Curt Cignetti
Curt Cignetti went 152–38 as a head coach, 2011–2026, at IUP, Elon, James Madison and Indiana. His 2025 Indiana team claims the national title. Wikipedia’s season articles record one season differently (2026, 6–0); by them his record is 152–37. Share
11 seasons our game records don’t credit to him come from the coach’s Wikipedia article: 2011–16 at IUP; 2017–18 at Elon; 2019–21 at James Madison (on file under another coach). They’re marked in the table.
- Record
- 152–38 career
- Seasons
- 16
- Schools
- 4
- National titles
- 1 claimed: 2025
- Born
- Jun 2, 1961
- Best season
- 2025 16–0, No. 1
Season by season
| Season | School | Record | Conference finish | Bowl | AP final | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | IUP * | 7–3 | 3rd | |||
| 2012 | IUP * | 12–2 | 1st | NCAA Division II Quarterfinal L | 7 | |
| 2013 | IUP * | 9–2 | 2nd | 24 | ||
| 2014 | IUP * | 6–5 | 5th | |||
| 2015 | IUP * | 9–3 | T–1st | NCAA Division II Second Round L | 19 | |
| 2016 | IUP * | 10–2 | 2nd | NCAA Division II Second Round L | 12 | |
| 2017 | Elon * | 8–4 | 3rd | NCAA Division I First Round L | 21 | |
| 2018 | Elon * | 6–5 | 6th | NCAA Division I First Round L | 19 | |
| 2019 | James Madison * | 14–2 | 1st | NCAA Division I Championship L | 2 | |
| 2020 | James Madison * | 7–1 | 1st | NCAA Division I Semifinal L | 3 | |
| 2021 | James Madison * | 12–2 | T–1st | NCAA Division I Semifinal L | 3 | |
| 2022 | James Madison | 8–3 | T–1st | |||
| 2023 | James Madison | 11–1 | 1st | Armed Forces (not coached) | ||
| 2024 | Indiana | 11–2 | T–2nd | CFP First Round L | 10 | |
| 2025 | Indiana | 16–0 | 1st | Rose Bowl, CFP Quarterfinal W; Peach Bowl, CFP Semifinal W; CFP National Championship W | 1 | |
| 2026 | Indiana | 6–1 (Wikipedia: 6–0) |
Each season links to the team’s season page; bowls and playoff games link to the game. Conference finishes from the Wikipedia article’s record table. * A season our game records don’t credit to him; its record is the article’s.
Players he coached
Carter SmithConsensus All‑American, 2025- Omar Cooper Jr.No. 30 pick, 2026
Every player from his seasons with a Heisman top-five finish, a national award, consensus All-America honors or a first-round pick. Photos: Wikimedia Commons, free licenses; credits on each player’s page.
How his teams did
| Kind of game | Games | Record | Won |
|---|---|---|---|
| Against ranked teams | 10 | 7–3 | 70% |
| Against top-10 teams | 8 | 5–3 | 63% |
| Against rivals | 7 | 7–0 | 100% |
| Conference games | 38 | 33–5 | 87% |
| Bowls and playoffs | 4 | 3–1 | 75% |
| Decided by 8 points or fewer | 17 | 14–3 | 82% |
| At home | 32 | 29–3 | 91% |
| On the road | 22 | 18–4 | 82% |
| At neutral sites | 5 | 5–0 | 100% |
| As our Elo’s favorite | 46 | 42–4 | 91% |
| As our Elo’s underdog | 13 | 10–3 | 77% |
His own 59 games on file, 2022–2026, as played (vacated wins counted, ties as half a win). Ranks are the AP poll going into the game; rivals are the ones either program’s Wikipedia article names; favorite and underdog by our own Elo rating, which reads only scores.
Against other head coaches
| Coach | Record | Their schools | Games | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ricky Rahne 2022–2025 | 3–0 | Old Dominion | 3 | |
| Ryan Day 2024–2026 | 1–2 | Ohio State | 3 |
Curt Cignetti’s record against the head coaches he met three or more times, from the games on file, as played.
Most-faced opponents
| Opponent | Games | Record |
|---|---|---|
| Old Dominionseries | 3 | 3–0 |
| Ohio Stateseries | 3 | 1–2 |
| UCLAseries | 2 | 2–0 |
| Northwesternseries | 2 | 2–0 |
| Marylandseries | 2 | 2–0 |
| Michigan Stateseries | 2 | 2–0 |
| Nebraskaseries | 2 | 2–0 |
| Coastal Carolinaseries | 2 | 2–0 |
National coaching awards
The awards- 2025 Indiana: Bear Bryant Award, Bobby Dodd Award and Walter Camp Coach
- 2024 Indiana: Eddie Robinson and Walter Camp Coach
National title staffs
Every title staff- Won a national title on Alabama’s 2009 staff (receivers, recruiting coordinator) · the staff · source
- Won a national title on Indiana’s 2025 staff (head coach) · the staff · source
The champions’ staffs from 1990 on, as the schools listed them that season: Staff lists: Drew Hoover’s how-many-rings (MIT), from the schools’ media guides and staff pages. Roles as the source words them.
How he was hired
- Hired by Indiana for the 2024 season from James Madison, where he was head coach.
Power-conference head-coaching hires since 2010, with each coach’s previous job and ties to the school as collected by hand from Wikipedia: Hiring facts: M. Schuckers, cfb_coach_analytics.
Career
| Years | Team | Job | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1983–84 | Pittsburgh | Graduate assistant | |
| 1985 | Davidson | Quarterbacks and wide receivers coach | |
| 1986–88 | Rice | Quarterbacks coach | |
| 1989–92 | Temple | Quarterbacks coach | |
| 1993–99 | Pittsburgh | Quarterbacks and tight ends coach | |
| 2000–06 | NC State | Quarterbacks and tight ends coach and recruiting coordinator | |
| 2007–10 | Alabama | Wide receivers coach and recruiting coordinator | |
| 2011–16 | IUP | Head coach | |
| 2017–18 | Elon | Head coach | |
| 2019–23 | James Madison | Head coach | |
| 2024–present | Indiana | Head coach |
Every job as the infobox of his Wikipedia article lists it (CC BY-SA), assistant jobs included.
Coaching tree
Worked under
- Foge FazioPittsburgh
- Jerry BerndtRice, Temple
- Johnny MajorsPittsburgh
- Walt HarrisPittsburgh
- Chuck AmatoNC State
- Nick SabanAlabama
Assistants who became head coaches
- Damian WroblewskiJames Madison
- Drew FolmarKutztown, Millersville
- Shane MontgomeryMiami (OH), Massachusetts
Worked under (6)
| Head coach | Team | Years | His job | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Foge Fazio | Pittsburgh | 1983–84 | Graduate assistant | |
| Jerry Berndt | Rice | 1986–88 | Quarterbacks coach | |
| Jerry Berndt | Temple | 1989–92 | Quarterbacks coach | |
| Johnny Majors | Pittsburgh | 1993–96 | Quarterbacks and tight ends coach | |
| Walt Harris | Pittsburgh | 1997–99 | Quarterbacks and tight ends coach | |
| Chuck Amato | NC State | 2000–06 | Quarterbacks and tight ends coach and recruiting coordinator | |
| Nick Saban | Alabama | 2007–10 | Wide receivers coach and recruiting coordinator |
Coached under him, later head coaches (3)
| Coach | With him | Head coach at | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Damian Wroblewski | Elon, 2017–18: assistant head coach and offensive line coach; James Madison, 2019–23: assistant head coach and offensive line coach | James Madison | |
| Drew Folmar | Elon, 2017–18: offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach | Kutztown, Millersville | |
| Shane Montgomery | James Madison, 2019–20: offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach | Miami (OH), Massachusetts |
Other assistants under him (5)
| Coach | With him | |
|---|---|---|
| Bryant Haines | IU Pennsylvania, 2014–15: strength and conditioning coach and defensive line coach; Elon, 2017–18: linebackers coach; James Madison, 2019–21: co-defensive coordinator and linebackers coach; 2022–23: defensive coordinator and linebackers coach; Indiana, 2024–26: defensive coordinator and linebackers coach | |
| Mike Shanahan | IU Pennsylvania, 2016: wide receivers coach; Elon, 2017–18: wide receivers coach; James Madison, 2019–20: wide receivers coach and recruiting coordinator; 2021–23: offensive coordinator, wide receivers coach and recruiting coordinator; Indiana, 2024–26: offensive coordinator and wide receivers coach | |
| Corey Hetherman | James Madison, 2019–21: defensive coordinator and defensive ends coach | |
| Tino Sunseri | James Madison, 2021–23: quarterbacks coach; Indiana, 2024, 2026: co-offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach | |
| Chandler Whitmer | Indiana, 2025: co-offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach |
From coaches’ Wikipedia infoboxes (CC BY-SA) and each season’s article for its coordinators: an assistant’s seasons at a school count under its head coach in our records; jobs in the NFL and elsewhere, under the head coach whose own article lists the job that year. Names without a page here link to their Wikipedia articles.
How he coached
Cignetti’s teams went for it on 23% of fourth downs and on 41% of those where the model said go for it, passed on 46% of plays and took 28.1 seconds a play, 2022–2026.
| Season | School | Went for it on fourth | When the model said go | Pass rate | Seconds a play | EPA a play | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 11 g | James Madison | 21 of 89 24% | 45% | 44% | 27.4 | +0.04 | |
| 2023 13 g | James Madison | 16 of 93 17% | 31% | 53% | 27.1 | +0.08 | |
| 2024 13 g | Indiana | 22 of 68 32% | 50% | 46% | 27.7 | +0.21 | |
| 2025 16 g | Indiana | 17 of 79 22% | 43% | 41% | 29.6 | +0.23 | |
| 2026 7 g | Indiana | 11 of 43 26% | 37% | 44% | 28.4 | +0.26 | |
| All 60 g | 87 of 372 23% | 41% | 46% | 28.1 | +0.16 |
His seasons as a head coach from 2004 on, from ESPN’s play by play: fourth downs where he went for it out of every fourth-down decision; how often he went when SportsDataverse’s fourth-down model said going for it was the better call; the share of his offense’s plays that were passes; seconds of game clock per offensive play (lower is faster); and expected points added per offensive play (EPA, a measure of how much each play moved the offense toward points). The season in progress counts its games so far. SportsDataverse’s coach tendencies, from ESPN’s play by play; the EPA and the fourth-down model are SportsDataverse’s.