Where Indiana football head coach Curt Cignetti falls in CBS Sports head coach rankings

As Indiana football head coach Curt Cignetti enters his first season in Bloomington, expectations are high. They are high internally and, recently, have started to rise externally around the country with some of the moves he’s made through the transfer portal.

Those internal expectations were noticeable right when Curt Cignetti took the podium during his introductory press conference and made it evident that his Indiana football program will not be the Indiana football of old.

“We’re going to change the culture, the mindset, the expectation level, and improve the brand of Indiana Hoosier football,” Cignetti said when he was introduced as head coach. “There will be no self-imposed limitations on what we can accomplish. It will be a day-by-day process that is hinged on being focused on the present moment and improving as much daily as possible to put yourself in the best position tomorrow.”

He would echo that sentiment just a month later.

“We got to change the way people think about Indiana,” Cignetti said during his National Signing Day press conference. “We’ve been adamant that, look, we’re going to win and we’re going to win this year and we’re going to change the brand and the expectation level and the way people see Indiana football.”

Curt Cignetti came to Indiana after five extremely successful seasons at James Madison, totaling a 52-9 overall record in that span.

In total, Cignetti has not had a losing record in 13 years as a head coach. Only two of his 13 seasons have yielded less than seven wins.

On Tuesday, CBS Sports came out with their first list of the top Power Four coaches in college football and Cignetti came in at No. 43 on the list.

“Only one coach new to the Power Four starts ranked higher than Cignetti, but we’ll have more on him later. The 2024 season will be Cignetti’s first at this level, but he’s had plenty of experience and success at stops along the way,” CBS Sports national analyst Tom Fornelli wrote. “Between his time at IUP, Elon and James Madison, the 62-year-old Cignetti is 119-35 in his career with four conference titles. He had James Madison appear in the AP Top 25 in each of the last two seasons (the program’s first two seasons at the FBS level), and Indiana hopes his successful approach to building a program brings consistency to its program.”

Cignetti is looking to replicate the success he’s had at every stop in his career, but this time will be his first at the high-major level.

Indiana football, on the other hand, is looking to bounce back from three extremely disappointing seasons that totaled just three wins in Big Ten play and nine wins overall.

In 2023, Indiana was just 3-9 on the season and was the only Big Ten team to finish the year with just one conference win.

The Curt Cignetti era at Indiana will officially begin on Aug. 31 at home against Florida International.

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