Curt Cignetti explains why he had so much confidence at start of Indiana tenure

When Curt Cignetti took over at Indiana, he didn’t waste time making an impression. The confidence was obvious from the first time he took the floor at Assembly Hall when he told the fans “Purdue sucks, and so does Michigan and Ohio State.”

Of course, as Cignetti said at Big Ten Media Days, he was trying to fire up the crowd. But it doesn’t take away from the fact he was confident he could do what some considered impossible: turn Indiana around.

Of course, Cignetti – a former Nick Saban assistant – brought plenty of credentials. The son of the late Frank Cignetti, he brought a 119-35 overall record with him over 13 years at IU-Pennsylvania, Elon and James Madison. That track record of success allowed him to have so much confidence when he got to Bloomington.

“I had a lot of confidence coming in because I’d had so much success as a head coach, I guess,” Curt Cignetti told Andy Staples and Ari Wasserman on Andy & Ari On3. “And I felt like I had done this kind of turnaround two or three times already. So it’s just doing it on a bigger stage. And I thought it was important that I set an expectation level when I first got here. I realize I went out on a limb on a few comments, but I just detected, the first day I was here, kind of a feeling of hopelessness that it can’t get done here.

“Once I was here – and I felt like I had to get people excited right off the bat. Now those are just words, but portray that confidence and expectation level that this is what we’re going to do.”

It’s safe to say, Indiana is living up to Cignetti’s expectations. The Hoosiers are 6-0 for the first time since 1967. To put that in perspective, Bob Knight was still four years away from taking over the basketball program, and The Beatles had just released Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.

Suddenly, there’s a buzz around IU football. It didn’t happen overnight, though, considering Cignetti called out fans for leaving the season opener early. But the students keep coming back – and showing out in full force at his encouragement.

“It’s a process one day at a time, obviously, because you’ve got to change the way people think,” Cignetti said. “That starts with your team, and then everybody on the outside, too. You’re really going to change the way people think if you win football games. You win one game, you’ve got more belief and confidence as a team, and you get the fans a little bit more excited. Every success has built upon the other. And when you talk about building a program, it’s not only what you do between the white lines, but it’s the support from your alumni and your fan base, too, are critically important.

“We played the opening game against FIU. I thought we had pretty good crowd when the game started. Come out at halftime, half the people had left. We had a two, three-score lead. I was like, what’s going on here? But it’s gotten better every single game, and I made a comment my press conference about it afterwards. We’re sold out Saturday, we’re sold out two weeks from now, too, at home, or three. So at the end of the day, you’ve got to produce only to grow and build. We’re trying to grow every facet of this program.”

Curt Cignetti: ‘You’re either getting better and getting worse’

Just because Indiana enters Week 8 undefeated, doesn’t mean Curt Cignetti is going to settle. His comments at Big Ten Media Days should be an indication of that.

But when it comes to sustaining his team’s success and keeping people excited about Indiana football, Cignetti said it comes down to avoiding complacency. As long as the Hoosiers focus on getting better and chasing greatness, he argued the results will come.

“The next step is have a great day today,” Cignetti said. “You’re always working on what’s going on between people’s ears because 90% of this game this time of year is mental, and you’ve got to deal with success or you’ve got to deal with failure or complacency. We’re coming off an off week. Guys had a couple days off. Got to get back in the groove, get the edge, prepare, put the time in, the effort, have energy at practice, be detailed to give ourselves the best chance of success on Saturday.

“To me, you never arrive. You’re either getting better and getting worse. You never stay the same. And if you’re not striving towards something getting better, then somebody’s catching you. So, in theory, you’re getting worse. So, it’s a process all the time.”