Indiana wasted little time finding a new head football coach.
The university announced Thursday afternoon it has hired James Madison’s Curt Cignetti to succeed Tom Allen, who was fired Sunday after seven seasons.
The 62-year-old Cignetti had a 52-9 record in five seasons at JMU, including an 11-1 record and a No. 24 ranking this season. He was named the Sun Belt’s coach of the year.
"I am very excited to welcome Curt Cignetti as the head football coach at Indiana University," Indiana Director of Athletics Scott Dolson said in a press release. "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."
After leading the Dukes to at least the Football Bowl Championship semifinals in his first three seasons, Cignetti led the program’s transition to the Sun Belt Conference in the Football Bowl Subdivision two years ago.
The Dukes went 8-3 in 2022, and this year earned the school’s first bowl bid.
"I am excited to lead this program forward and change the culture, mindset, and expectation level of Hoosier football," Cignetti said in the release. "I want to thank Director of Athletics 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."
Cignetti began his coaching career as a graduate assistant at Pittsburgh in 1983-84. He then was the quarterbacks coach at Davidson, Rice, Temple, Pitt and North Carolina State before joining Alabama in 2007 as its wide receivers coach and recruiting coordinator.
Cignetti got his first head coaching job at Indiana-Pennsylvania in 2011, then in 2017 became the head coach at Elon. After two years coaching the Phoenix, Cignetti took over at James Madison in 2019, going 14-2 and reaching the FCS championship game.
Now, he’ll be tasked with improving an IU program that has won just three Big Ten games in the past three seasons.
Not only that, but almost 20 players have already declared for the NCAA’s transfer portal, including nearly the entire starting offensive unit. The portal officially opens on Monday, and Cignetti’s first order of business may be trying to convince some of those players to return to IU.
