Indiana’s Curt Cignetti says ‘Purdue sucks,’ then call calls out Michigan, Ohio State

Curt Cignetti did not join the Big Ten to make friends.

The new Indiana football head coach addressed the Hoosier basketball crowd on Friday night in Bloomington and started lobbing grenades not only at rival Purdue but against programs like Michigan and Ohio State that are hardly aware Indiana football exists.

“I don’t take a backseat to anybody and don’t plan on starting now,” Cignetti told the audience at Assembly Hall.

“Purdue sucks!”

The crowd erupted in applause.

“But so does Michigan and Ohio State!”

Cignetti came to Indiana from James Madison.

Last season the program became the first college football team ever to get ranked in the top 25 in its first year at the FBS level, and this year the Dukes went 11-1.

Cignetti’s introductory press conference as new coach of the Hoosiers was held on Friday.

“It’s a job that got my juices flowing,” Cignetti said, as covered by the Indianapolis Star.

“We are going to improve the brand… there will be no self-imposed limitations.

“There’s one leader and he’s standing here…everybody follows that lead, that’s one of the keys to success, everyone thinking alike.”

He also blasted recruited rankings as a metric for the quality of players getting added to a program.

“I have never, ever looked at a star. You really think some guys that puts stars on kids knows what he’s talking about, compared to coaches who are watching hours and hours of tape on kids?” Cignetti asked.

He acknowledged that the program is fighting an uphill battle for talent, but would not use that as an excuse.

“There’s going to be people in this conference that have more resources than we do, but that’s not detrimental,” Cignetti declared.