Curt Cignetti was introduced to the Elon community at a January 2 news conference in Alumni Field House.
Saying he wants to build a football program that mirrors the dynamic institution that Elon has become, Curt Cignetti was introduced Monday, Jan. 2, to the university community and its supporters at Alumni Field House.
Cignetti was named as the new head football coach on Dec. 31, and comes to Elon from Indiana University of Pennsylvania, a school whose program he has revived during the past six years. Cignetti brings with him the experience and coaching insight he honed as an assistant coach with the N.C. State University and University of Alabama programs before taking the reins as a head coach at Indiana University of Pennsylvania.
Cignetti, 55, said he had not intended to look for other coaching opportunities in the off season, given what he has built at IUP, which posted a 53-17 record during his tenure, but wanted to see what Elon had to offer. He became familiar with Elon during his time as an assistant coach at N.C. State in Raleigh from 2000 to 2006 under Chuck Amato. He said when he visited campus to explore the head coaching position, he couldn’t believe how Elon has developed since he left the area.
“When I came down and saw the growth and development that has taken place at Elon since I was at N.C. State, and then met the people,” Cignetti said,”and listened to their vision, and looked with my eyes at what they had done over the last 10 to 12 years, it was very apparent to me that this was a dynamic growing university.”
Elon Director of Athletics Dave Blank said Cignetti was someone Elon was interested in from the start of its search “and we couldn’t be more thrilled to have Curt here at the end of our process.” Blank noted that Cignetti grew up in a football family — his father, Frank Cignetti, spent nearly two decades as head coach at IUP and was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2013, and his brother, Frank Cignetti Jr., has coached at the college and professional levels.
A quarterback at West Virginia University, Cignetti served in assistant coaching roles at Davidson College, Rice University, Temple University and the University of Pittsburgh before taking over as recruiting coordinator and quarterbacks/tight end coach at N.C. State in 2000.
At N.C. State, Cignetti helped recruit such future stars as quarterbacks Philip Rivers and Russell Wilson before leaving in 2007 to work under Nick Saban at the University of Alabama during a stretch when the school won a national championship in 2009 with an undefeated record.
“We wanted strong leadership,” Blank said. “We wanted someone who had demonstrated a commitment to the student athletes. If you can imagine someone you’re looking to secure for Elon University, who has grown up from day one doing what we want to do here, that’s Curt Cignetti.”
Joining Cignetti at Monday’s event was his wife, Manette, and two of their three children — Carly Ann and Natalie Elise, who plays volleyball at IUP. Cignetti said a move back to North Carolina, particularly given its warmer climate and proximity to the beach, was part of the appeal of the position at Elon, particularly from his wife’s point of view.
But what he found at Elon, and where he sees the university and its athletics programs heading were the main reasons Cignetti said he decided to leave what he has built at IUP for what he believes he can build at Elon. “There are a lot of good student-athletes out there that fit Elon. It’s our job to find them, he said.
“I look at the whole university and what’s happened academically, with the growth it’s seen and the kind of students they are bringing in,” Cignetti said. “That’s what we’re going to try to do in football.”