Curt Cignetti jokes about retirement after CFP championship, enjoying moment

Everyone would like to be able to ride off into the sunset. To go out on top and retire a champion. Now, Indiana Hoosiers head coach Curt Cignetti has that opportunity following a College Football Playoff National Championship.

In the immediate aftermath of the win, Cignetti was asked how to enjoy this success. With how busy the calendar is for coaches, he felt that if he really wanted to sit back, he might have to retire.

“Good question,” Cignetti said. “Because I’ll be dealing with underclassmen going to the NFL tomorrow and who knows what else. And if I was smart, I’d probably retire. Then, I’d really be a story. But we need the money. What would I do? What would I do?”

Cignetti is set to be at Indiana for the foreseeable future. He signed an eight-year contract extension in October. That will be worth about $11.6 million annually through the 2033 season. So, even at 64 years old, he’s committed to the Indiana program.

“No. I don’t know if I’ll have a beer in the teal chair. I had one after the game. That’s enough for me. We’ll be back at it. I love what I do. I love football. I’m a football guy. I don’t have many other things that I do besides family,” Cignetti said. “And in the summer, go for a walk with my wife or go away, in February, the old signing date, first day after the old signing date.”

At 16-0, Indiana did what few thought possible. They became the first team to go unbeaten in the 12-team CFP era to win a national championship. Those 16 wins are also the most for any college team since Yale in 1894. That predates the forward pass and less than two decades after the line of scrimmage was invented.

So, there won’t be any retirement for Cignetti. Instead, he’ll turn his attention to the offseason, rebuilding the roster and developing the Hoosiers for next season.

“I’m a film junkie, and I like putting a team together, and we’re going to have a lot of challenges next season. But I will have a chance to look back at what we got done. These guys made it happen. Let me tell you, we had some good senior leadership on this team. [Riley] Nowakowski, [Pat] Coogan, [Aiden] Fisher, [Mikail] Kamara, [Elijah] Sarratt. We got some underclassmen that are going to be going out, Fernando [Mendoza], could be another one or two. But the seniors, this team was so close, so close. When you have this much success year in and year out, your teams are always close,” Cignetti said.

“But this team was exceptionally close. And I think Fernando had a big part of that, and I think Coogan and Fisher and going on the road with some of those guys — the Penn State game, what that did for this team, I can’t measure, when we were down and out and all the odds were against us, 2nd and 17, running clock, one minute and 30 [seconds], and all of a sudden we recomposed and found a way to get that done. That was incredible.”

Now, Indiana and Cignetti begin the offseason, looking to defend their national championship. It’s not an easy task with a target on your back, so the Hoosiers will need to be ready for September 5th against North Texas.