ATLANTA – Indiana head coach Curt Cignetti was officially presented with the 2024 Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year at an event held in conjunction with the College Football Playoff (CFP) National Championships at the Westin Peachtree Plaza on Saturday evening. Cignetti received 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.
 
Cignetti led the Hoosiers to the most wins in program history and a spot in the College Football Playoff. 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.
 
"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."
 
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.
 
Indiana earned the No. 10 seed in the expanded CFP and played a First-Round Game on the road against state rival Notre Dame on December 20. Despite losing the Playoff Game, the Hoosiers season was an unconditional success.
 
"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 in Bloomington. The Hoosiers won five games by 30 or more points, tying a school-record from 1917. IU's 68 offensive touchdowns were another program record and led 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 has compiled a 130-37 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 14 seasons as a head coach, he has never had a losing season, and he became 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 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. 
 
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 game day operations while presenting awards and honors, including an annual All-America team.