Report: Indiana agrees to raise, extension Curt Cignetti

Indiana head football coach Curt Cignetti is having a historically good year in his first season leading the Hoosiers. Cignetti is getting rewarded for it with a contract extension and raise, according to Zach Osterman of the The Indianapolis Star.

Osterman posted the news on Twitter Saturday morning, sharing that Cignetti is receiving “Significantly improved terms as well as assurances around infrastructural program support.”

Osterman later revealed details of the deal, sharing that Cignetti will make an average of $8 million per year for eight years.

Indiana is 10-0 on the year and in contention to reach the Big Ten Championship game, as well as the College Football Playoff. The Hoosiers were 3-9 last season but have already reached the 10-year mark in Year 1 under Curt Cignetti. This is the first 10-win season in school history for the Indiana football program.

Curt Cignetti came to Indiana after spending five seasons as the head coach at James Madison. The Dukes finished 11-1 last year in his final season there.

The former Alabama assistant was also previously the head coach at IU-Pennsylvania and Elon.

Cignetti spoke with Andy Staples and Ari Wasserman on Andy & Ari On3 earlier this year about why he was so confident he could have success right away as he took over the Hoosiers program.

“I had a lot of confidence coming in because I’d had so much success as a head coach, I guess,” he said. “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.”