Curt Cignetti Addresses NFL Speculation Ahead of National Championship

The Indiana coach has been showered with adulation in recent weeks.

Curt Cignetti is one win away from completing one of football’s most famous Cinderella stories. | Rich Janzaruk/Herald-Times / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Many a college football coach has thought his skills could translate to the NFL, and many a college football coach has been incorrect.

For every Jim Harbaugh, there is a Nick Saban. For every Paul Brown, there is a Bud Wilkinson. The games are vastly different, and coaches at truly wise stages of life understand this.

That describes Indiana coach Curt Cignetti—currently one of the most popular sports figures in the country outside the NFL umbrella—to a T. On Saturday morning, Cignetti swatted away speculation that he would jump to the professional ranks.

“I’m not an NFL guy. I made that decision a long time ago. I’ve always been a college football guy,” Cignetti said via Brett McMurphy of On3.

Indeed, Cignetti has never coached a down of professional football, following in the footsteps of his father Frank Cignetti Sr. (his brother, Frank Cignetti Jr., has spent over a decade on and off in the NFL). Curt, 64, has built the Hoosiers into a national power in just two years, going 26-2 since his 2024 arrival.

If Indiana can beat Miami on Monday to win the national championship, it will put a bow on one of football’s greatest stories—and seal the legend of Curt Cignetti, college football guy, for decades to come.

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