Curt Cignetti came to Indiana guns blazing.
He had the famous “I win, Google me,” statement. He yelled into a mic that Purdue sucked. He took the college football world by storm before ever coaching a game in Bloomington and had people believing in the always-struggling Hoosiers.
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Many were suspicious. No more. Especially the Indiana commits in this recruiting class who are watching Indiana not only win some games and slowly turn the corner. The Hoosiers are undefeated, ranked No. 13 nationally and they’ve beaten every opponent by double digits.
It’s the story of the year in college football.
“The biggest factor is that he knows what he wants and he is doing it,” said three-star defensive end commit Triston Abram as Michigan is working on flipping hiim.
“He coached with coach (Nick) Saban at Alabama. Coach Saban worked under his father, coach Frank Cignetti. Sr. It comes full circle and when you talk about great, that circle right there it doesn’t get much better than that.”
Cignetti’s proof is in the winning.
The 63-year-old went 53-17 at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, 14-9 at Elon, 52-9 at James Madison and now most impressively has won eight-straight to start in Bloomington. He’s never had a losing season as a head coach.
Many of the Indiana commits are fully aware of Cignetti’s history. Even more important, they’re seeing what he’s doing in Bloomington this season – not only winning but winning convincingly – and they’re all onboard.
“I believe it so much,” three-star defensive end Keishaun Calhoun said. “I can say I knew it would happen from Day 1. Coach Cig promised us this turnaround. He won’t let up anytime soon.”
Three-star receiver commit Davion Chandler said: “Coach Cig’s confidence in his system to turn a program around has taken the program so far in one year. It’s not surprising at all to me that they’re doing what they’re because this is what coach Cig told me was going to happen during the recruiting process and he didn’t have a doubt.”
The Hoosiers are more than a touchdown favorite at Michigan State this weekend. Indiana lost to the Spartans last year by three en route to a 3-9 season.
Much of Indiana’s success this season has come from the transfer portal as Cignetti brought with him a ton of James Madison talent and others followed him from different schools.
But the prospects in the 2025 class are thrilled for the future – something that hasn’t been said about Indiana football in a long, long time. Maybe ever.
“It’s phenomenal,” three-star defensive tackle Kyler Garcia said. “I knew that turning around a program is a challenge but I never knew he’d do it so quickly. I’ve definitely believed in them since June but this right here sometimes is just shocking that they’ve done what I saw in them so quickly.”
Columbia (Tenn.) Columbia Central three-star defensive tackle Jhrevious Hall put it even more succinctly.
“He’s just real,” Hall said. “He wins.”
You no longer need to Google Cignetti to find that out.
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