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In Curt Cignetti’s world, the obvious questions are met with obvious questions. Why wouldn’t Indiana be 5-0 at this point? Why wouldn’t the Hoosiers be ranked for only the second time since 2020?
Why wouldn’t a 63-year-old who has seen it all walk around like he’s done it all?
“It’s pretty simple,” Indiana’s head coach said when he was hired in December. “I win. Google me.”
To be fair, Cignetti made that proclamation before the season. But timing matters less than what Cignetti has done to back it up.
Entering Week 6, there are five teams in the country sitting at 5-0. One of them is a basketball school in central Indiana with the second-worst winning percentage all-time among current Group of Five schools (ninth-worst all time in FBS at .420).
Only one of them has a coach who sent an email urging the student body to show up and show out for last Saturday’s game against Maryland, a 42-28 win. “The parties can wait …,” Cignetti said. “If you need to study, that can wait too.”
One of them has a coach who won’t settle at a program where expectations are historically low.
“If we go to a bowl it’s a great year? Bullshit,” Cignetti said. “You want to be the best.”
And all of it is more refreshing because, for much of his career, Cignetti has been talking this same junk — just not in front of Big Ten cameras and Power Four notebooks.
“I’m not going to tolerate not being successful,” he said.
What, you didn’t notice when he was going 53-17 at Indiana University of Pennsylvania from 2011 to 2016? You missed it as Cignetti led James Madison from FCS to FBS, going 52-9 from 2019 to 2023? If so, you probably also missed the gig as Philip Rivers’ position coach at NC State.
You surely missed the recruiting coordinator…
Source link : https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/curt-cignetti-dares-to-dream-big-at-indiana-and-so-far-hes-right/
Author : Dennis Dodd
Publish date : 2024-10-02 16:06:20
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