Indiana Hoosiers football coach Curt Cignetti is the dream result for any Power 4 program down on its luck. The UCLA Bruins, fresh off a 56-6 blowout loss to IU in Bloomington, are a team whose beat writers hope learned from Cignetti firsthand.
BruinReportOnline’s David Woods warned Martin Jarmond and Co. That the loss should be a lesson. UCLA had been considering hiring interim head coach Tim Skipper as the full-time head coach, but may reconsider following the loss.
“The story of Indiana football the last two years should be instructive for any UCLA decision makers. Two seasons ago, Indiana was a bad football team, as Indiana had been basically every season in history before last year. The athletic department then pulled off a coaching search where it went into the G5 ranks to pluck a 62-year old who had spent his head coaching years at a Division II school, an FCS school, and then an FCS school that became an FBS school just two years before he departed. Notably, Indiana didn't promote from within from a failed staff and didn't try to go get the hottest coaching name on the market,” Woods wrote.
Cignetti was an overnight sensation in Indiana last season, lifting the Hoosiers to an 11-1 record and a College Football Playoff appearance. In 2025, his team has yet to lose a game, and his program is regarded as one of, if not the best, in the country.
That got him an eight-year, $93 million contract extension this month. He’s rewarded his employer with a 38-13 win over the Michigan State Spartans and Saturday’s destruction of the Bruins at The Rock.
It’s a bit premature to say that other programs should emulate IU’s strategy of fully guaranteeing his contract in his buyout. That could come back to bite the Hoosiers later on if the marriage peaks without a title, or crashes out embarrassingly after winning one.
Still, Scott Dolson did well to keep Cignetti away from the Penn State Nittany Lions or any other interested poach threats.
So well that the teams Indiana beats want to be like the Hoosiers.