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Jake Trotter
Multiple Authors
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — The most important voice in an Indiana practice is the one rarely heard.
Curt Cignetti watches from the sideline, wearing a crimson hat and a whistle around his neck. The Hoosiers coach stays near midfield, pacing back and forth between the 40-yard lines.
Practice has no clock and no breaks. Nobody stands around. Not a moment is wasted.
Cignetti ends each period with the whistle, but players never stop moving. In seconds, they’re running to the next drill with their position coaches. They grab a swig of water between reps.
In 90 minutes, including the walk-through and stretching, practice is over — an hour or so sooner than fall practices at many programs around the country.
“It’s tiring because you’re moving so fast — it feels like a lot,” said guard Joe Brunner, who transferred to Indiana from Wisconsin in the offseason. “But you’re getting so much done in such a short period of time. That’s the best part about it.”
In just two years, Cignetti has transformed Indiana from Big Ten doormat to national power.
In his first season in 2024, the Hoosiers reached double-digit victories for the first time in program history and advanced to the College Football Playoff.
Last year, they went 16-0 and won the national championship.
“I’m a firm believer in our blueprint,” said Cignetti, whose sixth-ranked Hoosiers begin their title defense Saturday against North Texas.
Short, efficient practices are a hallmark of that blueprint.
“One thing with Coach Cig, he respects the coaches’ and players’ time highly,” said fifth-year linebacker Isaiah Jones. “But don’t F with his time. Don’t jog. Don’t be lazy. That’s his time. That’s his practice time.
“You go hard out there, he’s going to give you the off time.”
AFTER THREE DECADES as an assistant, including four seasons (2007-10) under Nick Saban at Alabama, Cignetti finally got his first head coaching job in 2011 at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. His father, Frank Cignetti Sr., had built IUP into a Division II power in the 1990s.
By the time his son returned, IUP had fallen on hard times. Curt Cignetti immediately overhauled the way IUP practiced.
He cut the length of practices almost in half from the previous year. He even canceled the final five spring practices so the players could focus on school and get their bodies ready for the fall.
In Cignetti’s first two seasons, IUP won 19 games, its best two-year stretch since his father was coach.
“The way we practice, [it’s] pretty similar to what we did [then],” Cignetti said during Big Ten media days. “We have a way of doing things — and all we do is win.”
Jones had been at Indiana for two years before Cignetti arrived. He experienced the culture shock of Cignetti’s practices — and then the victories that followed.
“He’s about highly intentional, highly competitive football in practice, instead of 2 hours and 50 minutes, where guys are dog tired and that was just a crap period,” Jones said. “Like, ‘Hey, I’m not going to make you do 20 reps of linebacker bag drills anymore. I’m going to make you do three. But they’re going to be 100% because that’s all you got.’ … Every drill has to matter.”
Brunner, who started the past two years for the Badgers, said he was accustomed to almost three-hour practices in Madison. Three of Brunner’s former Wisconsin teammates — Riley Nowakowski, Drew Evans and Trey Wedig — had transferred to Indiana before him and warned Brunner to be ready to practice differently.
“I was used to longer practices, standing around for a little bit longer and listening a little bit more,” he said. “But here, we’re putting our hand in the ground and doing the work so much quicker. … you’re in and out in less than two hours.”
That has given Brunner extra time to watch film and recover — and more breathing room for the rest of his day.
“We’d get done with practice and I’d be sitting around like, ‘I should be showering right away, hurrying out of here and running to school,'” he said. “Instead, here it was like, ‘Oh, this is nice. I can do what I want, get there in time and not be in a panic.'”
Running back Turbo Richard, a transfer from Boston College, said Cignetti’s practice regimen has “played a big part” in him feeling fresher than ever heading into a season.
“You finish fast, and then you got this time window that you never had before to recover or do whatever you got to do, whether it’s extra stretching, cold tub, hot tub,” said Richard, who started last year for the Eagles. “It’s definitely less stress.”
AFTER STRETCHING CONCLUDES, the offensive players jump straight into a two-minute drill against air from the 40-yard line. The first-team offense finishes its opening drive with Josh Hoover’s touchdown pass to preseason All-America wideout Charlie Becker.
Within three seconds, the second-team offense is already snapping the ball back at the 40. Then comes the third-team offense.
Cignetti quietly observes from the sideline, checking his watch. After each offense completes three drives, he blows the whistle, sending players straight to individual position drills.
“It’s always moving — there’s no breaks, there’s no wasted movement,” Jones said. “He’s not going to kill you. But when you’re on the field, you’re sprinting from drill to drill.”
Players see the practice script beforehand, so they know what’s coming when they take the field. The Hoosiers never redo a play, and Cignetti almost never stops practice to address a mistake. Corrections come later, in meetings or during the next walk-through.
“We want to treat practice like a game,” Richard said. “You can’t replay plays or pause in a game.”
Players say Cignetti “coaches the coaches” in practice, empowering his assistants to handle the instruction. Even Cignetti’s team meetings never last more than 10 minutes.
“He’s like a CEO running a business,” Jones said. “Your [position] coaches are going to coach you. They’re going to be on you on and off the field. But Coach Cig, he sees everything … and when you do hear him, it’s meaningful. Your ears perk up — and that’s intentional.”
Cignetti stopped practice just once this preseason, scolding players early in camp for a lack of focus. Ten seconds later, they were back in their drills.
“Coach Cig doesn’t want to be out there that long,” said San Francisco 49ers running back Kaelon Black, who led Indiana with 10 rushing touchdowns last year. “He takes his notes on the offense and defense, and he hits his coaches with all his coaching points. So he’s not one of those guys that’s very vocal at practice — unless something is really messed up.”
One of those moments came last year as the Hoosiers were set to fly to the Rose Bowl for their College Football Playoff opener against Alabama.
Cignetti stopped Indiana’s final practice in Bloomington before the flight and huddled the team together.
“I remember this vividly,” Jones said. “Coach Cig was like, ‘This is sloppy. You guys already got your minds on California. You probably think this is some vacation. You can’t wait to get on the plane. And if you guys keep practicing how you’re practicing, we’re going to go out there and get our asses kicked.’
“He was not going to let that practice be a waste of his time. That really set the tone and locked everyone in … and then you saw how the game went.”
The Hoosiers rolled 38-3, handing Alabama its worst loss this millennium.
Indiana went on to beat Oregon by 34 points before besting Miami in the national championship game.
“If he needs to step in, he will. But you rarely hear his voice,” Brunner said. “It’s so different. But I think that’s the reason he’s so good. He does it in his own way, and it’s worked.
“And we’re completely bought into what he’s doing.”
ESPN San Francisco 49ers reporter Nick Wagoner contributed to this story.
