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    IU football’s head coach gives hilarious evaluation of Curt Cignetti the quarterback

    Mike SchumannBy IU Football No Comments
    Photo - West Virginia Athletics

    IU football coach Curt Cignetti is well known for his ability to evaluate talent.

    Would he have recruited himself to play at the highest level of college football as a quarterback out of Morgantown H.S. in the class of 1979?

    Probably not.

    “What we’re really looking for there are position-specific criteria. Toughness at all positions is still number one,” Cignetti said of his top evaluation requirement on a recent podcast. “You talk to the coach, the people around them, maybe the guidance counselor. You get a good idea when they walk in your office what their family background is like, first impression.”

    So far, so good for Cignetti the player.  There’s no doubt he was tough. And he had an inside advantage when it came to his family background.

    Cignetti’s father, Frank Cignetti Sr., began coaching at West Virginia University as offensive coordinator on Bobby Bowden’s staff in 1970.

    Frank Cignetti was West Virginia’s head football coach from 1976-79.  He took over for Bowden and brought his son in to play quarterback for the Mountaineers.

    But Frank was fired after Curt’s freshman year and took time off from coaching before his Hall of Fame run at Indiana University of Pennsylvania.

    Curt stayed at West Virginia, but standing in his way was Oliver Luck, yes, the father of former Indianapolis Colts star Andrew.

    Like his son, Oliver Luck had physical gifts Cignetti lacked.

    “He (Cignetti) wasn’t a good athlete, I think he’d be the first to admit that,” Oliver Luck told Pat Forde. “But you could tell he was the son of a coach. He absorbed everything. He was great for me to have on the sideline because he saw everything.”

    So what does Cignetti look for from an athletic standpoint in prospects?

    “Ankle, knee, hip flexibility, ability to change directions, stop-start, generate power is important at all positions,” he said.

    And his evaluation on Curt Cignetti, the class of 1979 quarterback out of Morgantown?

    “Ankle – stiff.  Lower body – stiff.  Below average arm,” Cignetti said Saturday on the BTN Tailgate pregame show from Bloomington.

    “Probably didn’t belong there.”

    The self evaluation comes with the benefit of hindsight, of course.  And it seems fair.

    In four seasons at West Virginia, Cignetti attempted one pass.  It was incomplete.  He carried the ball one time — for no yards.

    But learning under his father, and even competing in practice against West Virginia defensive backs coach Nick Saban, the coaching wheels were in motion.

    Cignetti was hired as a graduate assistant at Pitt in 1983.  He’d reunite with Saban in 2007 at Alabama.

    And the rest is history.

    For complete coverage of IU football, GO HERE.

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