Curt Cignetti, first-year head coach of the Indiana University Hoosiers, is the Walter Camp 2024 Football Bowl Subdivision Coach of the Year.  The Walter Camp Coach of the Year is selected by the nation’s 134 Football Bowl Subdivision head coaches and sports information directors.

Cignetti is the second coach from Indiana (John Pont, 1967) to earn the award. Cignetti is the first Big Ten coach to be recognized since 2005 (Penn State’s Joe Paterno).

Under Cignetti’s leadership, Indiana has reached the College Football Playoff for the first time. The #10 Hoosiers will take on #7 Notre Dame in the First Round on Friday, Dec. 20 at Notre Dame Stadium

Picked to finish 16th in the Big Ten preseason media poll, the Hoosiers set a record with 11 wins for the first time in program history.  An Indiana team had never eclipsed nine wins in a season before 2024.  Cignetti guided the team to its first 8–0 start since 1967, then to a 9–0 record, marking a program milestone, and finally to a 10–0 start, the best in Indiana’s football history. The Hoosiers achieved their first-ever 11-win season, highlighted by a victory over defending national champion Michigan, earning the team national recognition, a top-five ranking, and a resulting College Football Playoff berth.

Cignetti was named head football coach at Indiana University on November 30, 2023.  He previously held head coaching positions Indiana University of Pennsylvania (2011-16), Elon (2017-2018) and James Madison (2019-2023).  His current career record stands at 130–36 (.783).

In 2024, Cignetti was named the Hayes-Schembechler Big Ten Coach of the Year (as selected by his fellow conference coaches) and the Dave McClain Coach of the Year (by the media that covers the Big Ten).  The honors from the Big Ten mark the fourth time in his career that he earned coach of the year accolades from a conference office, doing so once at each of his previous stops.  He was the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Coach of the Year in 2012 (at IUP), the Colonial Athletic Association Coach of the Year in 2017 (at Elon) and Sun Belt Coach of the Year in 2023 (at James Madison).

After graduating from West Virginia, Cignetti began his coaching career as a graduate assistant at Pitt in 1983 under Foge Fazio. He has also coached at Davidson College, Rice University, Temple University, a return to Pitt and then stints at North Carolina State and the University of Alabama.

Cignetti and his wife, Manette, have three children, Curt Jr., Carly Ann, and Natalie Elise. Cignetti’s father, Frank Cignetti Sr., won 199 games as a head coach at West Virginia University and IUP and was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.

Walter Camp, “The Father of American football,” first selected an All-America team in 1889. Camp – a former Yale University athlete and football coach – is also credited with developing play from scrimmage, set plays, the numerical assessment of goals and tries and the restriction of play to eleven men per side. The Walter Camp Football Foundation (www.waltercamp.org,@WalterCampFF) – a New Haven-based all-volunteer group – was founded in 1967 to perpetuate the ideals of Camp and to continue the tradition of selecting annually an All-America team. 

The Foundation is a member of the National College Football Awards Association (NCFAA). The NCFAA was founded in 1997 as a coalition of the major collegiate football awards to protect, preserve and enhance the integrity, influence and prestige of the game’s predominant awards. The NCFAA encourages professionalism and the highest standards for the administration of its member awards and the selection of their candidates and recipients. For more information, visit the association’s website, www.ncfaa.org

 

Walter Camp Coaches of the Year

2024 – Curt Cignetti, Indiana

2023 – Kalen DeBoer, Washington

2022 – Sonny Dykes, TCU

2021 – Luke Fickell, Cincinnati

2020 – Jamey Chadwell, Coastal Carolina

2019 – Ed Orgeron, LSU

2018 – Nick Saban, Alabama

2017 – Mark Richt, Miami

2016 – Mike MacIntyre, Colorado

2015 – Dabo Swinney, Clemson

2014 – Gary Patterson, TCU

2013 – David Cutcliffe, Duke

2012 – Brian Kelly, Notre Dame

2011 – Les Miles, LSU

2010 – Chip Kelly, Oregon

2009 – Gary Patterson, TCU

2008 – Nick Saban, Alabama

2007 – Mark Mangino, Kansas

2006 – Greg Schiano, Rutgers

2005 – Joe Paterno, Penn State

2004 – Tommy Tuberville, Auburn

2003 – Bob Stoops, Oklahoma

2002 – Kirk Ferentz, Iowa

2001 – Ralph Friedgen, Maryland

2000 – Bob Stoops, Oklahoma

1999 – Frank Beamer, Virginia Tech

1998 – Bill Synder, Kansas State

1997 – Lloyd Carr, Michigan

1996 – Bruce Snyder, Arizona State

1995 – Gary Barnett, Northwestern

1994 – Joe Paterno, Penn State

1993 – Terry Bowden, Auburn

1992 – Gene Stallings, Alabama

1991 – Bobby Bowden, Florida State

1990 – Bobby Ross, Georgia Tech

1989 – Bill McCartney, Colorado

1988 – Don Nehlen, West Virginia

1987 – Dick MacPherson, Syracuse

1986 – Jimmy Johnson, Miami

1985 – Fisher DeBerry, Air Force

1984 – Joe Morrison, South Carolina

1983 – Mike White, Illinois

1982 – Jerry Stovall, Louisiana State

1981 – Jackie Sherrill, Pittsburgh

1980 – Vince Dooley, Georgia

1979 – John Mackovic, Wake Forest

1978 – Warren Powers, Missouri

1977 – Lou Holtz, Arkansas

1976 – Frank R. Burns, Rutgers

1975 – Frank Kush, Arizona State

1974 – Barry Switzer, Oklahoma

1973 – Johnny Majors, Pittsburgh

1972 – Joe Paterno, Penn State

1971 – Bob Devaney, Nebraska

1970 – Bob Blackman, Dartmouth

1969 – Bo Schembechler, Michigan

1968 – Woody Hayes, Ohio State

1967 – John Pont, Indiana