Curt Cignetti May Not Consider Other College Football Jobs, but There’s Another Option

Even after signing an eight-year contract extension with Indiana, the hot-name coach could make sense at the next level.

Could an NFL head coaching job entice Curt Cignetti to leave Indiana? / Rich Janzaruk/Herald-Times / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

It’s an incredible understatement to say Indiana coach Curt Cignetti is having a great week.

The Hoosiers are the toast of college football following the biggest win in school history last Saturday over Oregon, thumping the Ducks in Eugene, Ore., to all but secure a favorable path to Indianapolis for the Big Ten championship game and ensure that last year’s run to the College Football Playoff was far from a fluke.

Then on Thursday, the school announced it agreed to a new eight-year contract with the head coach featuring an average annual salary of $11.6 million—just behind that of national-title winners Ryan Day and Kirby Smart. ESPN reported that every dime of the $93 million deal is fully guaranteed, too.

Indiana, on the field and off it, appears to be fully in on being a football school nowadays. That includes locking down Cignetti before speculation can fester about him taking any number of high-profile jobs this winter, be it the already open Penn State gig he’s been linked to or the likes of soon-to-come-open Florida. 

That’s smart business for Indiana and not just to help out on the recruiting front with players hearing all the speculation. When you bring up that Cignetti is 17–2 since taking over at, historically, the worst power-conference program in the country, it’s not hyperbole when you see claims that it’s one of the greatest college coaching jobs ever. It’s been that good even if not peering through crimson-colored glasses.

“I couldn’t be more proud to be a Hoosier, and I plan on retiring as a Hoosier,” Cignetti said in a video. “The way that this state has embraced us and our success in football has meant more to me than anything else.”

That’s a strong statement that should ring loudly if you’re in State College, Pa., right now or at any number of other schools that were pondering what it would take to somehow pry Cignetti from a job that is his for the foreseeable future. 

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Yet as finite as Cignetti indicates he is about his future plans being in Bloomington, Ind., what about the NFL catching his eye during what should be an incredibly active coaching carousel in the league? With few exceptions, every franchise should be beating down the door to land the Indiana coach this offseason.

He ticks off every box when it comes down to personality, talent acquisition, track record and, of course, Xs and Os knowledge. In his own words, he wins (no need to Google it anymore). 

Cignetti has won at every level so far, so why couldn’t he make it work at the last one left on the coaching ladder? He made the losingest college football program a perennial playoff contender at the FBS level with a team talent composite, according to 247 Sports, that ranks 72nd in the country. That’s three spots ahead of Toledo and Texas State while being miles away from the likes of that Ducks team he beat last weekend. 

He’s won at the Division II level, leading Indiana University of Pennsylvania to a 53–17 mark in his first head coaching gig. He finished in the top 20 every season he had at the FCS level across stints with Elon and James Madison. He coached the Dukes to their first bowl game just a year after joining the Group of 5 ranks and now is the darling of the Power 4. 

There’s just one more place left for him to conquer at this point—the league.  

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The NFL may need him, too, for his ability to assemble a winner almost as much as it can delight in Cignetti’s confidence and incredible one-liners during press conferences. As active as the college coaching carousel figures to be this season, turnover at the next level will be massive. 

The Tennessee Titans fired Brian Callahan this week and the franchise will be far from the only one to have an opening before the season is out.

The Miami Dolphins are trending that way, especially in light of the locker room dynamics that have spilled out into the public after their latest loss. The Arizona Cardinals have started to spiral after Emari Demercado dropped the ball short of the goal line in that inexplicable loss to the Titans. Kevin Stefanski doesn’t deserve all of the blame for the Cleveland Browns’ struggles, but they’re 1–5 and trending toward a full-on reset. The New York Giants coaching staff may not be safe even with rookie quarterback Jaxson Dart now in the starting lineup, and their crosstown rivals, the New York Jets, may have some remorse over picking Aaron Glenn as coach given how atrocious the team has looked amid an 0–6 slog.

Given the lack of can’t-miss coaching prospects at the coordinator level in the NFL right now, it would make sense for any of them to wander down to the college ranks in search of a new leader. Cignetti might well be the safest option for any NFL team to hitch their wagon to, even with his lack of exposure as a coach in the league. 

Age may be a concern for some since he’s 64 and the current trend has been to hire someone who is young and from the Kyle Shanahan/Sean McVay coaching tree. But Bill Belichick won a Super Bowl at 64 (and again at 66), while Andy Reid won at 64 and 65—and is still going strong at 67. 

Heck, Pete Carroll was just hired this year and he’s 73. Cignetti is just two years older than John Harbaugh. 

Curt Cignetti (right) took down Dan Lanning’s Ducks by 10 points last weekend, the first time Oregon had lost by double digits at home in eight years. / Troy Wayrynen-Imagn Images

That brings up another aspect that could make Cignetti open to leaving despite the ink still drying on his latest deal with the Hoosiers: The jobs may be too good for him to pass on if a select few franchises start inquiring. He can always go back to college football and land a great job, but finding the perfect fit in the NFL may only be possible this year.

The Ravens, for example, are 1–5 this season, haven’t won the Super Bowl since 2012 and have the same overriding narrative with a 3–6 playoff record in the last seven years. Do you think the possibility of coaching two-time MVP Lamar Jackson would be at least a little intriguing for a guy who may never be a hotter name than he is right now?

Or how about Cignetti’s hometown Pittsburgh Steelers? It’s been 18 years since Mike Tomlin won the Super Bowl and the team hasn’t won a playoff game since 2016. The franchise built on stability usually goes with a younger option whenever it considers a coaching change, but Cignetti’s local roots and football acumen may appeal enough to override that factor at the moment.

Just to the east of his current location, the Cincinnati Bengals make sense at 3–4 and plenty of heat on Zac Taylor. Don’t you think Cignetti would take a phone call if it meant working with Joe Burrow and Ja’Marr Chase? Not only could the appeal of working with a Super Bowl–caliber quarterback be enough for Cignetti, but the franchise may also be delighted to learn what miracles the Indiana coach performed last season by taking his team to the playoff with a signal-caller operating with a torn ACL all year. 

Finally, there’s the Buffalo Bills. Owner Terry Pegula is a Penn State grad so he has to know what Cignetti has been up to at a Big Ten rival. He also understands just what it means to make the Hoosiers a football powerhouse in today’s game—an appealing quality if you were to move on from Sean McDermott after the season and try to bring in a new coach to help open up the team’s new stadium in 2026. 

If Cignetti can make Indiana a great team that’s the envy of college football, what could he possibly do in conjunction with Josh Allen on a team desperate for a Super Bowl? 

It’s a testament to the work he’s done in just 19 games that Cignetti has made swaths of Hoosiers fans let Bobby Knight fade to the back of their mind in the midst of this current run. It would surprise nobody at this point if the school built a statue of him outside Memorial Stadium by Christmas.

Thursday’s latest contract extension should help fend off any college program that entertained the idea of luring Cignetti to perform the same kind of miracles. 

But the NFL? That might be worth considering at least a little for the coach who doesn’t take a backseat to anybody, at any level.

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