Each big-time faculty with a soccer opening goes to be fascinated with Curt Cignetti.
Indiana made the most effective teaching rent this decade when it plucked a 62-year-old out of James Madison. The son of a coach, Cignetti took the lengthy, arduous path to teaching stardom. To informal followers, he would possibly appear to be an in a single day sensation, however he grinded his approach up the ladder to now main the No. 3 staff within the nation. He is the most effective story in faculty soccer.
Predictably, his title has already been prominently talked about with the Penn State opening. If different huge jobs like Florida, Auburn and Wisconsin open up, he’ll get talked about for these, too.
It appears to be as a lot about Cignetti’s capability because the notion that, in fact, a soccer blue blood would have the ability to coach steal from Indiana. That outdated considering could be ignoring what Indiana has achieved to present Cignetti the mandatory assets to take care of a sustainable winner.
What Cignetti decides to do with the engaging choices that may are available in spades on the finish of the season is as much as him, however Indiana has well achieved every thing it may in lower than two years to indicate he does not have to go away to win huge.
Let’s begin with the very fact Cignetti already makes $8.3 million yearly earlier than bonuses, will obtain a $1 million retention bonus in November and can absolutely get one other increase within the coming months. This after the college already doubled his wage in lower than a 12 months on the job. Indiana is dedicated to creating positive Cignetti may be very, very properly compensated to be its soccer coach.
It does not cease at simply the pinnacle coach degree, both.
Indiana stepped as much as maintain defensive coordinator Bryant Haines and power and conditioning coach Derek Owings, heading off prime Large Ten packages to carry on to each. In his current contract, Indiana gave Cignetti $11 million for his assistant coach and assist workers wage pool, one of many prime within the nation and almost double what he obtained when he began in Bloomington.
“We had been dedicated to offer the assets to maintain the coaches that we will intact and ensure we have now that continuity,” Indiana AD Scott Dolson informed CBS Sports activities earlier than the season. “It is actually, actually necessary to the longer term for that constant success to maintain the workers intact and maintain executing the plan the most effective we will.”
Preserving Owings, Haines and others has definitely paid off to date. The Hoosiers are rolling at 6-0 and coming off a top-five street win over then-No. 3 Oregon, their first in program historical past. If Indiana can proceed to carry on to prime lieutenants plus appeal to high-quality expertise like quarterback Fernando Mendoza, why does Cignetti have to go away?
He is already confirmed he can take Indiana to the Faculty Soccer Playoff as he did a 12 months in the past. The Hoosiers are properly on their method to repeating that feat this season and will even get a first-round bye or, at the least, a house playoff sport at this tempo. Cignetti has invigorated a conventional basketball faculty to care about soccer, and his gorgeous outcomes have elicited extra donations, ticket gross sales and assist that make all of it really feel like rather more than a flash within the pan.
Even billionaire Mark Cuban is getting concerned now.
“I gave some to sports activities this 12 months for the primary time ever,” Cuban informed CBS Sports activities’ Richard Johnson final week. “Sometimes, I used to be the precise reverse. I am not a fan of something that I imagine raises tuition in in the slightest degree. However after getting to speak to Cig and seeing what was occurring, they kinda talked me into it.”
Cuban, an Indiana alumnus, would not say the precise quantity he gave however admitted it was a “huge quantity.” Pulling in rich benefactors like Cuban is how you retain the momentum rolling.
Cignetti, now 64, is beginning to enter the legacy part of his profession. If he stays at Indiana, he has an opportunity to be the form of transformational chief you construct a statue for as soon as it is throughout. What he is achieved in lower than two years at Indiana is nothing wanting outstanding and makes it straightforward to see why so many different packages could be fascinated with him.
May he crush it at Penn State or Florida? Completely, both of these colleges could be fortunate to have him. There’s one thing about Cignetti’s chip-on-the-shoulder, arduous work wins out mentality that simply feels proper at a spot like Indiana.
It is a man who took a pay lower to go away a burgeoning Alabama dynasty as a Nick Saban assistant to take over Division-II Indiana College of Pennsylvania. A man who labored his approach from IUP to Elon to James Madison earlier than lastly getting his first Energy 4 job alternative in his 60s. He is not pushed by fame or status, he simply needs to win. You do not have to Google him to know that anymore.
“Past the cash a part of it, which is clearly a significant factor, I believe he actually is an ideal match right here,” Dolson informed CBS Sports activities. “I believe he is an ideal match for us, however I believe on the identical time, we’re an ideal match for him. These are his phrases, not mine. However he talks so much about our alignment, he is extraordinarily shut with our president Pam Whitten. She understands and helps your complete division, however understands and helps soccer which is huge.”
There virtually definitely will likely be different college presidents and athletic administrators promising the world to Cignetti within the coming months. And, definitely, a few of these packages can promote a extra storied program historical past and extra fertile recruiting base than what Cignetti has in Bloomington.
However when Cignetti agreed to an eight-year contract extension final 12 months, he defined why he did not care about what different jobs would possibly open up within the teaching cycle.
“We are the rising superpower of school soccer,” Cignetti mentioned. “Why would I go away?”
That assertion is much more true a 12 months later.
With the switch portal, NIL and now income sharing, there may be extra parity in faculty soccer than ever earlier than. It has allowed colleges like Indiana to stand up behind the precise coach and proper group of gamers to a degree that may have appeared incomprehensible even a decade in the past. So long as Indiana can sustain from an NIL and rev-share standpoint, we have seen what Cignetti and his elite workers can do in growing and training them into winners.
Cignetti does not have to go away Indiana to achieve the elite degree of school soccer. He is already there now.
