FOOTBALL

Curt Cignetti Makes National Title Game In Year 2

Curt Cignetti is in the national-title game in Year 2.

For those who think this is simply because Cignetti brought some James Madison players with him to Indiana, consider this:

He went 53-17 at Indiana University in Pennsylvania; he went 14-9 at Elon; he went 52-9 at James Madison.

He’s not doing something unusual for himself at Indiana. He’s just doing what he has always done on a bigger stage.

And he hosts USC next season. Sorry, Lincoln!

  • Cignetti and Norm Chow were on the same staff at North Carolina State in 2000, the year before Chow came to USC

15 thoughts on “Curt Cignetti Makes National Title Game In Year 2”

  1. You mean he was able to coach around your hero the unstoppable Bear Alexander? As well coached as the old Bear is now, you would think the Ducks would have held IU to 22 points…

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    1. Let’s put the duck effort in perspective — they scored more points against Indiana tonight than they did in the regular season…

      #OnTheNegativeSide:TheyGaveUp3MoreTouchdowns….

      #[–SorryQuacky]

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  4. Superior coaching can result in a team with slightly inferior talent consistently beating more talented teams. Generally, the games are close and it comes down to the less talented team making fewer mistakes. But Indiana is dominating teams with superior talent. I don’t think I have ever seen this before. Can’t fully explain it.

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  6. When is Scott going to face today’s college football reality. He idolizes the past, but I seem to remember that he was hypercritical of Pete Carroll who he seems to have forgotten that he called Caesar because Pete avoided him like the plague. Even national championships couldn’t make Scott happy. Those were great years, but now there is a transfer portal and player contracts. The playoffs are showing us that even the best teams can have flawed coaching except for Indiana. Cignetti is the Saban or Carroll of this era, and it couldn’t happen to a better person. Every current coach including Riley should be watching the tapes of Cignetti’s games over and over to copy his schemes especially his defense. Never saw one three man rush when he had a big lead, and on obvious running plays he had eight men on the line of scrimmage. He mixed up his pass defenses, but always had at least four or five rushers who contained and knew how to get off blocks. That was outstanding coaching that made a good not great Oregon team look less than ordinary. Congratulations to all of the Hoosiers, they deserve to win it all on January 19 which they will probably do with another blowout. And thanks to Indiana we don’t have to listen to ESPN raving about how great a conference the SEC is. Fight on Hoosiers, Dan, USC class of 1962.

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    1. KAM: Hypercritical? Pete’s excesses are now on full display with his rampant nepotism short-circuiting his coaching stint with the Raiders.

      DON: His petty jealousy of Norm Chow and replacing him with hsu basketball buddies Drunk Sark and Kiffin after the Orange Bowl victory over Oklahoma led to the decline of the dynasty.

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  8. As I recall, USC had one of the greatest offenses in college football history in 2005 with Sarkisian and Kiffin. Pete blamed himself for the fourth down play in the Texas game that kept USC from a third straight national championship. Pete was not perfect, but he was a great head coach. Scott always portrays himself as the smartest person in the room when it comes to USC. Unlike Scott, it is possible to be critical while being respectful at the same time.

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    1. KAM: As I recall, a chimp could have been OC that year and gone undefeated with all the firepower that offense had with Leinart, Bush and White and company.

      DON: Yet on 4th and 2 Pete’s basketball buddies blew it!

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