In order to appreciate sport from a fan’s perspective, it’s imperative to understand the full scope of how impactful the coaches are. Especially in collegiate sport, where raw and malleable players are moulded. Prodigies and potential cultivated into productivity. Not merely the coaches you see trudging along the sidelines on Saturdays, barking instructions and calling intricate plays. There are coaches in the shadows whose imprint is just as crucial, but maybe not as cherished. USC’s Lincoln Riley tried adding one such coach to his staff, but his current employers, Indiana and Curt Cignetti, have put their foot down to thwart their B1G contemporaries. 

You don’t need to be privy to the Xs and Os to be a strength and conditioning coach. Instinctively, and maybe a little naively, you may think of these coaches as glorified personal trainers. Brutes who run bog-standard drills and exercises across the team. Replaceable, even. You’d be thoroughly mistaken. These are professionals with extensive, in-depth knowledge of how to go about things. What epitomizes their role is the fact that they’re tasked with physically preparing young adults who seek to play and thrive in a game that exacts a bigger physical toll than any other. Every regime for every player is carefully crafted to suit them. Since biology isn’t linear or transferable across humans. Coach Cignetti’s Indiana boasts one of the top S&A coaches in the country. Courtesy of Coach Riley’s interest, he’s now going to get paid like that, too!

IU’s Director of Athletic Performance Derek Owings found himself garnering eyeballs all the way from the Pacific Coast. Owings has been on Curt Cignetti’s staff for 5 years now, entering his 6th. Since coming over to Bloomington from James Madison last year, the duo has instantaneously changed the fortunes of the program. Leading this perennial afterthought amidst the stacked Big 10 to the CFP. Head coach Cignetti has naturally gained plaudits in the mainstream. But Owings’ contributions certainly didn’t go unnoticed among his peers in the coaching realm. There’s been publicized interest from USC to bring him over. In some ways akin to how they just poached Notre Dame GM Chad Bowden earlier in the offseason. So to fend off their fellow conference members and, at the same time, reciprocate the value he brings, IU has given Derek Owings a huge pay rise.

Over on X, CBS Sports’ Matt Zenitz reports, “Indiana’s new deal for Derek Owings is set to be in excess of $900,000 per year and will make him one of the nation’s five highest-paid strength and conditioning coaches, a source tells @CBSSports. They’d made it a big priority to keep Owings, who had been a target for USC.” His work and eminence reverberating over to the West Coast sure worked out well for Owings. Zenitz also contextualized how much of a rise in income this really is. “Owings, who’s viewed as a big-time rising star in the strength and conditioning world, has been a key behind-the-scenes piece for Curt Cignetti at both Indiana and James Madison. Had been making $635,000. Now set for a significant jump with the new deal,” he added in the comments of the aforementioned X post.

Historically, the Indiana Hoosiers have played second fiddle to the ‘bigger’ programs in the Big 10. Forever the bridesmaids, never quite the bride. This was feared to become even more accentuated after the likes of USC and Oregon realigned over from the Pac-12. But Curt Cignetti has changed the course of Indiana’s trajectory. They’re no more a meandering ancillary making up the numbers. Their moving up the food chain, the hierarchy. Making the playoffs last season was a statement. And so is managing to keep hold of Derek Owings. It’s a power move that doesn’t merely give them his continued services. It doubles as a notification to the rest of the College Football paradigm: 2024 wasn’t just a flash in the pan; The Hoosiers are here to stay. But that said, the path to sustaining this success is proving treacherous for Coach Cignetti.

Curt Cignetti fires shots at schools exploiting the NCAA’s loose ends

College Football’s already fractured legislature and rules are in a state of flux right now. The dynamics around NIL are still evolving, throwing up curveballs a la Nico Iamaleava. But to fan the flames of this uncertainty, the advent of revenue sharing is around the corner. Pending the House Settlement, schools will now have extra ammunition from a financial standpoint to construct their rosters. But the Settlement hasn’t been passed yet. This has opened up a window where schools are spending unprecedented amounts of money preemptively. Curt Cignetti has called out these schools, who seem poised to leapfrog or lap Indiana by exploiting this uncertainty and pseudo-loophole.

Analyst Adam Breneman, on IG, relayed Curt Cignetti’s comments and delved into the complaint he raised. “Curt Cignetti is snitching on teams in college football,” said Breneman, in jest. “He’s calling out teams that have $40 million rosters,” he added. Last week, the Houston Chronicle reported that the Texas Longhorns plan to spend $40 million on their roster. Which is double the most expensive roster in the history of the sport, the ’24 Ohio State Buckeyes. Defending national champions. Curt Cignetti had said, “It’s kind of scary for everybody else that the six [schools] out there have unlimited NIL resources where everybody else is waiting on this rev share.” Breneman leveraged some very fascinating intel detailing exactly how things are shaking out on this front.

Curt Cignetti and IU are up against it anyway, even without other schools taking exploitative measures. It’ll be fascinating to see how they follow on their Cinderella run to the playoffs. In many ways, the Hoosiers go from the hunters to the hunted. Alas, they sure are making the right moves to ensure last year wasn’t a one-off. Locking down Derek Owings for the long haul is a testament to what Coach Cignetti’s built, and what he’s building.