Indiana University of Pennsylvania Athletics

Athletic Director Frank Condino

We are very pleased and excited to have someone of Curt’s caliber leading our football program. He is not only an exceptional coach but an outstanding recruiter. I believe Curt has the ability to restore the competitiveness of our football program on the regional and national level.

Those of us who have known Curt for any length of time know that, although he has an extremely famous last name in college football coaching, he is very much his own man.

I have known Curt since his undergraduate days as a student-athlete at West Virginia, and I want to emphasize the word student. He received several awards highlighting his achievements in the classroom while a member of the football team. I have followed his coaching career closely and am not surprised at all the success he has enjoyed.

New IUP Football Coach Curt Cignetti

IUP has always been a very special place to me, a tremendous university with great academics and outstanding football tradition. Even though I didn’t graduate from here and never really lived in Indiana, I always felt a great sense of pride for the football program that my father Frank established and developed over 20 years. I met my wife in Indiana and have several family members here today.

We have a lot of work to do at IUP, and I’m excited about the challenge. A lot of people would say “why would you leave Alabama and come to IUP when you have one of the best jobs in America” and I think that is a very fair question. I was just ready for a different challenge; I was ready to be the head coach; I was ready to wake up in the morning set the agenda and work the plan, and I really felt a special fit and bond with IUP. I knew they had been there before and could get there again, and I would really like to take the program one step further so that we can raise the victory flag in Florence, Alabama, and that’s the goal of this program.

While we want to win football games, and that is one of the primary goals of the head football coach, I want to bring the type of people to IUP who will represent the university with class, can earn their degree and also help us play championship football. We’re going to put together a structured and disciplined football program which will help make these people more successful in life when football is over and help them develop the right thought habits and priorities which will help them on and off the field.

The first thing we have to do starting today is get on the road and recruit. We are going to be a very disciplined and tough, physical football team because football is a physical game. Offensively I want to be up tempo. We have to be balanced; we have run it we have to throw it. I like a little trickeration every once in a while. On defense I want to be aggressive. You have to stop the running game, and you have to put pressure on the quarterback and disrupt his rhythm and put him on the ground.

I lived with a head coach all my life so I have always kind of thought like a head coach. My father [Frank Cignetti] had great values and always had a strong sense of mission of what he wanted to do and there is some of him in me.

I believe I grew exponentially as a football coach under coach [Nick] Saban the last four years, and I thank him for the tremendous opportunity that he gave me. He is the CEO of the football program which is the biggest industry in the state of Alabama. He is an A+ as a football coach, a motivator, a recruiter, a leader, you name it he has it all. I have learned a lot from him. There will be some Alabama in this program because it definitely molded my thoughts and beliefs.

Resources help make you better but resources aren’t the total answer. I think one of my jobs as the head football coach is to be out there and be visible to get to know the people who really care or potentially can care. I’m not afraid to ask because all they can say is no, and I’ll ask more than once because I think we can get everyone excited about our vision and what we are trying to do.

Alabama Head Football Coach Nick Saban

Curt did an outstanding job for us and in his four years at the University of Alabama and I know he will do the same at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. He has a great knowledge of the game and I know he learned much of that from his dad, Frank, who won a lot of games at IUP and is a legendary coach there.

This is a great opportunity for Curt to put his own stamp on the program as a head coach. We wish the Cignetti family the best in this new role and appreciate all they did to help us be successful here at Alabama.