“Well, if Curt Cignetti can win a National Championship at Indiana, then certainly Deion Sanders can do the same at Colorado, right?”
So much is wrong with that sentence.
It’s true that no one had the Indiana Hoosiers winning the national title on any bingo card, anywhere. It’s also true that the University of Colorado has a much better football pedigree than the state U where basketball will always be king. So why not Colorado? Why not Sanders?
Taking the (admittedly huge) Mark Cuban/money factor out of the equation, the answer remains simple: Experience.
True, both Sanders and Cignetti have experience working with Nick Saban. Cignetti learned under Saban for three seasons. Sanders does TV commercials with the legendary coach.
That’s where the similarities end.
It’s true that Cignetti – like Sanders – is still relatively new to being a head coach of a Power Four conference football program, just like Deion was back in 2023. But Cignetti wasn’t new to coaching Power Four conference football… or college football in general. Anything but.
Let’s compare coaching resumes:
Deion Sanders: Hall-of-Fame playing career at both the college and professional levels. Did television work after his playing days ended. Did some high school coaching. He’s now been a college football coach for six years. Never an assistant, he spent three years at FCS Jackson State and just completed his third year at a Power Four school. Record at the FCS level: 27-6. Record at Colorado: 16-21.
Curt Cignetti: Three seasons as a backup college QB at West Virginia. Began coaching as a graduate assistant in 1983. Spent the next 28 years serving as an assistant, including his final three at Alabama under Saban. Took over as the head coach at Indiana University-Purdue in 2011. Coached at IUP and Elon before taking over at James Madison, going 52-9 over his five seasons at JMU. Got the job at Indiana in 2024, where he’s gone 27-2 in two seasons and won a national championship this past season.
It’s called paying your dues, and it’s not for everyone. Especially for guys with big egos.
The fact of the matter is, taking a novice, regardless of what he or she accomplished on the field of play as a player, and putting he or she in charge of a high-profile team or program is basically just allowing for on-the-job training.
Because as a first-time head coach, the first thing you learn is what you don’t know.
Deion says he knows everything there is to know about the game of football – and he’s probably right. But he didn’t arrive in Boulder knowing how to be an effective head coach. He’d been at it for all of three years. Three.
On the other hand, Cignetti had four decades of college football coaching experience under his belt when he took the job at Indiana.
So Mark Cuban or no Mark Cuban, there’s still a significant difference between men like Curt Cignetti – who pay their dues – and men like Deion Sanders – who don’t think they have to. Those are the guys who, regardless of the money, don’t make it to the very top.
