon, exactly where he was 14-9 and led the college to playoff appearances in every single of his initially two seasons. In 2019, he left for James Madison, in which he took the Dukes to 3 straight playoff appearances and a national runner-up end in 2019 prior to producing the jump to FBS in 2022.

Indiana misplaced all three of its bowl online games beneath Allen and played its very best football in 2023 in excess of the final five game titles soon after two 2nd-12 months gamers, quarterback Brendan Sorsby and operating again Trent Howland, emerged as the starters.

Cignetti was the 2017 CAA mentor of the 12 months and finished in the leading 6 in balloting for the Eddie Robinson Award, which is presented to the nation’s major FCS mentor.

Reporting by The Involved Push.

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