Curt Cignetti’s coaching career has been a blend of inputs and influences from several top coaches in college football. That includes former Alabama head coach Nick Saban, with whom he spent four years before taking his first head-coaching job. However, when discussing one of the biggest influences in his life, Cignetti mentioned his father, who set the pace for him early on.

“It’s hard for me to quantify that,” Cignetti admitted when talking about the lessons he picked up from his father on Adam Breneman’s YouTube channel. “Be more as a person; just be a stand-up guy, pretty direct, honest, good character and good work ethic, those kinds of things, disciplined.”

Curt Cignetti’s father, Frank Cignetti, died at 84 in 2022. He had a coaching career that lasted over forty years before his retirement in 2005, with a college football coaching record of 199-77-1. Notably, he had his longest stint at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, where he coached for 20 years, between 1986 and 2005. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2013.

But beyond being a great coach to his teams, he was also a great father who provided foundational lessons to his son. That helped Curt Cignetti achieve success at every coaching stop. Once during junior high, a discouraged Curt Cignetti was ready to quit his basketball team. But Frank talked to him about discipline and sacrifice. That moment motivated him to finish the season.

And when it was time, Cignetti not only followed his father’s footsteps as a college football coach, but his first head coaching role was with the very last team his father coached before his retirement. Despite a $200,000 pay cut, Cignetti had the confidence to leave Nick Saban and the Crimson Tide to join IUP. Looking back at that decision, the Indiana head coach knew he had to do it.

“I think the reasons I just mentioned, you know, my dad was a coach,” Cignetti said about his Alabama exit. “I knew in third grade I wanted to coach. I was around a lot of great people, and drew from a lot of people, on every staff I’d ever been a part of: head coaches and assistants. And always felt like I’d be a good head coach. But you got to have that opportunity too. And then, you’ve got to go out and prove it and do it. It was an unprecedented move, and I know that. It was a lifestyle change at the time, too.”

Afterward, Cignetti moved to Elon University, then JMU, before joining Indiana in 2024.

Curt Cignetti on the similarities between his teams and his father’s teams

In his six seasons at IUP, Curt Cignetti had a 53-17 record, four top-25 finishes, three appearances at the NCAA Division II playoffs, and transformed the team in a way his father would be proud of. He had similar successes at JMU before reaching the mountaintop with the Hoosiers. Even though Frank Cignetti coached two decades ago, the Indiana head coach can see his imprint in how the Hoosiers play.

“Oh yeah. Absolutely,” Cignetti said when asked if he runs a program like his father did. “There’s no doubt about it. Tough, physical, run the ball. We had a Heisman Trophy winner last year, but we’re still 60-40 run to pass. Now, in competitive situations, we were 50-50. Those stats are skewed because games get out of hand, and all I do is run the ball even though the play won’t score, and people think I run the ball. Probably, but I never really coached for my dad. And I only played for him one year, and I was a redshirt freshman.”