With no "self-imposed limitations" Curt Cignetti is ready to lead Indiana football to new heights, and recruit a 5-star QB along the way

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – New Indiana football coach Curt Cignetti tells everyone the same thing. And that is to forget everything you think you know about Indiana football. He and his staff are in Bloomington to change the image and direction of this program.

They have the support to do so too.

“Let me put it this way,” Cignetti began during a 1-on-1 interview with On3. “There is a commitment to football here from the administration, the athletic director and president to get football going and be successful.” 

The 63-year old Cignetti can already feel that change inside his building.

We’re at the point in fall camp where the scheme is in place and Cignetti and his staff are getting the team psyche where they want it. Getting that edge in the right place as the season opener against Florida International fast approaches.

We haven’t seen much of an edge at IU over the last few campaigns. Cignetti takes over an Indiana program that was 9-27 over the last three seasons and just 3-24 in Big Ten play.

“We want to be successful every day,” Cignetti said. He earned the opportunity at IU after posting a 52-9 record at James Madison. In his career he is 119-35 in 13 seasons as a head coach. Prior to that he helped Nick Saban win his first National Championship in Tuscaloosa as an assistant, and was part of an NC State staff that won a program best 11 games back in 2002.

“Improve as much as we can every day,” Cignetti continued. “Put the best plan together daily. Do as well as we can. I talk about no self-imposed limitations. We’re approaching this thing with that mindset.

“I’ve gone to places that had horrific records before I got there and year one put great wins together.”

That particularly happened at Elon where Cignetti inherited a 2-9 football team and had them 8-4 in that initial campaign and finishing in the Top20.

“It happens when you win a game and winning gets people excited and strengthens belief and confidence,” Cignetti explained. “And you win another and begin to create that momentum.”

Cignetti emphasized to do that you have to win the close games. To do all of that you have to win on the recruiting trail and in the transfer portal. Cignetti likes what they were able to do in year one signing 17 high school kids and more importantly 31 from the transfer portal. That latter crop included quarterback Kurtis Rourke, coveted defensive lineman CJ West who chose the Hoosiers over Michigan and Wisconsin and cornerback D’Angelo Ponds and receiver Elijah Sarratt who followed Cignetti from James Madison. Talented players that got out of the portal and returned were highlighted by receiver Donaven McCulley (Michigan offered) and offensive lineman Carter Smith (visited Virginia Tech and Kentucky).

“We were in an emergency situation,” Cignetti said. “The scholarship count dipped down to about 40 at one point and I was still putting together a staff. We had three weeks to put it together and we brought in 22 transfers in three weeks and six high school mid-year guys. The JMU thing really helped but that was not by design. When I took this job I never even thought some guys would follow me. This portal has really progressed every year and that’s what you saw this year. When a coach left a lot of players left too. That has really helped us because they’re good players. Most of them if you had to rank our players one to 15 they’d be in the Top 15. And it helped in terms of the culture, facilitating what we’re trying to get done with the culture. But the other transfers too, they were all two, three-year starters with production in the past.”

With over 30 seniors this season, look for Indiana to take another portal haul after this season until the numbers get right in the younger classes.

Cignetti plans on winning right out of the gate and maintaining that standard moving forward.

“To me the recipe is the same no matter where you’re at,” he said. “It’s all about recruiting and development and now retention. And you have to recruit guys that are cultural fits that match up with your beliefs. Obviously you have to have talent to play the game to be successful but character, habits, toughness and being a team guy are important.”

Indiana has 21 commits to date in the 2025 class headlined by On300 safety Byron Baldwin. The big fish out there moving forward is On3 Industry five-star quarterback Julian Lewis. A USC commit, Lewis has kept the Hoosiers warm and has already visited twice this calendar year. In the past he’s talked about returning for the game against Maryland if his final decision isn’t locked in.

Cignetti can’t publicly comment on a prospect until they’ve signed a letter-of-intent, but it’s obvious he has a lot to sell to a quarterback on the trail.

“Our last four have been Player of the Year in the league but they’re all different,” Cignetti said. “We had a true pocket guy. We’ve had a true dual guy and we’ve had two that are in between. And they all had their critics. They were all one-year guys expect for the pocket guy who was a two-year guy. The last two were one-year transfers that didn’t have great success at their previous school. And we do a great job developing the quarterback I think.”

Co-offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach Tino Sunseri has been leading the charge in recruiting Lewis to Indiana. He’s known Lewis since having the Carrollton (Ga.) High blue-chipper in camp at Florida State when he was eight-years old.

“Tino does a great job and I have a quarterback background,” Cignetti continued regarding their track record with signal-callers. “All four of them Offensive Player of the Year in the league.

“Now we also lead the conference in scoring pretty much year in and year out. We’ve had two 1,000 yard receivers in two of the last three years. And we’ve run the ball well too. We usually lead the league in turnover ratio and fewest amount of penalties as well. But people aren’t really too concerned about that in recruiting.”

Cignetti was also quick to highlight what his teams do on the other side of the ball.

“Defensively we’re in the top five normally every year in defense against the run, tackles for loss and sacks.”

Similar to Saban, Cignetti is very involved in studying the film of recruiting targets and green lighting who can join the fold.

“I’m a tape guy,” Cignetti said. “Football Xs and Os or recruiting evaluation. Position coaches and coordinators we watch guys together as a staff once the list whittles down a bit. We watch guys two, three, four times.”

Cignetti added “I like putting the pieces together” from a roster construction standpoint. In Bloomington he feels they’re off and running.