Indiana
Curt Cignetti coaching history: Career record, more to know of Indiana football coach
At the news conference formally introducing him as Indiana’s new football coach last December, Curt Cignetti had a simple message when asked about how he will sell the Hoosiers to prospective recruits, the kind he would need to turn around the program’s fortunes.
“I win,” he said. “Google me.”
A quick and easy internet search will confirm his words were as true as they were confident.
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Throughout his 40-year coaching career, Cignetti has been a part of dozens of winning teams. As a head coach, that has been especially true, with a successful five-year run at James Madison serving as the latest example of his prowess.
At Indiana, he’ll face perhaps his biggest challenge yet.
Though they’ve had spurts of success — most recently, the pandemic-affected 2020 season in which they went 6-2 and rose into the top 10 of the national polls — the Hoosiers have largely been a basketball school working to compete in one of college football’s best conferences.
Over the past 30 seasons, they’ve made just five bowl appearances, losing each. They haven’t won even a share of a Big Ten championship since 1967. Since that stellar 2020 run, they’re just 9-27.
If Cignetti’s resume and background are indicative of anything, that may soon change. Ahead of Indiana’s 2024 season opener against Florida International Saturday, here’s a look at Cignetti’s coaching career, record and more:
REQUIRED READING: Can Indiana football’s Curt Cignetti take team to new heights? Bold predictions for 2024
Curt Cignetti coaching career
Cignetti’s path to becoming a head coach in a “Power Four” conference was long and hard-earned.
Shortly after graduating from West Virginia, Cignetti got his start in his hometown of Pittsburgh as a graduate assistant at Pitt, where in 1993 he returned to stay for seven seasons as the quarterbacks and tight ends coach.
After that came another lengthy stint at NC State, where he was the quarterbacks coach and tight ends coach, as well as the recruiting coordinator. Among the players he coached during his seven seasons there was future top-five NFL draft pick and Pro Bowler Philip Rivers.
When Nick Saban arrived at Alabama in 2007, Cignetti served as the Crimson Tide’s recruiting coordinator and wide receivers coach from 2007-10. During that time, he helped Alabama bring in No. 1 recruiting classes in 2008 and 2009 and, by the end of the 2009 season, the Tide won its first national championship since 1992.
Following the 2010 season, Cignetti took over as the head coach at Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP), a Division II program about 60 miles east of Pittsburgh. Over six years, he guided the Crimson Hawks to the Division II playoffs three times and finished in the top 25 four times.
That success earned him a jump to FCS program Elon, where he went 14-9 over two seasons, a drastic improvement over the 12-45 record the Phoenix compiled in the previous five seasons. They made the FCS playoffs in both seasons, just the second and third time they had ever done so.
In December 2018, Cignetti was hired at James Madison, which had won the FCS championship three years earlier. In his first season, the Dukes went 14-2, a five-win improvement from the previous season, and made it to the FCS championship, losing narrowly to North Dakota State. Under Cignetti, they made the FCS semifinals in each of the next two seasons.
In 2022, James Madison made a long-awaited transition to the FBS. In their first season, the Dukes went 8-3 and finished in a tie for first place in the Sun Belt East Division. As a first-year FBS program, however, they were ineligible for a bowl game. The 2023 season had even more in store for James Madison, which started 10-0 and rose as high as No. 21 in the US LBM Coaches Poll before finishing the regular season 11-1. For his efforts, Cignetti was named Sun Belt Coach of the Year.
Here’s a look at Cignetti’s coaching stops.
Head coach unless specified
- 1983-84: Pitt (GA)
- 1985: Davidson (QB/WR coach)
- 1986-88: Rice (QB coach)
- 1989-92: Temple (QB coach)
- 1993-99: Pitt (QB/WR coach)
- 2000-06: NC State (recruiting coordinator, QB/WR coach)
- 2007-10: Alabama (recruiting coordinator, WR coach)
- 2011-16: IUP
- 2017-18: Elon
- 2019-23: James Madison
- 2024-present: Indiana
REQUIRED READING: IU football Insider roundtable: What’s a Curt Cignetti team look like? Time to find out.
Curt Cignetti record
Over his 13 seasons as a head coach, Cignetti has a record of 119-35, including a 74-20 mark in conference play.
- IUP: 53-17 overall (33-11 Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference)
- Elon: 14-9 overall (10-5 Coastal Athletic Association)
- James Madison: 52-9 overall (18-1 CAA) (13-3 Sun Belt)
Curt Cignetti father
Coaching came naturally to Cignetti. After all, it runs in the family.
Cignetti’s father, the late Frank Cignetti, was a longtime college coach. He was the head coach at West Virginia from 1976-79, where he went 17-27. He was named the athletic director at IUP in 1982 and took over as the school’s football coach in 1986. He led the Crimson Hawks for 20 seasons, piloting them to a 182-50-1 record, 13 NCAA playoff berths and two appearances in the national championship game.
He retired after the 2005 season and six years later, his son took over his old post. The elder Cignetti was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2013.
Curt Cignetti’s younger brother, Frank Cignetti Jr., is also a coach. He was most recently the offensive coordinator at Pitt before being fired after the 2023 season.
REQUIRED READING: ‘I’m a zero star.’ How JMU transfer Mikail Kamara evolved into pass rusher IU craves.
Curt Cignetti contract
Cignetti will earn $4.25 million in first year of his contract with Indiana, a significant financial step up from the $677,311 he made in his final season at James Madison.
According to terms of a memorandum of understanding he signed in December, Cignetti will make at least $27 million across six seasons at Indiana, not including bonuses and performance incentives.
Tom Allen, Cignetti’s predecessor, brought in $4.51 million in total pay in his final season as the Hoosiers’ coach, according to USA TODAY Sports’ coaching salary database.
Curt Cignetti age
Cignetti, born June 2, 1961, is 63 years old.
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — A Hamilton County teen on Friday said he’s excited for his first convention as a voting delegate.
Jackson Massillamany, who just turned 18 and graduated from high school in May, is no stranger to politics. His father, Mario, is the chair of the Hamilton County Republican Party and his mother, Amy, serves on the Hamilton County Council.
Jackson said he signed up to be a delegate at this weekend’s Indiana Republican Party convention in Fort Wayne after Mario asked if he was interested.
“It’s kinda cool to see how this is done and what my dad actually does,” he said. “At first, I wasn’t really excited for it, but I’m here now and I’m having a blast.”
Mario Massillamany, who is a contributor to “All INdiana Politics,” said Jackson is the youngest delegate at the convention. He said he has been taking Jackson along to party functions ever since he was an infant.
“It’s a great opportunity for him to get more active and involved in politics, and I think we need to try and get the younger generations involved in our political process,” he said. “I think this is a great opportunity for him to come here, have a good experience and then go back and talk to his friends about why it’s important to get involved.”
Jackson will be one of 1,800 delegates tasked with picking a nominee for secretary of state. It’s a closely watched race. Current Secretary of State Diego Morales, who is seeking a second term, has faced numerous controversies since he took office. Knox County Clerk David Shelton and conservative activist and 2024 gubernatorial candidate Jamie Reitenour have been running against Morales for months. Last month, Max Engling, a staffer for Sen. Jim Banks and a 2024 congressional candidate, joined the race at the last minute with Banks’ backing.
The Republican winner in November will have to face Bayh family scion Beau Bayh, a Democrat, along with Libertarian Lauri Shillings and, potentially, former Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard, who is running as an independent under the Lincoln Party label.
Mario said he’s telling Jackson to keep his eyes and ears open and to meet with all of the weekend’s candidates.
Both Massillamanys said the key to getting young people to vote and to get politically involved is to, first, encourage them to register to vote and, second, to elevate more young people who are in politics.
“I feel like many people are scared to be involved in politics because nobody else younger does it,” Jackson said. “So, like, me and other people my age, being able to reach out to others to try and get involved, I feel like, is the best way for people my age to get involved.”
Delegates to the 2026 Indiana Republican Party convention will make their selections on Saturday. Besides secretary of state candidates, they will choose nominees for state treasurer and state comptroller. The current occupants of those offices, Daniel Elliott and Elise Nieshalla, respectively, are running for second terms and are unopposed.
Government reporter Garrett Bergquist will be in Fort Wayne on Saturday and will have a full report on the results of the convention at 6, 10 and 11 p.m. on WISH-TV.
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — A man is dead after a shooting Thursday night on Indy’s near east side, police say.
According to the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department, just after 8 p.m., officers were called to the 2000 block of East Washington Street on a report of a person shot.
When officers arrived, they found an adult male inside an apartment with injuries consistent with gunshot wounds.
Indianapolis Emergency Medical Services transported the man to a hospital in critical condition, where died shortly after arriving.
Homicide detectives responded to the scene to begin the investigation.
Crime Resources
Gov. Mike Braun asked state regulators to reconsider their decision to greenlight a $71 million rate increase for AES Indiana, doubling down on his condemnation of a move that could leave Indianapolis residents with higher electrical bills for years.
Braun wrote in a June 18 news release that he had asked Indiana Utility Counselor Abby Gray, who heads the office representing ratepayers in proceedings before the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission, to petition for a rehearing of the AES rate case.
Gray indicated in the release that her office would submit the petition shortly. No petition had been posted on the IURC’s online docket as of this story’s publication.
The rate increase, which was approved by the IURC on June 17, was substantially less than the $192 million increase that AES initially requested. It was also less than the amount proposed in a settlement last October between AES and major electricity consumers.
But the Office of Utility Consumer Counselor, which Gray leads, came out strongly against any increase to AES’s base rates. In September, the OUCC called for a $21 million reduction instead.
As the Republican Party grapples with rising discontent over affordability, Braun has used opposition to rising utility rates to telegraph that he’s committed to keeping costs down for Indiana residents. He signed a law in February that allows the state to make rate-setting decisions that reward or penalize utilities based on metrics including affordability.
In March, he told reporters that he would take on Indiana’s five investor-owned utilities, describing himself as the “new sheriff in town.”
And after the IURC voted 3-1 to approve the AES rate increase, he wrote in a post to X that he was “deeply disappointed.”
Braun wrote in the June 18 news release that he had appointed Gray, a longtime OUCC lawyer and judge, to her current post because he knew she “would help me fight for Hoosiers.”
According to AES’s estimates, the rate increase will cost households an additional $5 per month for every 1,000 kilowatt hours of electricity they use, beginning in July. A second hike will take effect in January.
Tilly Robinson is a Pulliam fellow for the Indianapolis Star. She can be reached at tilly.robinson@indystar.com.
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