Curt Cignetti has no interest in fixing what isn’t broken. That is the message coming out of Indiana as the defending national champions get ready for another season. The Hoosiers are ranked No. 6, and despite losing major pieces from last year’s 16-0 team, the 65-year-old head coach says the answer is not some grand new plan. It is the same one that got them here.
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ESPN’s Kirk Herbstreit recently asked Curt Cignetti what keeps producing wins even when QBs and other stars leave. His answer shows the winning formula lies within the program as a whole, not just individual players.
“We have a blueprint, a plan, and a process,” he said. “We’re focused on improvement every day and trying to find the edge and high standards, how you do some things, how you do everything, and just stringing meetings and practices and days together.”
For Curt Cignetti, it starts with the boring stuff that coaches talk about all the time but rarely manage to sustain. He wants his team to be “fast, physical, relentless, smart” and ready to play one snap at a time. Keep standards high and stay disciplined; do not get carried away by success, and do not panic after failure.
“We’ve been a fairly disciplined team and offense, defense, kicking game,” he said. “They all feed off each other and that’s what we’re looking for again.”
That approach has already changed Indiana football. In 2024, Curt Cignetti took the Hoosiers to their first double-digit win season and their first playoff appearance. Then nobody could have imagined what they did last year. The once-overlooked team won all 16 games and captured the national championship. Now the challenge is much different. Can they do it again?
Curt Cignetti is attacking that question the same way he attacks everything else. His practices are short, intense, and built around movement. Players do not spend much time standing around. One drill ends and they are already moving to the next. A full practice, including stretching and the walkthrough, can take about 90 minutes.
There are similar messages sitting on Curt Cignetti’s desk. One notecard reads, “SOFTNESS WILL NOT BE TOLERATED HERE!” The other two read, “FIND THE EDGE—DAILY/HOURLY” and “COMMIT ALL AROUND.”
It is hard to miss the theme. Indiana is not changing the standard just because it won a championship. And now, Cignetti has received an unexpected boost from two familiar faces. Pete Thamel reported that an Indiana circuit court issued a temporary restraining order allowing Indiana defensive linemen Stephen Daley and Kellan Wyatt to compete during the 2026-27 season while the legal fight continues. A hearing is scheduled for Sept. 11.
Daley was a force for Indiana last season, piling up 19 tackles for loss, 5.5 sacks and 35 tackles. A knee injury kept him out of the CFP. Wyatt was having his own solid year before a knee injury shut him down. He finished with 28 tackles, eight tackles for loss and 2.5 sacks in seven starts.
Their injuries hurt their NFL chances. Now they get another shot with Indiana. The Hoosiers start their title defense against North Texas on Saturday, with Daley and Wyatt back in the picture. For Curt Cignetti, though, the message stays the same. No easing up. No big changes. Just get back to work.