Pete DiPrimio | IUHoosiers.com
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Forty-four coaching years finds Indiana’s Curt Cignetti where he’s never been before — defending a national title — and where he’s always been – developing another winning team.
“I’m really excited,” he says as August training camp begins. “I’ve been on vacation long enough.”
Cignetti starts his 16th season as a head coach with zero losing records on his resume, and a 146-37 overall mark. There are multiple reasons for that success, including exceptional players and assistant coaches, but it starts with building a winning culture. Every coach in America has the same plan. Few implement it as well.
“I think your job as the head coach and the assistants,” Cignetti says, “is to equip your roster, make it as strong as possible with adequate depth at every position.
That worked to perfection last season — a 16-0 record and the program’s first national championship, first Rose Bowl title, first Peach Bowl title, and first outright Big Ten championship since 1945.
“When you play that many games,” Cignetti says about the four extra postseason games, “you’re going to get some guys dinged and injured. Things happen. It’s next-man-up mentality.”
Again, every coach and team pushes that mentality, but few do it as well. When the Hoosiers lost a pair of standout defensive linemen in Kellan Wyatt and Stephen Daley last season, there was no drop in defensive production.
“The season is not a sprint,” Cignetti says, “it’s a marathon. You’ve got to be able to handle success, failure, and stay relatively healthy, even though when you look at it last year, we lost our two defensive ends. Wyatt was playing great football, so was Daley, and we had guys step up, step in and still be successful.”
The goal is to match last season’s success. IU got a lot of work done in the spring, but it came with many projected starters and key players out with injuries. Now, everyone appears healthy and ready to go.
“We had a good spring,” Cignetti says, “but when you play 16 games, you come out of a season like that, you have some postseason surgeries; you’ve got some new portal guys that show up that have worked on it at their prior institution.
“I’m really anxious to get the team together for the first time and develop them. We have a lot of nice pieces. I think we excel at development and creating the intangibles, and once we get closer to the season as a staff, it’s extremely beneficial.”
Cignetti emphasizes the importance of the staff continuity he’s had combined strong support from President Pam Whitten and athletic director Scott Dolson.
“Nothing great happens without commitment from the top,” he says. “They know the blueprint, the process, the plan. We’re all on the same page. That makes this possible.”
What is that blueprint?
“We’re very process-driven,” Cignetti says. “Our focus is on the things you have to do in the here and now to improve as much as possible. To improve as much as possible today. Those types of things.
“We don’t talk about product; we don’t talk about results; we don’t talk about championships, playoffs, national championships, those sorts of things. I’m a firm believer in our blueprint.”
Cignetti says his first August camp meeting with his assistant coaches on Monday was similar to what it was eight years ago, including the one-hour duration. The same was true with the first meeting with players. Practices also are similar.
“We have a way of doing things,” he says. “We’ve got guys that have been together. All we do is win.”
Last year, that included dramatic victories over Oregon, Penn State, Iowa, Ohio State and Miami, mixed in with plenty of blowouts, highlighted by Illinois, Alabama and the Oregon rematch.
So while much of what Cignetti does is the same, that doesn’t mean he isn’t receptive to change.
“We’re still trying to get better. We’re trying to improve the way we do things.
“We have a good culture upstairs. We have a good culture downstairs. We’ve got a chance to develop.”
It starts Sept. 5 against North Texas.
