Curt Cignetti addresses rumors of NFL interest ahead of national championship

Indiana football coach Curt Cignetti made his feelings clear on the NFL: it’s not in the cards. A Pittsburgh native, internet rumors spread out like wildfire linking Cignetti to the Pittsburgh Steelers, who saw Mike Tomlin step down after 19 seasons.

Cignetti is a college football lifer, and it’s going to stay that way. After all, he has Indiana 15-0 and with a win in Monday night’s national championship game against Miami, he can become immortalized in the sport.

“I’m not an NFL guy,” Cignetti said, via On3’s Brett McMurphy. “I made that decision a long time ago. I’ve always been a college football guy”

Cignetti is 26-2 in nearly two full seasons as Indiana’s head coach. Prior to that, he went 52-9 at James Madison, 14-9 at Elon and 53-17 at IUP. In total, Cignetti is 145-37, so he wins. Google him, remember?

Cignetti has coached up quite the veteran-laden team at Indiana. Some attribute the experience factor as the biggest reason why the Hoosiers are winning, but they still have to play the game.

“No, I think it helps us a ton, but that’s what we look for, too,” Cignetti said earlier this week. When I came, you know, it was a quick process, a three-day hiring process. When I got here, we had 10 offensive starters in the transfer portal, and we had one returner on defense. So we were down to 40 scholarships by day three. So we needed to hit the portal hard. And we signed 22 guys that all have been two- or three-year starters with consistent production. I knew we had flipped the roster.

“And then every year, as your high school recruiting builds up, you kind of start to wean down a bit from the portal. You’ll never be at a point where you don’t engage with the portal. And this year we’ll take a few less than we took last year and we took a few less last year than we took the year before. But I think getting older, mature guys that played a lot of football, if they’ve got the right stuff, which I’m not bringing them in if they don’t, it’s an asset.”

All veterans including QB Fernando Mendoza, this year’s Heisman winner and a transfer from Cal, will be on display Monday night as Indiana looks to complete the perfect season. They take on Miami at 7:30 p.m. ET on ESPN.

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