Indiana's Curt Cignetti Joins Auburn's Gene Chizik in Specific National Title Stat

Gene Chizik's national title in the 2010 season remains Auburn's last football national championship.

Former Auburn Tigers head coach Gene Chizik remains the last title-winning head coach in program history. | Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

Curt Cignetti has etched himself forever in college football lore after Monday night's win over Miami in the 2026 College Football Playoff National Championship Game, turning Indiana from one of the worst programs in history into a national champion. The win also put Cignetti in a stat category that has not been accomplished since an Auburn Tigers head coach 15 years ago.

By winning a national title in his second season, Cignetti is the first college football head coach to win a title within his first two seasons since Gene Chizik did so with Auburn during the 2010-11 season.

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Curt Cignetti is the first head coach to win a national championship within his first two seasons at a school since Gene Chizik in 2010 at Auburn 😤 pic.twitter.com/ExQOu8Udc5

— ESPN Insights (@ESPNInsights) January 20, 2026

In between Chizik's title in the 2010 season and Cignetti's title on Monday, six other head coaches have had a chance to win a title within their first two seasons but ultimately lost, including another former Auburn head coach.

Gus Malzahn, who made the 2014 BCS National Championship Game in his first season leading the Tigers, lost to Florida State and never appeared in another championship game. Others who made a national championship game within their second year but lost include Oregon's Mark Helfrich in 2015, Georgia's Kirby Smart in 2017-18, Ohio State's Ryan Day in 2020-21, TCU's Sonny Dykes in 2022-23 and Washington's Kalen DeBoer in 2023-24. That number grows to seven if Oregon's Chip Kelly, who was also in his second season in 2010, is included after losing to Chizik.

Smart (2021, 2022) and Day (2024) went on to win championships after their second season.

Chizik's 2010 title remains the most-recent national title Auburn has won, and it was almost as unlikely as Indiana's this season. Ranked No. 20 in the preseason poll, the Hoosiers are the lowest-ranked preseason team to win the national championship since the 2010 Tigers, which was ranked No. 22 in the preseason AP Poll.

The last 15 seasons, though, have failed to replicate that success on the Plains. Auburn has just one SEC title (2013), one appearance in a national championship game (2013), three bowl wins, no New Year's Six Bowl wins and no appearances in the CFP. Additionally, any success has not been sustainable with Chizik fired just two years after his national title and Malzahn fired after eight seasons with the program.

Malzahn only had one 10-win season after his appearance in the national title game, while the coaches that followed — Bryan Harsin and Hugh Freeze — were fired before completing a third season. Neither had a winning season across their five combined seasons.

Now, the Tigers enter the Alex Golesh era, hoping the former USF head coach can follow in Cignetti's footsteps as a former Group of Five head coach with immediate success at the Power Four level. His history rebuilding USF gives hope.

Before hiring Golesh in 2023, USF had just four wins in the three previous seasons combined and had four-straight losing seasons. He achieved immediate success at what was considered one of the worst programs in college football, recording three consecutive winning seasons and becoming the program's first coach to win multiple bowl games in a single tenure since Jim Leavitt (1997-2009). He also led the program to its first nine-win season since 2017 in 2025.

"Winning organizations are built by those who want to be here. Alex Golesh wants to be at Auburn, and Auburn wants Alex Golesh to be here," athletic director John Cohen said on Dec. 1. "His resume and life experience lines up perfectly with the Auburn Creed. He has a spirit that’s not afraid. He’s not afraid to compete at the highest level of college football, and not afraid of expectation. He’s not afraid to tackle one of the most difficult schedules in college football, year-in and year-out."

Auburn opens the Golesh era on Sept. 5 against Baylor in Atlanta.