Curt Cignetti has always bet on himself

The 62-year-old coach has won big everywhere, making unconventional career choices along the way. For his next act, he'll look to fix Indiana football.

Courtesy of IU athletics.

Like a lot of new coaches, Curt Cignetti talks a big game.

“I’m 62 years old, so there's some old school in me,” Cignetti told The Inside Zone. “My dad was a coach, I learned a lot from Nick (Saban). I don't buy that ‘You’ve got to treat them great, pat them on the ass,’ all that s—, you know what I mean?

“You’ve got to have NIL money. You’ve got to, or you're not going to compete. Period. But when guys are making big bucks, then they’ve got a responsibility, too. It’s the same thing (Dan) Hurley said about Connecticut, right? There's a responsibility that comes with that. Because let's face it: You get to a certain point In NIL where these guys really are employees more than student-athletes, you know what I mean?”

Unlike a lot of new coaches, Cignetti has been there, done that.

“I think you’ve gotta have a blueprint and a plan and work it every day in how you do things,” he said. “How you do something is how you do everything. It’s the way you train in the weight room and the way we practice. My messaging to the team, the staff’s messaging, the whole organization being on the same page, organizational focus in how we do things and what the expectations are.

“So I've done this a few times before. This is the fourth one.”

The resume is deep enough, and the words bold enough, that you need to remind yourself that this is the new coach at Indiana.

Yes, the same Hoosiers program that has gone 9-27 the past three seasons, and 3-24 in Big Ten play.

The same outfit that has had one coach leave on his own accord in the last 50 years — and that was Sam Wyche after one 3-8 season.

The same place that has not had a coach finish his tenure in Bloomington with a winning record since 1947.

Yeah, that place.

So why did Cignetti, who has won 77 percent of his games across 13 seasons as a head coach, decide that this was where he wanted to take on his next challenge?