Curt Cignetti urged to make major career move after national championship win

Curt Cignetti is still soaking in the atmosphere after leading Indiana on a run that made college football history, but some analysts are already speculating on his future.

Sam Navarro-Imagn Images

Even as Curt Cignetti was walking through the confetti after pulling off one of the greatest coaching jobs in college football history, some analysts were already speculating on whether he should make a major career move.

Cignetti led the perennial-loser Hoosiers on a run college football will never forget, completing the first 16-0 season in major ball since 1894, but some of the sport’s talking heads wonder if he might be better fitted for the NFL instead.

Cig to the NFL... A predictable talking point

Skip Bayless joined that chorus on the night of the national championship, taking to the confines of X to air out his opinion that Cignetti should ditch Indiana for the shield.

“I know Curt Cignetti has pledged allegiance to Indiana and college football... but I believe his wizardry and discipline and teaching would transfer to the NFL. Give him, say, Josh Allen and he’d win a couple of Super Bowls,” Bayless said in an X post.

That may very well be true, and the Buffalo Bills’ head coaching vacancy did just come open after the dismissal of Sean McDermott, but as Bayless noted, Cignetti seems to be made for college football and nothing else as far as the gridiron is concerned.

It's come up

Predictably, he was asked by the army of reporters covering the College Football Playoff if he was expressing any interest in some of the more notable jobs coming open in the NFL, among them being the Pittsburgh Steelers in his own hometown.

It’s safe to say it’s an affirmative no for Cig as far as the league goes.

“I’m not an NFL guy. I made that decision a long time ago. I’ve always been a college football guy,” Cignetti said straightforwardly ahead of the national championship game.

College football to the NFL: Mixed results

Making the move from college football to the NFL is a road many coaches have taken in the past with varying degrees of success and failure.

Sure, there’s the odd Jimmy Johnson, who led Miami to a national championship and then took the Dallas Cowboys to two eventual Super Bowl titles.

But there’s also the likes of Steve Spurrier, who flopped with the Washington Redskins, or Urban Meyer, whose one year with the Jacksonville Jaguars was the stuff of nightmares, or even Nick Saban and his mediocre turn with the Miami Dolphins.

Jim Harbaugh is one coach looking to change that narrative, leaving his alma mater at Michigan after winning a national championship to take over the Los Angeles Chargers, who made the NFL playoffs this year before a quick exit at the hands of the New England Patriots in the Wild Card Round.

Cig is staying put

It’s safe to say the last thing on Curt Cignetti’s mind right now is taking another job. And even if it were, it wouldn’t be in the NFL, as intriguing as it may sound.

On the heels of a magical undefeated season, the first thing on his mind is looking to make it two straight, something that looks more realistic with each passing day.