BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – In a smaller office tucked around the corner of the head coach’s, sit the spoils of the greatest season in program history.
It was briefly displayed in Curt Cignetti’s office — almost exclusively for recruiting reasons — but on this day, if you want to find the national championship trophy won in Miami the previous month, you need to stop by the room where director of football operations Blake Jackson resides. Atop a cluttered cabinet sit the trophies from Indiana’s four most important games in program history: Big Ten championship, the Rose Bowl, the Peach Bowl and the College Football Playoff National Championship.
It’s perfectly Cignetti.
He loved Indiana’s playoff run and how he got to share it with his family, fellow coaches and players, calling it a “glorious five-week time to be an Indiana Hoosier,” but he doesn’t need a bunch of physical reminders of what he accomplished staring him in the face each day. The Indiana coach gave his staff the day off as they flew back from Miami following the Hoosiers’ 27-21 win over Miami in the national championship game, and then it was back to business.
“We got to enjoy it that night in the hotel a little bit and then flew back, and there’s a lot of work to be done,” Cignetti told CBS Sports. “My wife and I went away for about a week after the old signing day. That was nice. Right now we have our weekends off, so it sinks in a little bit, but total focus on ’26.”
In person, Cignetti comes off matter-of-fact and almost subdued. He doesn’t need to make bold, attention-grabbing proclamations about Indiana football anymore. Everyone knows he wins now. Instead, it is about tackling a new kind of challenge for Indiana football: Handling success and avoiding complacency. From Wall Street to college football, letting the joy of success seep in has dulled many an organization’s edge.
It’s too soon to fully know how Indiana will handle last season’s accomplishment with spring practice yet to begin, but Cignetti doesn’t seem overly worried. He’s a steadfast believer in the blueprint he and his staff have put together and that continuing to ardently follow it will lead to more success. How can you doubt him at this point? He took over the losingest program in college football history and turned it into a national champion in just two seasons.
It’s perhaps the most remarkable accomplishment in college football history, and the source of admiration (and jealousy) across the college football landscape. It has inspired hope for athletic directors and university leaders everywhere: “If Indiana can do it, why can’t we?” In this past coaching cycle, more and more schools talked about wanting their version of Cignetti as if they just grow on trees.
The Indiana coach takes it all in stride.
“I guess it’s a compliment of some kind,” he says. “But what’s happened here has happened because we have alignment from the president to the (athletic director), and we’re on the same page as a staff. We have a philosophy that I’ve been doing for a while. Guys have been with me a while, and we’re able to get everybody to kind of think alike. I think the university, very early on, saw what football success could do, and they’ve continued to invest.”
New tax bracket, same work ethic
That last point has been paramount. University president Pam Whitten and athletic director Scott Dolson have made huge investments into the football program — first to get it going, and now, to sustain it. That has included giving Cignetti an eight-year, $105.6 million deal that made him the sport’s highest-paid coach at more than $13.2 million annually. It is the fourth time in two years that Indiana has amended Cignetti’s contract. It’s a remarkable rise for a man who was making less than $700,000 in his final season at James Madison in 2023. He says conversations with his financial planner are more complicated now — and maybe he’ll take a private flight or two instead of commercial — but otherwise he’s the same guy he’s always been.
With the spoils of success comes the freedom to say no, though.
As Cignetti’s celebrity has exploded in the last year, from fascination over his Chipotle order to t-shirts in the Indianapolis Airport adorned with “Curt So Good,” plenty of outside offers have come. That includes companies offering Cignetti as much as $300,000 for a single speech. It can be tempting to get sucked into that circuit. He says he’ll do one appearance that he thinks will benefit the state, but otherwise, he’s avoiding that world. He loves watching film and coaching ball, not giving speeches.
“There’s a lot of people who accept quite a few of those,” Cignetti said. “I make enough money. I’m appreciative of the offers and the opportunities, but this is what I get paid to do.”
Familiar names
The school has rewarded Cignetti’s top lieutenants, offensive coordinator Mike Shanahan and defensive coordinator Bryant Haines, with top-of-the-market deals, too. Shanahan and Haines both garnered outside interest at the college and NFL levels, but the fact that they stayed after a title run is a testament to Cignetti and Indiana. Indiana is now a destination, not simply a stop along the way.
That staff continuity has been a huge part of Indiana’s secret sauce, and a reason to be extremely bullish about the Hoosiers’ prospects moving forward. Shanahan and Haines, who won this year’s Broyles Award as the nation’s top assistant, have been with Cignetti since the Division II IUP days.
They know exactly what the big boss wants and how he needs his players to be developed and coached. That helps the transition process when you bring in plenty of new faces at key positions on the roster. Indiana lost quarterbacks coach Chandler Whitmer (Tampa Bay Buccaneers) and strength coach Derek Owings (Tennessee), but replaced them with two coaches Cignetti already knew well.
That should help on a roster that loses presumptive No. 1 pick Fernando Mendoza and key contributors like D’Angelo Ponds, Elijah Sarratt, Aiden Fisher, Pat Coogan and others. January was an especially hectic month for Cignetti and his staff as they prepped Mendoza and Co. for a national title run while simultaneously working to replace them in the fast-moving portal.
The next phase
Cignetti succeeded everywhere but the sleep department. He managed only about three hours of rest while putting together a top-10 transfer class as his mind raced at night, thinking of all he had to do. TCU quarterback Josh Hoover, Michigan State receiver Nick Marsh and Wisconsin offensive lineman Joe Brunner headline Indiana’s incoming talent infusion.
Cignetti is anxious to get spring practice going to see how all the new pieces fit into the winning culture he’s built. With as fast-paced as transfer recruiting moves, you have to trust your prep work and instincts on players. He likes the group he’s added, but time will tell how they handle the pressure of now trying to repeat as national champions. The days of Indiana being the underdog are long gone, and with that comes heightened expectations.
What’s not gone? The same standards Cignetti brought to Bloomington that forever changed the sport.
“We’re not going to change the way we do things,” Cignetti said. “If there was a better way, we would have done it last year. You hear a lot about, ‘Oh you’re at the top of the mountain and how hard it is to stay there.’ It’s hard to get to that point, and you can have a team that does things consistently well and maybe not repeat because someone else is playing better.
“I’m not one to create a self-fulfilling prophecy that we’re fat and happy because right now everything appears to be moving in the right direction.”
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