INDIANAPOLIS — When Curt Cignetti took the Indiana job last fall, he promised immediate success.
It wasn’t boastful bluster.
After daring the doubters to Google his winning pedigree, the son of a Hall of Fame football coach delivered on his word by leading the Hoosiers to a school-record 11 wins, a top 10 ranking and an improbable first playoff berth that set up a Friday night game at No. 3 Notre Dame.
Cignetti was named The Associated Press Coach of the Year on Tuesday, collecting 30 of 45 votes from AP Top 25 voters. Arizona State coach Kenny Dillingham finished second with eight votes, Oregon coach Dan Lanning received five and SMU coach Rhett Lashlee got two.
“Thank you to The Associated Press for this tremendous team honor,” Cignetti said. “Our program has had a great season and we look forward to opening the College Football Playoff against Notre Dame on Friday.”
Few thought such a season was possible at Indiana, much less in his first season. Cignetti authored an eight-win turnaround that captivated the nation at a school with the most losses in Football Bowl Subdivision history.
Then again, all the 60-year-old Cignetti does is win.
He’s never had a losing record in 14 seasons as a head coach and has a reputation for making quick turnarounds everywhere he goes - Alabama, where he served as Nick Saban’s first recruiting coordinator and won a national title, following his father to Indiana University of Pennsylvania or at FCS school Elon and James Madison, where he presided over the most successful transition from the FCS to FBS in NCAA history.
Cignetti won conference coach of the year awards at IUP, Elon, James Madison and now in the Big Ten with Indiana. Cignetti brought most of his coaching staff and 13 players from the Dukes to Indiana and the results were as surprising as they were at any of his previous stops.
Even Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman took note.
“I didn’t know much about him, so I took a minute and Googled him and looked at some of the things he’s done in the past at his other places,” Freeman said Sunday, a week after the playoff pairings were announced. “He’s won everywhere he’s been. He’s done a great job.”
The winner of seventh-seeded Notre Dame (11-1) and 10th-seeded Indiana advances to the quarterfinal round against second-seeded Georgia (11-2, No. 2 AP).
Cignetti is the first Indiana coach to win the award since its inception in 1998. His predecessor, Tom Allen, finished second in 2020 after leading the Hoosiers to a 6-2 mark, a second straight January bowl game and a final ranking of No. 12.
But this has been a historic season for the Hoosiers (11-1) and Cignetti. who became the first Indiana coach to start 10-0 - or even post double-digit wins in season.
Indiana produced its largest margin of victory in school history, 77-3 over Western Illinois, in September and two of its three largest victory margins in Big Ten play, 56-7 over Nebraska in October and 66-0 over rival Purdue in its regular-season finale.
Ten of the 11 wins were by margins of 14 or more points and they only trailed in the second half of one game, a loss at then-No. 2 Ohio State. And Indiana isn’t just the highest scoring team in the playoffs at 43.3 points per game, it also has the No. 6 scoring defense (14.67 points) and the No. 1 run defense (70.8 yards per game) in the FBS.
It’s not a surprise to anyone in the program, least of all Cignetti.
“This team’s accomplished a lot, I’m proud of what they’ve accomplished,” Cignetti said. “I think the coaches have done a great job, players have done a great job. But in saying that, no one’s satisfied. The players are hungry for more, the coaches are hungry for more.”
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