I love the bravado the new Indiana Hoosier’s Football Coach, Curt Cignetti, brings along with him.  You have no idea how much I wish him well.

Yes, I know.  I am a Tom Allen fan.  But yours truly also implied, before it happened, that IU and Coach Allen hammer out a treaty that included a buy-out that was less than what bean counters spoke of initially.  They did just that.  Coach Allen got paid and headed East.  I feel he hit the lottery when got hired by Penn State to be their defensive coordinator.  I’ve been to Happy Valley.  I have eaten ice cream at The Creamery.  I have seen Beaver Stadium.  Yes, Tom is doing okay.

Back to Indiana’s new hire. I watched the entirety of Coach Cignetti’s press conference when he was hired.  I was on the elliptical downstairs.  I was not impressed.  I get it.  You have one chance to make a first impression and he wanted to be an ass.  Cutting reporters off and being less than gracious to those in the room will do that.  They will make you an ass.

You know, as glad as I was when Tom Allen was named Coach, and please, don’t tell Tom this, my dream hire for Indiana was always Mike Leach.  Look, Indiana University is an interesting place.  Mike Leach was an interesting guy.  Lord, the heights he could have taken that place.

I was less than impressed when new Coach Cignetti took the mic in Assembly Hall and threw out the edict that Purdue sucks and so does Michigan and Ohio State.  I heard that and I turned my head sideways.  So much for acting like you have been there before, I thought.  Then, a couple days later, I thought had Mike Leach said all that I would have been jumping up and down.  Maybe because I miss him so.  Maybe because the three syllables he yelled back to me, “Hey buddy!” still resonate.

Coach Cignetti is a bundle himself.

He was a second team All-State quarterback at Morgantown High School in West Virginia in 1978.  That year, his Dad, Frank Cignetti, was the Head Coach of the West Virginia Mountaineers.  The WVU team had a 2-9 record.  But that was least of the Cignetti’s family troubles that time of year.  In December of 1978, Frank Cignetti almost died.  Frank Cignetti  underwent an emergency splenectomy and spent 35 days in the hospital.  His survival was in the balance.  He made it.  Only then to find out he had a rare and serious form of cancer and the prognosis was not good.  Frank Cignetti must have been a tough old cuss.  He made it and, though still weak, returned to the Mountaineers for what was his son’s Curt’s, first season on the Mountaineer roster.

The end of the 1979 season saw West Virginia finish with a 5-6 record.  It proved to be Frank Cignetti’s last as head coach.  He was fired.  A new athletic director was hired.  Coach Frank Cignetti was replaced with a name most college football fans of a certain vintage recognize, Coach Don Nehlen.  Ironically, I saw Don Nehlen’s last game when WVU defeated the Ole Miss Rebels in the 2000 Music City Bowl.

What happened to Curt Cignetti in all of this?  Well, he stayed with West Virginia even after his Dad was fired after four seasons and a 17-27 record.   Curt did not attend another school.  His Dad was still employed by WVU and that was that, I suppose.  Had he been a serious player, maybe he would have transferred.  Or did they transfer back then? Who knows?  My guess is that part of Coach Frank Cignetti’s severance was that WVU held on to his boy for school and good will.

Fortunately for Coach Frank Cignetti, he did find good health again.  I smile at that.  In 1986 he was name the head football coach of Indiana (PA).  Coach Frank Cignetti was 182-50-1 from 1986 to 2005 at the NCAA Divison II level.  Not a bad gig.  And a great record.

So, with this I see myself toe to toe with former Indiana Coach Cam Cameron in 1999, I think.  Cam and I were standing in the Mellencamp Pavilion with mutual friends when our mutual friends were taken from us.  I told Cam I was still warming up to his IU team.  I told him I was a Bill Mallory fan and when Indiana fired him on Halloween in 1996 it was like the day the music died for me.  I told Cam my Dad had been fired at Brownstown Central when I was 11 and it was tough.  At that point, Cam told me his step-dad was a high school coach and he had been fired.  We looked at each other with a common ground that only sons of coaches that have been fired know.  It is a small room.

Look.  My high school football career was an overwhelming success.  Why?  In 1982 our North Harrison Cougar team took on a homestanding Brownstown Central team that had won 18 games and defeated them 27-14.  In 1984, we went to BCHS and beat them 59-0.  That is the worst defeat the BC Braves have ever endured on their home field.

With that said, I get Coach Curt Cignetti.  He may not say it.  But I know there are ghosts he is still chasing for his Dad.  I hope he catches every one of them.

Coach Curt Cignetti says “It’s pretty simple: I win.  Google me.”

Collectively, Coach Cig’s coaching career, be it Indiana, PA, Elon, James Madison, Alabama, NC State, Pitt, Temple, Rice, or Davidson,  it has been an average of 612 miles from Bloomington.  And Bloomington is a world away from the rest of college football.

Well, Coach Cignetti, an old friend of mine named Frank Latuerbur  left the Toledo Rockets after leading them to a 23-0 record and two bowl wins in his last two season.  He went to Iowa.  His record at Iowa?  4-28-1.

Frank was my friend.  He was a stand-up guy.

I hope history doesn’t repeat itself.

Coach Cig…Go get’em!

Speaking the rights…

Danny Johnson