After leading Indiana football to new heights and an 11-1 record last season, Curt Cignetti has firmly placed himself among the top coaches in college football. And heading into 2025, he’s starting to earn that recognition on a national scale.
The first-year Hoosiers coach led Indiana to its first-ever College Football Playoff appearance, and now he’s one of 26 coaches named to the preseason watch list for the 2025 Dodd Trophy — an award that honors coaching excellence both on and off the field.
The Dodd Trophy isn’t just about what happens on Saturdays.
It also looks at how programs perform in the classroom, their graduation rates, community involvement, and what kind of season they’re expected to have.
There’s plenty of Big Ten presence on the list, with coaches like Illinois’ Bret Bielema, Ohio State’s Ryan Day, Penn State’s James Franklin, and Oregon’s Dan Lanning getting recognized. Alabama’s Kalen DeBoer, who once worked under Cignetti as an offensive coordinator, is also included.
That kind of recognition reflects just how far the Hoosiers have come in a short time under Cignetti. Indiana went from an afterthought in the Big Ten to a legitimate playoff contender — and that shift didn’t go unnoticed.
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Cignetti’s inclusion isn’t a surprise.
Wherever he’s coached, success has followed. Between his time at James Madison and now Indiana, he holds a 30-6 overall record and has finished every season nationally ranked.
In just two years at James Madison, he posted a 19-4 record and climbed as high as No. 18 in the AP rankings. He’s now 30-6 as a head coach and has finished every season ranked — including last year, when Indiana rose all the way to No. 5.
Cignetti’s rise has been anything but accidental — he’s built a reputation on results, not hype. Now on the national radar, he’s proving that Indiana’s breakthrough was just the beginning.