Coach Cignetti has all the tools to take the Hoosiers to the next level.
Indiana Hoosiers football fans have been fooled time and time again. A new coach comes in- hopes go up. Results don’t happen. Start over with a new coach. Coach Tom Allen was the last coach to instill fans with hope. After two years of improvement and a magical covid year, fans were ready to back up the money truck to Tom Allen’s front door. After offensive coordinator Kalen DeBoer moved on and strength coach David Ballou was hired by Alabama, things fell apart. In the following three years, IU won only nine of 36 games, including a pathetic three in conference.
Enter Coach Curt Cignetti. I’m as skeptical as the next guy. I have been an IU football fan since the late 1970s. I have seen it all and have ridden the IU football roller coaster my entire life. I’m aware that IU is the first Division 1 football school to reach 700 losses. I get it; I do. But I choose to believe in Curt Cignetti. Maybe it’s instinct. Maybe it’s an unconditional love for my university. Or, just maybe, there is more to this Coach than our previous coaches.
He most certainly has the pedigree. He has won everywhere he has been. Just ask him.
Indiana Coach Curt Cignetti: I win. Google me.
Nick Saban vibes. pic.twitter.com/FyOjgRPIW8
— Jacob Davis (@JacobScottDavis) December 23, 2023
Indeed he has. He has amassed an overall record of 119-35. He has turned around programs and won everywhere he has been. The problem for those who doubt is that he has won at schools that don’t play a power 5 schedule, and certainly not at the expanding Big 10 level. He did transition James Madison to FBS in 2022, going 11-2, but the concerns are there.
So why jump on the Cig Train?
It’s simple- he wins. He tells you he wins. He openly claimed that Purdue, Michigan and Ohio St. suck.
New Indiana football coach Curt Cignetti: “Purdue sucks … but so does Michigan and Ohio State. #iufb pic.twitter.com/Lh2Cvzu117
— Jeff Rabjohns (@JeffRabjohns) December 2, 2023
Some are claiming that all he is doing is providing locker room material to opponents. That is an overrated sentiment. What I see in Cignetti is a man who is proud to be at IU. A man who is determined to be a winner. A man who knows what he and his staff are capable of. He is going to drag IU to success. It’s refreshing to hear a coach who isn’t accepting 100 years of failure and isn’t afraid to let you know it.
Of course words are words. What IU fans should be most excited about is what he truly brings to the program: Xs and Os knowledge and game management. And more importantly, he brought nearly his entire staff, minus offensive line coach previously at IU. This staff knows each other and the game plan. This, along with the players he brought from JMU and the others he picked up will allow him to implement his full plan immediately. Success can come more quickly.
As for those coming from the transfer portal, he did very well. Notable are Ohio quarterback Kurtis Roarke and one of the best receiving corps in the Big 10. Among those are returnee Donaven McCulley and transfers Myles Price, Ke’shawn Williams and Miles Cross. He has added a significant number of other players landing the Hoosiers at 7th nationally with 22 transfers.
Of course none of us will know until the Hoosiers take the field. Until then, Coach Cignetti gives the fans no reason to doubt. Time will tell, but this life-time Hoosier is along for the ride.
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