Back on the market for a head coach in the winter of 2023, Indiana must’ve looked back at its checkered football past and wondered: Why don’t we hire a coach who has never lost?

That led the Hoosiers to Curt Cignetti , and the rest has been college football history. In just under a season and a half, Cignetti has gone 16-2 and turned Indiana into an offensive powerhouse.

Before reversing a century or so of failure in Bloomington, Cignetti went 53-17 at Indiana University of Pennsylvania (2011-16), 14-9 at Elon (2017-18) and 52-9 at James Madison (2019-23), overseeing the Dukes’ wildly successful transition to the Bowl Subdivision.

Continuing these winning ways at Indianaf has made Cignetti perhaps the best bargain in college coaching.

He leads the way in USA TODAY Sports’ list of the m

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