From having a straight face up 56-7 to never taking an aerial look at his program, everybody has the same question about Indiana Hoosiers head coach Curt Cignetti: Does this man hate football?
Kidding — sort of — aside, the Hoosiers’ head coach provided context on how he’s wired in the wake of Percy Agyei-Obese, who played under Cignetti when he was the head coach at James Madison, recently publishing an article in The Athletic about how his former head coach is “never happy” and it’s “a good thing.”
“There’s a lot of times I am happy. I just don’t show I’m happy,” Cignetti said in a joint press conference with Oregon coach Dan Lanning on Thursday at the College Football Hall of Fame ahead of their two team’s Friday night College Football Playoff semifinal round matchup against each other. “If I’m going to ask my players to play the first game, first play to play [No.] 150 the same, regardless of competitive circumstances, then I can’t be seen on the sideline high-fiving people and celebrating, or what’s going to happen, right? What’s the effect going to be?
“So that’s why I am like I am during game. … I do smile, and I am happy, at times.”
The undefeated and Big Ten-champion Hoosiers are a combined 25-2 under Cignetti since 2024, making the College Football Playoff in each of his two seasons at the helm. Last round, Cignetti’s No. 1-seeded Hoosiers defeated the No. 9-seeded Alabama Crimson Tide in the Rose Bowl, 38-3, the first team to do so after receiving a bye.
Prior to taking over at Indiana, Cignetti posted a combined 52-9 record as the head coach at James Madison from 2019-23. He was previously the head coach at Elon from 2017-18 and IUP from 2011-16. Directly before his first head-coaching stint, Cignetti was the wide receivers coach and recruiting coordinator at Alabama from 2007-11.
Moreover, each of the four head coaches in the College Football Playoff semifinal round were once assistant coaches at Alabama under head coach Nick Saban (Cignetti, Lanning, Miami’s Mario Cristobal and Ole Miss’ Pete Golding).
“I’ll smile and celebrate later in the coaches room with the coaches, you know, maybe have a beer,” Cignetti said about how he celebrates.
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