IU football coach Curt Cignetti and Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer share a similar background. Their first jobs as head coaches were in the lower ranks of college football.
The more common career path in major college football is becoming a head coach after years as an assistant at the same level.
Cignetti and DeBoer face each other Jan. 1 in the quarterfinals of the College Football Playoff at the Rose Bowl.
Cignetti says he respects DeBoer, who started as a head coach at NAIA Sioux Falls, where he won three national championships.
"Been following his career for a long time," Cignetti said. "You know, he kind of started out a lower level like I did, and ever since he went to Washington, I really kind of studied his offense and think he's a great coach."
Cignetti started as a head coach at NCAA Division II Indiana University of Pennsylvania, where his father was a successful head coach. The team was 6-5 the year before Curt Cignetti took over. In his second year, he went 12-2.
Earlier this week, Cignetti recalled being an assistant at Alabama and wanting to be a head coach. Nick Saban, then head coach of the Crimson Tide, wasn't sure going to a Division II school would be a smart career move.
"I can't say there weren't many mornings early on where I wondered what I did, because it was such a tremendous, radical change," Cignetti said. "But at the end of the day, you know, it prepared me for where I am today.”
Cignetti went on to become head coach at Elon and James Madison before IU hired him.
DeBoer went from Sioux Falls to become an assistant at Eastern Michigan, Fresno State and, for a year, IU. He went from the Hoosiers to being head coach at Fresno State and Washington. He's in his second season at Alabama.
DeBoer said he wouldn’t change a thing about his rise.
“I mean, with the playoffs," DeBoer said, "the way they are, and us having to go four rounds, I've been through that many, many years, whether it was as an assistant or as a head coach, going back to Sioux Falls days.”