Nobody saw this massive turnaround coming in Bloomington. One year after stumbling through a 3-9 mess in 2023, Indiana now stands on the verge of being national champions with a stunning 56-22 semifinal win against Oregon. All, thanks to Curt Cignetti, who didn’t just change Indiana’s record but the entire narrative against him. That even forced Michigan boosters to take back that old “clown” label.

“What Curt Cignetti has done at Indiana is without a shadow of a doubt one of the most impressive things I’ve seen in the history of sports,” Michigan Booster Dave Portnoy said on X. “Indiana was one of the worst football programs in the history of college football. I thought Cig was a clown during that initial presser when he said “google me”.

Instead, it only took him 2 years to turn Indiana into a dominant national power. Sure, NIL helps, but still, this is insane. It seemed beyond impossible to ever do it, but to do it this fast? I still can’t believe it. The Big 10 now goes through Ann Arbor and Bloomington. Who would have ever dreamed it?”

When Curt Cignetti took the reins at Indiana Hoosiers, he made one thing pretty clear, and that was that he is not here to lose. His “Google me, I win” comment didn’t sit well with many people, including Portnoy. But his team’s performance backed up his confidence. In 13 seasons as a head coach before joining Indiana, he never posted a losing record, and after joining Indiana, he took them to back-to-back playoff berths. Not only that, but he also entered the finals this year and developed a Heisman-winning QB, Fernando Mendoza. So, Portnoy’s realization makes sense.

Indiana’s football no longer looks like a team looking for relevance, and Curt Cignetti made sure he didn’t just use his football tactics but also financial backing to turn the team’s fate. Back in 2024, they surpassed the Big Ten median in football spending for the first time in two decades with $61.6 million. And with Mark Cuban’s commitment to spend more on the 2026 roster, it looks like they are ready for another championship season.

But with that backing, spotting the right talent that fits the system well is what makes Curt Cignetti different. His guiding principle of looking at “production over potential” brought Indiana this far. From Fernando Mendoza to Kurtis Rourke, he brought talented players from the portal and developed them into stars. His approach of producing a veteran-heavy roster for immediate impact helped the Hoosiers reach the championship game.

Indiana’s rise is one of the dramatic turnarounds under Cignetti, which is hard to ignore. Before him, Indiana never had a 10-win season and owned just two No. 4 finishes, with the 9-0-1 team serving as its lone gold standard. But in just two seasons, Cignetti delivered their first double-digit-win season, and that’s a massive shift for a team that entered 2025 as the NCAA’s all-time losses leader.

BYU can be Indiana’s closest parallel. When LaVell Edwards transformed the Cougars from a dead team into national champions in 1984. Just like him, Cignetti also did the unexpected with Indiana. Now, after the win against Oregon, Curt Cignetti is enjoying the fruits of his hard work, as he made his celebration plans clear to ESPN’s Molly McGrath after the game.

A turnaround this dramatic inevitably catches the eye of the NFL, and Cignetti’s name is now being linked to head coaching vacancies.

Curt Cignetti’s success drew NFL interest

Curt Cignetti’s massive turnaround at Indiana is suddenly a hot topic in the NFL. After the Las Vegas Raiders fired their head coach, Pete Carroll, the search for a new coach is intensifying day by day. Cignetti’s name is topping the charts. What adds up to the hype even more is that the Raiders hold the No. 1 overall pick in the 2026 NFL draft, and with QB Fernando Mendoza in play, the idea of pairing those two makes the case even stronger.

The Las Vegas Raiders need a complete cultural reset, and Cignetti fits the bill perfectly. At Indiana, he builds a powerhouse from the ground up, going 25-2 overall and leading the Hoosiers to 15 straight wins as the No. 1-seeded team this season.

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But Indiana does hold leverage, as they signed Curt Cignetti through 2033 at $11.6 million annually. As the Rose Bowl triggered a clause that forces them to renegotiate the annual pay and make Cignetti a top-three nationally paid coach. So, if Indiana fails to do so, his $15 million buyout will become zero, and he can freely move to any other program.

Even though Curt Cignetti clearly ended all the speculation around his move to any other team or the NFL, saying he wants to retire as a Hoosier, the future holds uncertainty.