If you only watched a supercut of Indiana coach Curt Cignetti’s facial expressions this season, you would think he was the head coach of a 6-6 team—and that’s probably the way he likes it.
An implicit “never too high, never too low” mantra governed Cignetti’s Hoosiers, and because of that they beat Miami 27–21 Monday to become the most unlikely national champion in college football history. It’s a mindset Cignetti has cultivated for years—dating back to his days at James Madison, as fans found out from his daughter Natalie Tuesday.
In the run-up to the national championship, fans gravitated to a 2019 tweet where Natalie asked Curt whether he was happy about demolishing Monmouth 66–21 in the second round of the FCS playoffs. His response was a curt (pun intended) “No”; the Dukes wound up falling to North Dakota State in the national championship.
Natalie revealed that she posed the same question to Curt on Tuesday, telling him that fans were “wondering if you are happy now.”
“Yes,” Cignetti replied with a string of exclamation-point emojis.
Despite his stoic public persona, Cignetti—who quipped postgame that he couldn’t retire because he “(needed) the money”—can be jovial and even funny at times.
Just not on the clock.
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