Indiana's Curt Cignetti wins 2025 Home Depot Coach of the Year Award

Indiana head coach Curt Cignetti was named the 2025 Home Depot Coach of the Year Award winner, his second consecutive, during Friday night’s Home Depot College Football Awards show on ESPN. Cignetti just wrapped up a perfect 13-0 regular season, the first-ever for the Hoosiers, after clinching Indiana’s first Big Ten Championship since 1967 with last Saturday’s 13-10 win over previous No. 1 Ohio State in Indianapolis.

“It all starts with people and as a leader you’re just trying to create an environment where people can thrive. And one of the keys to the drill in this business is getting everybody to think alike,” Cignetti said Friday night on ESPN. “So it’s high standards and expectations and habits, how you do something is how you do everything, so we’ve just built on our successes, which develops confidence and belief. We’ve got a group of guys that are used to winning, a group of coaches that are used to winning, and I think that’s been important too. The continuity we’ve had on our coaching staff.”

Cignetti is an astounding 24-2 in two seasons in Bloomington, leading the No. 1-ranked Hoosiers to back-to-back College Football Playoff appearances, including as the top overall seed this season. Cignetti has only lost three total games in the last three seasons, including an 11-1 mark in 2023 at James Madison.

As a Top 4 seed, Cignetti and Indiana (13-0, 9-0 Big Ten) next play in the Rose Bowl on Jan. 1, awaiting the winner of the first-round Playoff game between No. 8 Oklahoma (10-2) and No. 9 Alabama (10-3), which kicks off at 8 pm ET next Friday, Dec. 19 in Norman, Okla.

“Until Oklahoma and Alabama play Friday night, we’re going to treat this week like a bye week,” Cignetti said Friday night. “Once we know who the opponent is, know we’re into full game prep. .. We’ll get almost two full weeks of prep in, so that’s how we’re going about it.”

Full terms released for Curt Cignetti contract extension at Indiana

Cignetti’s success on the field earned the 64-year-old head coach a lucrative eight-year, $93.25 million contract extension this season, announced in mid-October, that will pay him an average annual salary of $11.6 million. That currently makes Cignetti the fourth-highest paid head coach behind Georgia‘s Kirby Smart ($13.3 million), new LSU coach Lane Kiffin ($13 million) and Ohio State‘s Ryan Day ($12.6 million).

But in addition to a nice payday, Cignetti’s new deal includes unique language requiring Indiana to perform a “good faith market review” of Cignetti’s contract within 120 days of the conclusion of the season to make sure his annual financial compensation would rank “no less than third” among active FBS head coaches. Given Kiffin’s own pay bump after leaving Ole Miss for Baton Rouge late last month, the Hoosiers could be in line for a “good faith market review” regardless of how far No. 1 Indiana goes in this year’s College Football Playoff.