Much has been made of the fact that IU football head coach Curt Cignetti has never suffered a losing season.
A couple of times he was close.
Cignetti had a pair of 6-5 seasons — in 2014 with Indiana University of Pennsylvania, and 2018 with Elon — although in both cases winning records were clinched well before the end of the season.
But Cignetti’s accomplishments in 13 seasons as a head coach are undeniably impressive. He has a 119-35 ( .773) career record, including 52-9 (.853) at his last stop, James Madison.
Many are compelled to believe Cignetti’s success will seamlessly translate to Indiana and the Big Ten, and the winning will carry on uninterrupted.
And it just might.
But as former Indiana coach and current ESPN analyst Lee Corso likes to say, not so fast my friend.
The 63-year-old Cignetti is not the first coach to arrive in Bloomington with an impressive winning percentage.
The Hoosiers prior two head men — Tom Allen and Kevin Wilson — did not have college head coaching experience before taking over in Bloomington. But prior to them, Indiana has by-and-large been a place that has chewed up and spit out coaches with impressive resumes.
Here is just a sampling, including four instances when coaches arrived at IU like Cignetti, never having experienced a losing record.
In all but one case you’ll find a cautionary tale, as success was ultimately found at Indiana, but not right away.
Terry Hoeppner was 48-25 (.658) at Miami (Ohio) from 1999 to 2004, and like Cignetti, he too never suffered a losing season in that six year span. Most believe Hoeppner had the Hoosiers on the right path before he tragically passed in 2007. And Bill Lynch’s 7-6 bowl season in 2007 supports that notion. But the fact remains, Hoeppner went 9-14 with a losing record in both of his seasons at IU.
Bill Mallory doesn’t qualify in the “never had a losing season before IU” conversation, but he was close. Mallory coached 14 seasons at three stops prior to Indiana, and he amassed a 99-52-1 record. Only twice in those 14 years did Mallory have a losing season, a 5-6 mark in his first year at Colorado, and a 3-8 record in 1981 at North Illinois. Despite those accomplishments, Mallory went 4-18 in his first two season at Indiana, including an 0-11 first year.
Lee Corso also arrived at IU having never suffered a losing season. In four years at Louisville from 1969-72, Corso went 28-11-3, including a 9-1 mark in his last season there. But in Corso’s first three years in Bloomington, he went a combined 5-27-1. And his start at Indiana was indeed not so fast, my friend. It took him seven years to post a winning record in Bloomington.
John Pont was yet another head coach who arrived at Indiana without experiencing a losing season. Pont coached a total of nine years, seven at Miami (Ohio) and two at Yale, and he produced a 55-27-3 record at those stops. In his first two years at IU, Pont went 3-16-1 before producing magic in year three as he led the Hoosiers to the Rose Bowl.
Phil Dickens also arrived in Bloomington without ever having a losing season. In 10 years at Wofford and Wyoming, Dickens went 69-27-8. Unlike some of his successors at IU, Dickens was able to continue his success in year one, posting a 5-3-1 season in his first campaign in Bloomington. But Dickens went .500 in year two, and then suffered five straight losing seasons.
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