RJ Young
FOX Sports National College Football Analyst
The very first thing you need to find out about first-year Indiana soccer coach Curt Cignetti is that he did not discover this job daunting. It does not matter that Indiana hadn’t put collectively a profitable season since 2020. Or that the Hoosiers hadn’t received greater than 9 video games in an everyday season — ever.
“My first day on the job, we received 10 starters within the switch portal and half the protection,” Cignetti informed FOX Sports in an unique interview.
Yet, it did not matter. Cignetti took most of his employees from his earlier job at James Madison and received proper to work, not simply sifting by the switch portal, however vetting after which interviewing gamers with goal. He made 22 transfers to Bloomington and extra vital than the variety of incoming transfers was the background they possessed. The incoming switch group was full of people that had performed loads of soccer and have been the very best gamers on their earlier groups.
“Quite a lot of them have been G5 guys,” Cignetti stated.
Some got here from Texas Tech, like Myles Price, some from Wisconsin, like offensive lineman Trey Wedig, and a few from Wake Forest, like working again Justice Ellison.
Judge Ellison rushes for a 31-yard TD, extending Nebraska’s lead over Indiana
“They have been all high-character children who had been productive for 2 or three years — constant manufacturing,” Cignetti stated. “And I actually felt in my coronary heart that, , we have been going to show the roster round by the top of the (switch portal) interval.”
Talk about it. Then stroll it.
After turning the squad round, understanding in his coronary heart that he had the personnel he wanted to win, Cignetti started to do the second and maybe most tough a part of his job: proselytizing.
What Cignetti stated on December 22, 2023, in his presentation press convention, has now entered into legend.
The query was, “How do you promote your imaginative and prescient of your tradition?”
Cignetti’s response: “It’s fairly easy. I win. Google me.”
But earlier than saying these phrases into the microphone, Cignetti wanted to persuade his spouse. “My logic with my spouse was, look, I’ve achieved this breakthrough three or 4 instances earlier than. This is just a bit greater stage.”
He was proper.
In his first season as head coach at IUP in 2011, Cignetti completed 7-3 after profitable six of the final seven video games he coached. After taking on as head coach at Elon, a program that had gone 2-9 the earlier 12 months and 12-45 within the earlier 5 years earlier than his arrival in 2016, Phoenix went 8-4 in his first 12 months Cignetti, reaching no. .7 within the FCS standings and reaching the FCS playoffs for the primary time since 2009. In his first season at James Madison, Cignetti went 14-2 and led the group to a berth within the nationwide championship recreation.
“Obviously I went out on a limb with a few of my feedback, which I’ve by no means achieved previously,” stated Cignetti, whose No. 5-ranked Indiana group is making ready to journey to Columbus, Ohio, to battle No. 2 Ohio State (midday ET Saturday on FOX and the FOX Sports app). “Honestly, it was like a conflict of two worlds once I received right here. You know we (he and his former groups) have been used to profitable championships 12 months after 12 months, and lots of people thought it was form of a hopeless scenario. right here. And I wasn’t about to decrease my requirements and expectations.”
Heading into this week’s enormous Big Ten showdown with the Buckeyes, Cignetti’s group sits at 10-0, marking the primary time Indiana has received 10 video games in program historical past. The Hoosiers are additionally in place to be chosen for the primary 12-team College Football Playoff, partially due to the assumption of Cignetti, who instilled that perception within the folks of Bloomington and relied on a recipe that labored effectively for him.
Yes, Cignetti was a recruiting coordinator on Nick Saban’s inaugural employees at Alabama. But he’s additionally the son of Hall of Fame coach Frank Cignetti, Sr., who led IUP to Division II nationwide titles in 1990 and 1993. And let’s not overlook that Cignetti coached for 42 years, longer than the Power 4 coaches Dan Lanning. (38), Marcus Freeman (38) and Lincoln Riley (41) have been to this Earth.
Curt Cignetti on Indiana-Ohio State, 10-0 begin and contract extension
Along the best way, he held on to a set of core beliefs. When requested what his “non-negotiables” have been, the Hoosiers coach did not hesitate to rattle off the checklist.
“They have excessive requirements and excessive expectations,” Cignetti stated. “You can by no means compromise your requirements. The manner you do one thing is the best way you do all the things. There must be accountability all through the whole program for coaches and gamers. The solely factor we actually ask gamers to do each day is focus, do your greatest, be proactive and affect others positively. If you do, you’ll enhance, and in the event you enhance each day, actually, something is feasible.
If something is feasible, that has to incorporate Indiana profitable a nationwide championship this season, proper?
“Well, you guys receives a commission to do this sort of factor,” Cignetti responded. “You know, get folks to observe you and have a look at your stuff. You know, write articles, no matter. You know, I do not assume in that world. My world is all about having the very best each day assembly, the very best, the very best practices, the very best preparation, accumulating the moments of the day, eliminating the noise and the litter. Be the place your ft take you till Saturday, to present your self the very best likelihood to succeed.”
But?
“I sometimes hear issues about our program. I imply, we have been by no means down till two weeks in the past. And then once we have been down 10-0, we reeled off 47 straight factors on the highway within the Big Ten. And then, , we had an in depth recreation towards Michigan. All the opposite video games have been decisive victories.
“Every P4 group we performed had a profitable file once we performed them, besides two, which have been .500. Nebraska was 5-1 once we performed them. So loads of the group’s information aren’t that good anymore as a result of we performed them.”
See? Proselytism. Works.
What additionally works is having a plan and sticking to your core perception of non-negotiable, high-performance requirements, not figuring out of concern, however out of earned belief.
This is Curt Cignetti’s information to constructing a winner. Don’t mess along with his recipe. Just cook dinner.
RJ Young is a nationwide school soccer author and analyst for FOX Sports and host of “The Number One College Football Show” podcast. Follow him to @RJ_Young.
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