Inside The Huskies

Indiana's Cignetti Is Talk of College Football for Wins and Words

The Hoosiers coach has captured everyone's attention with 7-0 record and his brashness.

Dan Raley

Indiana coach Curt Cignetti reacts after beating UCLA at the Rose Bowl.
Indiana coach Curt Cignetti reacts after beating UCLA at the Rose Bowl. / Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

It took Curt Cignetti just two words to show the Indiana faithful he would be a much different Hoosiers football coach.

Newly hired and handed a microphone at a basketball game on campus, this shoot-from-the-hip leader hooked everyone almost immediately.

"Hey, look, I'm super fired up about this opportunity," Cignetti said energetically to the fan base. "I've never taken a back seat to anybody and don't plan on starting now."

He drew a cascading roar when he surprisingly ended his spiel with the following jab at the Hoosiers' state rival: "Purdue sucks!"

Cignetti wasn't done either, pumping his fist and adding to his enthusiasm, by saying, "The same with Michigan and Ohio State!"

Later, the former West Virginia quarterback would explain he simply let it fly because of all the negativity he had heard about the Indiana job when he took it -- namely three winning seasons over the previous 29 years, two coming when Michael Penix Jr. was the quarterback. Of course, there is more to this coach than built-up bluster aimed at every opponent worth insulting in a nearby time zone.

With Washington coming to Bloomington on Saturday, the brash Cignetti, 63, has made the Hoosiers (7-0 overall, 4-0 Big Ten) the talk of college football by guiding them to their best start since 1967, when Indiana went 9-2, made its only Rose Bowl appearance and lost 14-3 to a USC team featuring the late O.J. Simpson at running back.

Cignetti has done all of this by bringing 13 starters with him from James Madison, his previous stop, and simply rallying the troops with his wisecracking, direct manner plus a concentrated coaching style.

Similar to Kalen DeBoer, he has paid some serious dues at places such as IUP, Elon and James Madison and built a 126-35 coaching record, 26-4 as an FBS coach. Similar to DeBoer, he went to work at Alabama, only as a receivers coach and recruiting coordinator for Nick Saban rather than replacing him. Unlike DeBoer, he's more in your face than abject polite.

"It's pretty simple -- I win," he said. "Google me."

Cignetti, who is 14 years older then DeBoer, makes winning fun for all of those previously long-suffering Indiana fan who have had to settle for basketball success under hard-nosed Bobby Knight and others at their Big Ten school.

He's become a must-have sports talk show guest, especially for ESPN's Pat McAfee, because of what's happened with the Hoosiers and what comes tumbling out of his mouth.

While the Huskies' Jedd Fisch and others bemoan and dwell on the cross country travel, Cignetti dismisses it, such as taking his team leaving a day early for a game.

"We're not doing it," he said. "We're going to get there as late as possible. OK, we're going to wake up, play the game and come back. That's what we do. We got to the hotel about 8 o'clock at night, right. Ate our meal, went to bed, played at 3:30, kicked their ass and came home."

It appears the Fisch and the Huskies are about a 1,500-word underdog here.

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Dan Raley
DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.

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