DALLAS (FWAA) – Indiana head coach Curt Cignetti has been selected as the 2024 Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year after leading the Hoosiers to a spot in the College Football Playoff and the most wins in program history. Indiana shot out to a program-record 10-0 start to the season and finished its regular season with other program-firsts with an 11-1 record and eight Big Ten Conference wins, finishing tied for second. The Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year award is presented by the Football Writers Association of America and the Allstate Sugar Bowl.
Cignetti, coaching in his first season in Bloomington, is the second coach from Indiana to win the Eddie Robinson Award and the first in more than 50 years. John Pont was the Hoosiers’ first winner in 1967. Tom Allen was a finalist in 2020.
He was chosen from among the other finalists of Shane Beamer of South Carolina, Spencer Danielson of Boise State, Kenny Dillingham of Arizona State, Marcus Freeman of Notre Dame, Dan Lanning of Oregon, Rhett Lashlee of SMU, Jeff Monken of Army and Kirby Smart of Georgia.
“The Sugar Bowl is honored to partner with the Football Writers Association of America to recognize coaching greatness each year,” said Sugar Bowl President Walter Beck. “Congratulations to Coach Curt Cignetti of Indiana on being selected over a long list of very deserving candidates. It is truly phenomenal to see everything that Curt has accomplished in his first year with the Hoosiers, but I think what stands out more than anything is the eleven wins by his team, which is the most in the program’s 137-year history. What an accomplishment! We look forward to celebrating Curt’s success by presenting the Eddie Robinson National Coach of the Year Award to him in Atlanta next month.”
Indiana (11-1), the No. 10 seed, opens the expanded College Football Playoff at 7 p.m. ET Friday playing at Notre Dame (11-1), the No. 7 seed. It’s the teams’ first meeting since 1991. The winner will face No. 2 Georgia in the Allstate Sugar Bowl on Jan. 1, 2025.
Cignetti will receive the iconic bust of the late Robinson, a College Football Hall of Fame coach at Grambling State University for 55 years and winner of 408 career games, at a Jan. 18, 2025, reception in Atlanta leading up to the College Football Playoff National Championship Game.
“The Eddie Robinson Family congratulates Coach Curt Cignetti on being named the 2024 FWAA Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year. Coach Cignetti has maintained a winning trajectory that college football has recognized wherever he has coached, and we wish him continued success at Indiana University,” said Eddie Robinson III, Coach Robinson's grandson.
Indiana capped its record regular season with a 66-0 win over rival Purdue. The 66-point winning margin was its largest against an FBS opponent in program history, a capper on a historic three-month ride that is ongoing in Bloomington. The Hoosiers won five games by 30 or more points, tying a school record from 1917. IU’s 68 offensive touchdowns are another program record and lead the FBS entering bowl season.
"Curt Cignetti did the unthinkable at Indiana, leading the Hoosiers to the best season in school history with style and a little bit of flair. Our voters did not have to Google him to determine he was a deserving winner of the Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year Award,” said FWAA 2024 President Andrea Adelson of ESPN.com. “It was obvious as soon as you put on the television or stepped into the press box and watched his team play. Congratulations on an outstanding season!"
The Hoosiers first began turning heads with a 42-13 win at Big Ten newcomer UCLA. IU’s trip to the Rose Bowl was a historic one, giving Cignetti his first Big Ten road win but also a 29-point margin of victory that was the largest of any IU road game since 2001. Topping Maryland 42-28 two weeks later for a 2-0 Big Ten start grabbed more notice, and by the time Indiana hammered Nebraska 56-7 on Oct. 19 for a 7-0 start, the Hoosiers had the country’s full attention.
Part of Cignetti’s initial task at Indiana was assembling a roster after a reported 36 scholarship players chose not to return from 2023. IU was active, and successful, in the portal. Per Indiana reports, 21 of his 27 transfers had three or more years of experience, and of that group, 13 had earned all-conference or all-conference honorable mention at their previous institutions.
Add to that some familiar faces, as 13 players transferred to Bloomington with him from James Madison, where Cignetti had led the Dukes to a 52-9 from 2019-23. Two of them, linebacker Aiden Fisher and defensive back D’Angelo Ponds, would go on to be on the FWAA All-America Team announced yesterday. Fisher, on the first team, is Indiana’s first All-American at linebacker since 1944 (Jack Tavener), and Ponds, on the second team, is the Hoosiers’ first defensive back All-America selection since its last one, Tiawan Mullen in 2020.
Three Indiana players were named by media and coaches to the All-Big Ten First Team: Fisher, Ponds and Mikail Kamara, another of the JMU transfers who is No. 5 in the FBS in total pressures (64). IU quarterback Kurtis Rourke was named to the second team by coaches and media, while wide receiver Elijah Sarratt and offensive lineman Mike Katic earned third team nods. And Cignetti was the Big Ten Coach of the Year.
Cignetti accomplished the 11-1 season thus far with the fourth-youngest coaching staff in the FBS with an average age of 38.2 years, credited to research by the Old Dominion athletic communications staff. He has compiled a 130-36 record in 14 years as a head coach with previous stops at Indiana University of Pennsylvania (2011-16), Elon (2017-18) and James Madison (2019-23). In 13 seasons as a head coach, he has never had a losing season, and he becomes the first Division I head coach to start 10-0 in consecutive seasons at different schools (James Madison, 2023; Indiana, 2024).
The FWAA has presented a coaching award since the 1957 season when Ohio State's Woody Hayes was named the first recipient. Beginning in 1997, the FWAA Coach of the Year Award has been named in honor of the late Robinson, a coaching legend at Grambling State University for 55 seasons.
Robinson, who passed away in 2007, won 70.7 percent of his games during his illustrious career. Robinson's teams won or tied for 17 Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) championships after joining the league in 1959. His Tigers teams won nine Black College Football Championships during his career, all of it at Grambling.
The Eddie Robinson Award is a member of the National College Football Awards Association. Founded in 1997, the NCFAA includes college football’s most prestigious awards and its 24 awards have honored more than 900 recipients dating back to 1935. For more information about the NCFAA and its award programs, visit the redesigned NCFAA.org.
The Allstate Sugar Bowl has established itself as one of the premier college football bowl games, having hosted 28 national champions, 107 Hall of Fame players, 52 Hall of Fame coaches and 21 Heisman Trophy winners in its 90-year history. The 91st Allstate Sugar Bowl Football Classic, which will double as a College Football Playoff Quarterfinal, is scheduled to be played on January 1, 2025. In addition to football, the Sugar Bowl Committee annually invests over $1 million into the community through the hosting and sponsorship of sporting events, awards, scholarships and clinics. Through these efforts, the organization supports and honors thousands of student-athletes each year, while injecting over $2.5 billion into the local economy in the last decade. For more information, visit allstatesugarbowl.org
Founded in 1941, the Football Writers Association of America consists of journalists, broadcasters, publicists, photographers and key executives in all areas of college football. The FWAA works to govern media access and gameday operations while presenting awards and honors, including an annual All-America team. For more information about the FWAA and its programs and initiatives, contact Executive Director Steve Richardson at 214-870-6516 or tiger@fwaa.com.
ALL-TIME FWAA NATIONAL COACHES OF THE YEAR
1957: Woody Hayes, Ohio State
1958: Paul Dietzel, LSU
1959: Ben Schwartzwalder, Syracuse
1960: Murray Warmath, Minnesota
1961: Darrell Royal, Texas
1962: John McKay, USC
1963: Darrell Royal, Texas
1964: Ara Parseghian, Notre Dame
1965: Duffy Daugherty, Michigan State
1966: Tom Cahill, Army
1967: John Pont, Indiana
1968: Woody Hayes, Ohio State
1969: Bo Schembechler, Michigan
1970: Alex Agase, Northwestern
1971: Bob Devaney, Nebraska
1972: John McKay, USC
1973: Johnny Majors, Pitt
1974: Grant Teaff, Baylor
1975: Woody Hayes, Ohio State
1976: Johnny Majors, Pitt
1977: Lou Holtz, Arkansas
1978: Joe Paterno, Penn State
1979: Earle Bruce, Ohio State
1980: Vince Dooley, Georgia
1981: Danny Ford, Clemson
1982: Joe Paterno, Penn State
1983: Howard Schnellenberger, Miami
1984: LaVell Edwards, BYU
1985: Fisher DeBerry, Air Force
1986: Joe Paterno, Penn State
1987: Dick MacPherson, Syracuse
1988: Lou Holtz, Notre Dame
1989: Bill McCartney, Colorado
1990: Bobby Ross, Georgia Tech
1991: Don James, Washington
1992: Gene Stallings, Alabama
1993: Terry Bowden, Auburn
1994: Rich Brooks, Oregon
1995: Gary Barnett, Northwestern
1996: Bruce Snyder, Arizona State
EDDIE ROBINSON COACH OF THE YEAR
1997: Mike Price, Washington State
1998: Phillip Fulmer, Tennessee
1999: Frank Beamer, Virginia Tech
2000: Bob Stoops, Oklahoma
2001: Ralph Friedgen, Maryland
2002: Jim Tressel, Ohio State
2003: Nick Saban, LSU
2004: Urban Meyer, Utah
2005: Charlie Weis, Notre Dame
2006: Greg Schiano, Rutgers
2007: Mark Mangino, Kansas
2008: Nick Saban, Alabama
2009: Gary Patterson, TCU
2010: Chip Kelly, Oregon
2011: Mike Gundy, Oklahoma State
2012: Brian Kelly, Notre Dame
2013: Gus Malzahn, Auburn
2014: Gary Patterson, TCU
2015: Kirk Ferentz, Iowa
2016: Mike MacIntyre, Colorado
2017: Scott Frost, UCF
2018: Bill Clark, UAB
2019: Ed Orgeron, LSU
2020: Jamey Chadwell, Coastal Carolina
2021: Luke Fickell, Cincinnati
2022: Sonny Dykes, TCU
2023: Kalen DeBoer, Washington
2024: Curt Cignetti, Indiana