INDIANAPOLIS — Rutgers football coach Greg Schiano was excited to hear that Curt Cignetti was joining the Big Ten ranks.
Indiana football hired the former James Madison coach to replace Tom Allen at the end of November. Schiano only knows Cignetti in passing, but he’s familiar with the family’s long history in college football dating back to Frank Cignetti Sr.’s time as an assistant on Bobby Bowden’s staff at West Virginia.
He learned all about Frank Sr.’s accomplished career — he was inducted into the College Hall of Fame as a coach in 2013 — from Curt’s younger brother Frank Cignetti Jr. Schiano hired Frank Jr. as his offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach during his first stint at Rutgers in 2011.
Rutgers went 9-4 and beat Iowa State in the Pinstripe Bowl with Frank Jr. calling the shots on offense. They averaged nearly a touchdown more per game than the previous season and 40 yards per game more.
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“That is a football family for sure,” Schiano said, at Big Ten Media Days on Tuesday.
Schiano and Curt are cut from the same cloth as football lifers who worked their way up the ranks from graduate assistants to head coaches. Cignetti got his start at Pittsburgh in 1983 while Schiano broke into the collegiate ranks at Rutgers in 1989.
Both viewed attaining a head coaching job within the Big Ten as a crowning achievement in their well-traveled careers.
“Why do I love the Big Ten Conference?” Schiano said. “To me it’s that sweet spot, that intersection of elite academics with elite football. That’s what makes us special.”
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The two coaches won’t face off until 2026 under the Big Ten’s new scheduling model. The Hoosiers will visit SHI Stadium in Piscataway that year and the Scarlet Knights will make a return trip to Bloomington in 2027. Those far off matchups made it easier for Schiano to wish Curt well this fall.
“I was happy for Curt when he got the job, he’ll do a good job,” Schiano said.
Michael Niziolek is the Indiana beat reporter for The Bloomington Herald-Times. You can follow him on X @michaelniziolek and read all his coverage by clicking here.
This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Rutgers coach respects Curt Cignetti’s accomplished ‘football family’
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