Indiana's Curt Cignetti Makes History With Recent Award

Cignetti was named AP coach of the year on Tuesday for a second straight season.

Indiana Hoosiers coach Curt Cignetti speaks during a press conference at the New York Marriott Marquis after his quarterback Fernando Mendoza won the Heisman Trophy. | Brad Penner-Imagn Images

Another day, another national honor for the Indiana football program.

On Tuesday, coach Curt Cignetti was named 2025 Associated Press coach of the year. Voters overwhelmingly agreed on this year's winner, as Cignetti received 47 of 52 first-place votes. Texas Tech’s Joey McGuire and Vanderbilt’s Clark Lea each received two, and one went to Virginia’s Tony Elliott.

Curt Cignetti makes college football history with latest award

Indiana coach Curt Cignetti against Wisconsin at Memorial Stadium. | Rich Janzaruk/Herald-Times / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Tuesday's honor makes Cignetti the first coach in college football history to win AP coach of the year in back-to-back seasons since the award was first presented in 1998. Three coaches have won it twice in non-consecutive seasons, including Brian Kelly, Gary Patterson and Nick Saban.

Last season, Cignetti received 30 of 45 first-place votes, while Arizona State coach Kenny Dillingham finished second with eight votes, Oregon coach Dan Lanning received five and SMU coach Rhett Lashlee got two.

Cignetti has led arguably the greatest turnaround in college football history. Indiana went 9-27 in three seasons prior to his arrival and had the sport's most all-time losses.

He arrived in Bloomington with a seemingly tough task, but has made it look easy by going 24-2 overall and 17-1 in regular season Big Ten play in his first two seasons. Cignetti guided the Hoosiers to the College Football Playoff last season, and they're the No. 1 overall team heading into this year's CFP after defeating top-ranked Ohio State in the College Football Playoff.

That's made for quite the list of awards for Cignetti in just two seasons at Indiana, with some still to be announced.

• 2x AP Coach of the Year (2024, 2025)
• 2x AFCA Coach of the Year (2024, 2025)
• Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year (2024)
• 2x Home Depot Coach of the Year (2024, 2025)
• Sporting News Coach of the Year (2024)
• 2x Walter Camp Coach of the Year (2024, 2025)
• 2x Big Ten Coach of the Year (2024, 2025)

Cignetti and the Hoosiers await the winner of No. 8 Oklahoma versus No. 9 Alabama in Norman, Okla., which is scheduled for Friday at 8 pm. ET on ABC and ESPN. The winner plays Indiana at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif. on Jan. 1 at 4 p.m. ET on ESPN.

There's plenty for Indiana to be proud of so far, but Cignetti is hungry for a deeper College Football Playoff run this time around.

"It's a great win for us, obviously, our first Big Ten title," Cignetti said. "Now I've got three and a half weeks to kind of humble this team again and get them ready for the playoffs."

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