How to Spot the Next Cignetti or Die Trying

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Every athletic director and search firm in college sports would love to find their own version of Indiana coach Curt Cignetti. Great idea, but easier in theory than in practice. Cignetti once said to Google him, so we did, taking a deep dive into all of the stops in a 40-year coaching career and trying to identify what about Cignetti is identifiable in real time, what isn’t, and what from his Indiana success other schools could reasonably hope to replicate. In this episode:

* 13:22: Early signs of a resourceful coach while he’s leading the QBs for an 0-11 Rice program in the 1980s

* 20:08: A move to NC State, where he worked with two future Hall of Fame QBs and seemed to internalize some lessons about managing stress

* 26:20: Taking part in the Nick Saban Alabama dynasty

* 32:00: Making a legit shocking move to Division II IUP, which turned out to provide ideal training for Cignetti’s future job at another Indiana

* 45:00: A pivot to James Madison, where he didn't turn around a struggling program but continued a nice run, lost the FCS national championship to North Dakota State, then executed the smoothest FCS-to-FBS transition ever

* 58:15: Indiana, where Cignetti was brilliant and also got very lucky

Can you find your own Cignetti? If it’s possible, this episode should help you.

Producer: Anthony Vito