-
jake trotter
while sitting inside Kurt Cignetti’s office, Ethan Cooper, was not convinced that Indiana University of Pennsylvania was a good fit. Then the aggressive guard recruit saw Cignetti alabama National Championship Ring.
“He took it off and let me hold it,” Cooper recalled. “That sealed the deal for me.”
Long before Cignetti’s leadership Indiana En route to his first perfect regular season and a No. 1 seed in the College Football Playoff, he built a winning streak in his first head-coaching job: a blueprint for success at Division II IUP.
Before getting the opportunity to run his own program, Cignetti spent nearly three decades as an assistant, including four seasons (2007–10) under Nick Saban at Alabama.
At age 49, he went to IUP, where his father, College Football Hall of Famer Frank Cignetti Sr., had built the team into a Division II power during his 20-year tenure (1986–2005). Cignetti didn’t just inherit the program; He rebuilt it in his own way, applying the standards he had learned in Tuscaloosa and elsewhere.
Former IUP captain and All-America offensive tackle Byron Dowells said, “I remember thinking either this guy is crazy and this won’t work, or this will work really well.” “He was tough on us. But we won fast. From then on, I was thinking, whatever this guy says, I’m in.”
On New Year’s Day, the Hoosiers began their playoff run in the Rose Bowl Game presented by Prudential against Alabama (4 p.m. ET, ESPNNearly a decade after leaving IUP, Cignetti is in position to win his first national title as a head coach.
His former IUP players say they saw it coming.
“He had this confidence,” wide receiver Walt Peguse said. “You could still tell he was confident in his process – and what he was creating.”
then-iup athletic When the Crimson Hawks’ football job opened up after the 2010 season, director Frank Condino did not expect to hear from Cignetti.
Condino said, “Kurt was ready to be a head coach. He had burnished his skills and worked really hard.” “I’m not sure why he couldn’t break out at the Division I level. But for us, recruiting someone of his caliber was no easy task, especially with all the family ties at IUP.”
IUP had not won the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference since 2006, the year after Frank Cignetti Sr.’s retirement, and had won only four conference games the previous two seasons.
Shortly after Cignetti took over, Dowells and a dozen or so other players received an email asking them to meet at the ROTC building on Tuesday night.
“The team minister said, ‘Cignetti wants me to get you guys into this ROTC leadership course,'” recalled Dowells, who was a second-year student at the time. “‘Don’t tell anyone about it. You can accept or reject. But the team captains will be selected through this program.'”
That winter, in addition to morning football workouts, selected players – who would also form Cignetti’s leadership council – carried logs, crawled like bears with teammates on their backs, competed in paintball, waded into the pool to save drowning dummies and raced across campus with prop guns.
That ROTC tradition continued during Cignetti’s tenure at IUP. Cignetti chose the players after having his coaching staff rank everyone on the roster from first to last.
“It’s the most physically demanding thing I’ve ever done in my life,” Pegues said. “It was a beast. But it made us tougher and really built leaders within the team.”
That was only a part of it. The entire team had to be in the fieldhouse with their toes up by 5 a.m. three times a week. In the first conditioning workout, players noticed lines of trash cans everywhere. Cignetti told him he could throw them if necessary. But if they miss a sprint or rep, they have to return the next morning and do the entire workout again.
“Our initial security was gone after one day,” Dowells said. “He shook everybody’s hand and walked away saying, ‘I don’t like football that much.’ I think 12 of our kids left our 5 a.m. workout before they even finished winter conditioning.”
By the spring, players realized that Cignetti not only knew how hard to push, but also knew when to relax.
He spent the entire first spring practice explaining each exercise so he wouldn’t waste time afterward. Cignetti also cut spring practices in half from last season to a little over an hour.
Whoever made the second mistake was immediately replaced for that day. He ensured that the offense was given three snaps every minute by using a timer during team periods.
“Everything was very efficient,” Dowells said. “Always on a schedule.”
Two-thirds of the way through spring ball, the players were getting ready for another practice when Cignetti walked in with a surprising announcement.
“The guys are getting treated. I’ve got my ankles taped up. I’ve got my hands taped up. Everything’s ready,” Dowells said. “He says, ‘Guys, we had a great spring ball.’ And we’re all looking around, ‘What are you talking about?'”
Cignetti canceled the final five spring practices and told them to focus on their grades and be prepared to go again in the fall.
Crimson Hawks Cignetti went 7–3 in his first season in 2011. A year later, they won the PSAC and reached the Division II playoff quarterfinals.
Cignetti was never big on long pregame speeches. He was comfortable allowing awkward silences to do the trick.
Before the 2014 opener, Cignetti walked into the living room and began pacing back and forth.
“We’re just waiting for him to say something,” cornerback Allen Wright recalled. “Finally, he says, ‘Who here knows Cassius Clay?’ And we’re all looking at each other like, ‘Where are you going with this?’ Then he says, ‘Fly like a butterfly, sting like a bee. That’s what I want you guys to do today. Let’s go.’ We were waiting for a big speech. But that’s all they had for us.”
The Crimson Hawks defeated St. Augustine by three touchdowns, their fourth consecutive win early in the season under Cignetti.
“Sometimes he’d say something after practice or before the game, then he’d leave,” IUP quarterback Lenny Williams said. “He had some epic walk-offs.”
Cignetti’s pursuit of efficiency extended to watching movies, where he would always jot down notes on a yellow pad rather than a laptop or tablet. When players came to his office to watch film, Cignetti would correct them before they even sat down.
“And it was the tiniest details, like the angle of the step or the placement of your outside hand,” Dowells said. “His dad was the same way. I got a chance to sit with his dad and watch film a lot and he was very efficient and could coach every situation at once. I see where the coaches got that from.”
Earning Cignati’s praise was also not easy. A wink and a smile was the best any player could hope for. After four freshman years, Dovells was finally named to an All-America banquet after his senior year – making it all the more meaningful.
“He said, ‘Byron, I don’t meet a lot of people like you, but there’s something very special about you,'” Dowells said. “And he was like, ‘Wherever you go, make sure you keep it.’
“That thing sticks with me to this day.”
Via Cignetti’s First During two seasons at IUP, he frequently cited his tenure at Alabama. How they won a national championship and recruited future NFL stars like wide receiver Julio Jones. Former IUP receiver JoJo Gause said that Cignetti also had a signed photo of Jones in his office.
The day before the 2012 PSAC Championship Game against rival Shippensburg, Cignetti began saying, “When I was at Alabama…” when one of the players boldly interjected.
“Yo, Coach Cignetti,” the player said. “No disrespect, but you’re not in Alabama anymore, man. This is Indiana.”
Everyone laughed and celebrated. Cignetti rarely smiled or joked in front of the team. At that time, he let out a big smile.
“He could see that we had confidence in him. We were all bought in,” Dowells said. “You don’t have to go back to the things you did at Alabama. What you’re doing now is working. We have confidence in you. We have confidence in you. This was really the start of a great run for him.”
The next day, the Crimson Hawks defeated Shippensburg 41–10, earning a double-digit win for the first time since Cignetti’s father became coach.
After another 10 win season in 2016, Cignetti left IUP to become the head coach at Elon and then James Madison, ultimately leading him on a path that landed him at Indiana in November 2023. This season, he became the first man to win back-to-back AP Coach of the Year awards. Only Brian Kelly, Gary Patterson and Saban have won the award twice since its inception in 1998.
“I’m not surprised at all by their success,” Dowells said. “I saw it from day one – and he’s been the same coach ever since.”
