Indiana hires James Madison's Curt Cignetti as head coach
Indiana has hired Curt Cignetti as its next head football coach, the school announced Thursday.
Cignetti spent the last five seasons at James Madison and oversaw the program’s transition from the FCS level up to the FBS. Cignetti was named the Sun Belt’s Coach of the Year earlier Thursday after leading the Dukes to an 11-1 record this season. JMU is 19-4 in two seasons as a member of the Sun Belt with a 13-3 record in conference play.
Before the move up in levels, Cignetti led JMU to the FCS playoffs in three consecutive seasons, including a run all the way to the national championship game in 2019 where the Dukes lost to North Dakota State. The next two seasons, JMU lost in the FCS semifinals.
"I am very excited to welcome Curt Cignetti as the head football coach at Indiana University," Indiana athletic director Scott Dolson said. "We had a very talented and deep pool of candidates, and Curt stood out thanks to an incredible track record of success over more than four decades in college football. As a head coach he's succeeded everywhere he's been, and as an assistant he has been a part of championship cultures while working alongside some of the game's best coaches."
Overall, the 62-year-old Cignetti has a 52-9 record at James Madison. Before he landed at JMU, Cignetti spent two seasons as the head coach at Elon and six seasons as the head coach at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, a Division II program. At Elon, he had a 14-9 record with two trips to the FCS playoffs and at IUP he went 53-17 with three appearances in the Division II playoffs.
Cignetti also has experience at the Power Five level. He had stints as an assistant at Pitt, NC State and was a member of Nick Saban’s inaugural staff at Alabama, spending four seasons with the Crimson Tide as wide receivers coach and recruiting coordinator.
"I am excited to lead this program forward and change the culture, mindset, and expectation level of Hoosier football," Cignetti said. "I want to thank Scott Dolson and president Pam Whitten, and I look forward to working with both in building something special at IU. Both share my vision and belief that big things are ahead for the IU program."
At Indiana, Cignetti will replace Tom Allen, who was fired after seven seasons in Bloomington.
Allen led the Hoosiers to winning seasons in 2019 and 2020, but the program has struggled mightily over the past three years, going 9-27 (3-24 Big Ten) during that span. IU went 2-10 and did not win a Big Ten game in 2021 and then followed that up with a 4-8 (2-7 Big Ten) mark last fall and a 3-9 record this season.
Allen had a 33-49 record as Indiana’s head coach. The Hoosiers endured 11 consecutive losing seasons prior to 2019. Additionally, Indiana hadn’t had back-to-back winning seasons since 1993 and 1994 before doing so in 2019 and 2020.
