STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
The first thing I want to tell you is it's Indiana University, not the University of Indiana. Now that we've settled that, the biggest star in IU's run to tonight's college football national championship game is not a player, but the 64-year-old head coach, Curt Cignetti. He's on the brink of college football's most dramatic turnaround. Here's NPR's Becky Sullivan.
BECKY SULLIVAN, BYLINE: No matter what happens in an Indiana football game - a score, a big gain, turnover penalty...
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED COMMENTATOR: One-ninety-two. Three touchdowns.
UNIDENTIFIED REFEREE: False start, offense - No. 62.
SULLIVAN: ...Look to the sidelines, and I'm sure you'll see Curt Cignetti frowning, his brow furrowed, his eyebrow arched, glaring out over the top of his glasses. Even the ESPN announcers know it's coming.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED COMMENTATOR: I'm guessing Curt Cignetti will give us the face.
SULLIVAN: Cignetti has rapidly become one of the biggest names in college football not because of his stern looks, but in just two seasons, he has accomplished something nobody else has been able to do in more than a century - transform the Indiana Hoosiers from doormat to powerhouse. When Cignetti arrived in Bloomington at the end of 2023, no Division I team had lost more games in the history of college football, yet he was already brimming with confidence.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
CURT CIGNETTI: Yeah, it's pretty simple. I win. Google me.
SULLIVAN: It was an incredibly bold thing to say. The Hoosiers had lost three times as many games as they had won over the previous few years. But Cignetti had a vision.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
CIGNETTI: Nothing gets people excited like winning. You string together a couple of wins, all of a sudden, you're on national TV every week. You can't get in that stadium, all right? You become the talk of the country.
SULLIVAN: Of course, all of that came true faster than even the most optimistic Indiana fan could have ever dreamed. Last season, Cignetti took the Hoosiers to an 11-1 record in the school's first-ever playoff berth. This year, Indiana is undefeated with two dominant playoff wins. Now they're the favorite in tonight's championship game against Miami.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
CIGNETTI: We've broken a lot of records here in terms of wins, championships, postseason games, top 10 wins on the road, etc., top 10 wins, period. So, you know, it's been kind of surreal.
SULLIVAN: Cignetti walked a long and unglamorous path to reach this point. He spent decades as a position coach and a recruiting coordinator, including at Alabama under the legendary coach Nick Saban. Then, as he was about to turn 50, Cignetti got tired of being an assistant. So as he likes to say, he bet on himself. He left 'Bama to become the head coach at a DII school, where he turned things around, got another job, did it again. Then at James Madison, he steered the Dukes through a successful transition from the lower tier of DI to the top. Senior linebacker Aiden Fisher followed Cignetti from JMU to Indiana.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
AIDEN FISHER: You know, everything about, like, just the way he makes his football program makes you a better person, too.
SULLIVAN: Cignetti preaches a commitment to excellence. Complacency, he tells his players, is the enemy. After four years of playing for Coach Cig, Fisher says that attitude has seeped into every part of his life.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
FISHER: I was on the phone with my mom about two days ago, and I don't even remember what we were talking about. And I was like, yeah, I just hope, like, somebody just doesn't get complacent. And I was like, wow, like, I've been with Cig for way too long. And she was like, yeah, I said the same thing the other day. Like, she was using the word complacent.
SULLIVAN: With all that intensity, it didn't surprise too many when a former player said this month that Cignetti is, quote, "never happy." Last week, Cignetti pushed back.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
CIGNETTI: No, that's not right.
SULLIVAN: He can't be seen giving out high-fives on the sidelines when there's more left to accomplish, he said. Although he admitted he does like to have a beer in the coach's room after a win.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
CIGNETTI: I mean, there's a lot of times I am happy. I just don't show I'm happy.
SULLIVAN: A victory in tonight's game would give the Hoosiers their first-ever national title. For Cignetti, that would certainly be worth cracking a beer and maybe a smile, too.
Becky Sullivan, NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
