Every big-time school with a football opening is going to be interested in Curt Cignetti.
Indiana made the best coaching hire this decade when it plucked a 62-year-old out of James Madison. The son of a coach, Cignetti took the long, hard path to coaching stardom. To casual fans, he might seem like an overnight sensation, but he grinded his way up the ladder to now leading the No. 3 team in the country. He’s the best story in college football.
Predictably, his name has already been prominently mentioned with the Penn State opening. If other big jobs like Florida, Auburn and Wisconsin open up, he’ll get mentioned for those, too.
It seems to be as much about Cignetti’s ability as the notion that, of course, a football blue blood would be able to coach steal from Indiana. That outdated thinking would be ignoring what Indiana has done to give Cignetti the necessary resources to maintain a sustainable winner.
What Cignetti decides to do with the attractive options that will come in spades at the end of the season is up to him, but Indiana has smartly done everything it could in less than two years to show he doesn’t have to leave to win big.
Let’s start with the fact Cignetti already makes $8.3 million annually before bonuses, will receive a $1 million retention bonus in November and will surely get another raise in the coming months. This after the school already doubled his salary in less than a year on the job. Indiana is committed to making sure Cignetti is very, very well compensated to be its football coach.
It doesn’t stop at just the head coach level, either.
Indiana stepped up to keep defensive coordinator Bryant Haines and strength and conditioning coach Derek Owings, fending off top Big Ten programs to hold on to both. In…
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