Curt Cignetti is preparing to lead his No. 1-seeded Indiana team into the national championship game against No. 10 Miami on January 19 at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida. The Hoosiers have been the most dominant program this season, boasting an undefeated 15-0 record.
A win would give Cignetti’s squad a perfect 16-0 finish this season and potentially secure one of the most unlikely national titles in college football history.
Analyst Believes Steelers Should Check in on Curt Cignetti After Historic Indiana Run
Pittsburgh is searching for a new NFL head coach after longtime leader Mike Tomlin announced on Tuesday that he is stepping away from the Steelers following 19 seasons. He informed the organization during a team meeting, and the most remarkable part of his exit is that the franchise has employed only three head coaches over the past 56 years.
With the Steelers now preparing to hire just their fourth head coach since 1969, PFSN’s analyst James Fragoza floated Cignetti as a potential candidate.
“Google him. Curt Cignetti has won at every level he has coached, and if the Steelers really want to return the franchise back into a perennial playoff contender, they’d be wise to gauge Cignetti’s interest in an NFL head coaching gig.”
Cignetti is a two-time AP Coach of the Year (2024, 2025) at Indiana. The Pittsburgh native played college football at West Virginia. In just his second season, he delivered the PFSN College Football Offense Metric’s No. 1 team, Indiana, its first Big Ten title since 1967, and took the Hoosiers to their first national championship game in school history.
Given that Cignetti transformed what was long considered the losingest program in college football, ESPN analyst Marcus Spears also mentioned him as a possible fit to succeed Tomlin in Pittsburgh.
“I think that his personality would fit with Pittsburgh,” Spears said on “NFL Live” on Tuesday.
“I’m not sure how all of that business part goes, but I watched this dude do with a university that was not even thought of, of ever potentially ever winning a national championship in this landscape of college football, and the rapport that he has as a head coach with his team, would make him a very enticing hire, especially with a team that loves stability.”
Cignetti’s teams have never posted a losing season, as he went 53-17 in six years at IUP before spending two seasons at Elon. James Madison hired him in 2019, where he won an FCS national championship in his first year and went 19-4 over two seasons before taking the Indiana job.
Cignetti agreed to an eight-year contract extension with Indiana in October, which is worth an average of $11.6 million per year. If he leaves for another coaching position before November 30, 2026, he will owe the Hoosiers a $15 million buyout. This figure will decrease annually over the life of the contract, which runs through November 30, 2033.
