Paul Finebaum predicts Curt Cignetti will leave Indiana for bigger job after program resurgence

At his first Big Ten Media Day as the head coach at Indiana, Curt Cignetti wanted to make a statement. So, he said, “I win. Google me.” In other words, if you didn’t already know him, he wanted to make sure everyone learned. A year and a half into his tenure there, he’s one of the best coaches in all of college football.

Part of what has made this run so remarkable is that Cignetti has done it at Indiana, traditionally a program that is starved for big wins. After beating Oregon, they can’t say they’re starved anymore, though. Of course, that’s also put Cignetti on the map as a target for other teams.

Paul Finebaum recently predicted on The Matt Barrie Show that he’ll leave for a traditionally bigger job. That’s because he doesn’t believe it’s a sustainable run of success there.

“No, it’s not,” Paul Finebaum said. “I just don’t think it is. We’ve seen a lot of coaches who’ve stayed at the roulette wheel too long. Cignetti is at an age where he’s thinking I probably have another move left. Where is it and for how much? I would encourage him to think about it.”

The success that Indiana has had under Curt Cignetti is remarkable. This is a program that hadn’t had a double digit win season in the entire history of the program until Cignetti’s first season in 2024. That was also their first trip to the College Football Playoff ever and their first AP Top 10 finish since 1967. Now, sitting at 6-0, Indiana wants to build on that success.

“I just think, at some point, you’ll get the wrong quarterback. You’ll miss a little bit and it will crash like triple witching hour on Wall Street. That’s just my thought,” Finebaum said. “Now, I also would’ve gone broke betting against Indiana this year. That’s just my gut feeling having watched college football for a very long time.”

Curt Cignetti is a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania native and is now 64 years old. A former quarterback at West Virginia, in 2011, he got his first head coaching job at IUP. He’d later coach at Elon and James Madison before making the jump to Indiana. In that career, he has a 136-37 record.

This also comes in a coaching carousel that’s going to be crowded with big job openings. That, ultimately, could be too tempting, according to Finebaum.

“Last year was one of the dullest. There wasn’t even an opening in the SEC, but I think there’ll be a massive opening. Sometimes you don’t know what’s in somebody’s head. I mean, I think he’s been amazingly successful and fortunate, but it’s hard to dial that up every time. You see it across college football. Really good coaches, if not great coaches, slightly make a mistake on a quarterback and there’s no turning back during that season,” Finebaum said.

“Then, you’re right back at it again the next year. This isn’t where you’re building. It’s mass chaos right now and Cignetti has been successful at it. I would bet against him trying to do this three or four years in a row, though.”

For now, Curt Cignetti is focused on the field at Indiana. There, they’ll need to avoid a letdown game when they go home to take on Michigan State.