Indiana flattened everyone in their path this season. Ohio State was taken down in the Big Ten Championship. In the Rose Bowl, Curt Cignetti’s squad dismantled Alabama 38–3.  Then came the most prestigious coaching award in college football, the Bobby Dodd Trophy. Ahead of the Peach Bowl against Oregon, the Hoosiers’ head coach accepted the honor. But the moment and the place took him to a core memory involving his father.

The presentations for the Dodd Trophy are held at the College Football Hall of Fame in Atlanta, Georgia. This was the same building where Curt Cignetti’s father, Frank Cignetti Sr., was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2013. The Indiana head coach admitted he was the only family member not present that day. He was coaching fall practice at IUP.

“And I wasn’t missing practice,” he said during a joint press conference with Oregon coach Dan Lanning at the College Football Hall of Fame. Then came the line that peeled back the layers. “He was a great man… He had a little John Wayne and Clint Eastwood in him.”

Frank Cignetti Sr. amassed nearly 200 career wins across college football, boasting a remarkable 182–50–1 record at IUP from 1986 to 2005, which included 14 PSAC West titles, two Division II national championship game appearances, and no losing seasons over nearly two decades.

He beat cancer after being diagnosed in 1979. He eventually passed away on September 10, 2022, at age 84. “I was blessed to have a great dad!” Curt tweeted. “He was a great leader, and he led by example, and he was a role model, and he was a strong man. He had a little John Wayne and Clint Eastwood in him.”

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So when Curt talks about discipline and showing up no matter what, it traces back to the man who taught him what commitment really means.

Despite the stern look he wears on the sideline, Curt Cignetti insists he’s enjoying every second of Indiana’s CPF ride. He just keeps it off-camera.

“There’s a lot of times I am happy. I just don’t show I’m happy,” Curt said. “If I’m going to ask my players to play the first game, first play to play [No.] 150 the same, regardless of competitive circumstances, then I can’t be seen on the sideline high-fiving people and celebrating, or what’s going to happen, right? What’s the effect going to be?”

That mindset hasn’t stopped him from savoring what Indiana has accomplished. Cignetti, who is 25–2 as Indiana’s HC and claimed the Bobby Dodd Coach of the Year award on Thursday, admits the smiles will follow later.

“I’ll smile and celebrate later in the coaches’ room with the coaches,” he said. “You know, maybe have a beer.”

That quiet celebration style is also why Cignetti’s rise hasn’t been loud, but it’s definitely impossible to ignore.

Curt Cignetti’s discipline-driven rise

For all the memes and the stone-faced sideline shots, Curt Cignetti has quietly become one of the most respected names in football. On The Pat McAfee Show, ESPN NFL expert Peter Schrager didn’t hold back while referring to him as “the hottest coach” in the league and openly speculating that an NFL team, the New York Giants, might already be considering him. 

“I’d be very curious to see if an NFL team picks up that phone and calls old Bloomington, Indiana, and just inquires about that gentleman right there. Because I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a better coaching job than what this man has done,” Schrager said.

The buzz wasn’t sudden, though. Cignetti led Indiana to the College Football Playoffs and completely changed the perception of a program that was once defined by its losing record. It has been an insane turnaround. Indiana football had never produced a head coach with a winning conference record in 125 seasons before Cignetti’s arrival in December 2023. Since 1945, they have not won a Big Ten championship. They went 3–9 in 2023.

After a year, everything was completely transformed. Cignetti has led Indiana to a 24-2 record since taking over, which is second-best in the FBS during that time. Indiana is currently two victories away from winning a national championship. Paul Finebaum even acknowledged the painful reality that Indiana appeared to be Nick Saban’s Alabama defeating Alabama.

“The team that was beating down Alabama was Alabama under Nick Saban. I realized the uniform was similar, but they played just like a Nick Saban team. They beat you to death and made you give up. And that’s what happened.”

And maybe that’s the full-circle moment. Cignetti spent years grinding at Division II fields, in assistant roles, and for four seasons under Saban, learning the craft the hard way. Now he’s being mentioned in the same breath as the GOAT. It’s discipline and belief now unleashed on the biggest stage college football has.