Indiana football’s Curt Cignetti is the National Coach of the Year.
You may have read that one year ago, but it applies again. The Hoosiers coach was named the Walter Camp National Coach of the Year for the second consecutive season, the first to win it two years in a row.
The Hoosiers (13-0) beat previous No. 1 Ohio State in the Big Ten championship game and are the No. 1 seeds in the College Football Playoff. They will play the winner of the Oklahoma-Alabama quarterfinal in the Rose Bowl on Jan. 1.
Cignetti earned the honor in 2024, his first year at IU, after taking the moribund program to the CFP with an 11-1 regular season. The Hoosiers lost to Notre Dame in the first round.
Cignetti, who beat out Ohio State’s Ryan Day and Vanderbilt’s Clark Lea for the honor, is IU’s second Walter Camp winner. John Pont won it in 1967 for guiding the Hoosiers to the Rose Bowl.
Other multiple Walter Camp winners: Joe Paterno, Penn State (1972, ’94, 2005); Bob Stoops, Oklahoma (2000, ’03); Nick Saban, Alabama (2008, ’18), and Gary Patterson, TCU (2009, ’14).
Hoosiers quarterback Fernando Mendoza is in line to collect a lot of hardware in the coming weeks. He’s the betting favorite for the Heisman Trophy, which will be awarded Saturday.
Celebrate the IU football season with our commemorative book
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