Where Curt Cignetti Graded Out Among First Year Big Ten Coaches in 2024
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Written by Sammy Jacobs (@Hoosier_Huddle)
The Big Ten broke in five new head football coaches in the 2024 season. Each had different levels of success of failure. The College Football Network graded all of the new Big Ten coaches. The following is from the College Football Network.
Jonathan Smith, Michigan State
Overall Record: 5-7
Big Ten Record: 3-6
Grade: D+
There might not be a first-year college football head coach who was a victim of his own success as Jonathan Smith. After making the Oregon State Beavers a relevant program in the last couple of seasons (and winning 2022 Pac-12 Coach of the Year), the preseason expectations placed on the Michigan State Spartans were perhaps a little misplaced for a program competing in a reinforced Big Ten.
That said, Smith's Michigan State team returned 60% of the production from 2023 and bolstered their ranks with several high-profile transfer portal additions, including Aidan Chiles. His struggles resulted in a conference-high 11 interceptions, ensuring that an offense that saw some improvement had a lower ceiling than expected, with all-bar-one win coming by one score or less.
Jedd Fisch, Washington
Overall Record: 6-7
Big Ten Record: 4-5
Grade: C+
Jedd Fisch did an amazing job at Arizona in 2023, immediately becoming a frontrunner for any job that came up in the 2023-2024 hiring cycle. He stepped into DeBoer's shoes at Washington, facing a sizeable task with the departure of Michael Penix Jr. and a host of NFL-caliber WRs. The Huskies returned just 40% of their 2023 production, a factor in the first-year head coach grade here.
In addition to losing talent, Fisch had to navigate the transition to a more competitive conference. To his credit, the team improved on defense, allowing an average of one point less per game. However, they lost the Apple Cup, most of their losses in the second half of the season were seriously lopsided, and ended the year with a losing record for the first time since the 2021 campaign.
Deshaun Foster, UCLA
Overall Record: 5-7
Big Ten Record: 3-6
Grade: B-
There was a lot of hype and fanfare around the UCLA Bruins following their hire of former player Deshaun Foster, but the 2024 season largely failed to live up to that excitement. UCLA slid over 50 spots in both offensive and defensive scoring compared to 2023. A sure sign of a coach under pressure, Foster fired offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy following the season.
As a saving grace, the Bruins had to deal with a difficult schedule that included the two Big Ten Championship Game protagonists and only dropped one conference game compared to their previous season in the Pac-12. Meanwhile, their 2025 recruiting class was ranked 43 spots higher than in the 2024 cycle.
Sherrone Moore, Michigan
Overall Record: 8-5
Big Ten Record: 5-4
Grade: B
Sherrone Moore comfortably had the most difficult job relative to the expectation of any first-year college football head coach in these rankings. He inherited a team that had an undefeated national title-winning campaign under a head coach who has been revered at the Michigan Wolverines. While he was at the forefront of last year’s success, expecting him to replicate it in Year 1 was outrageous.
Moore inherited a team that lost one of the top running backs in college football (Blake Corum) and a first-round NFL Draft quarterback in J.J. McCarthy. The Wolverines returned just 36% of their 2023 production. The result was a 7-5 season with a 5-4 Big Ten record with an offense that plummeted from the 14th ranked unit in the country to the 112th.
Curt Cignetti, Indiana
Overall Record: 11-2
Big Ten Record: 8-1
Grade: A+
Who else would lead the first-year head coach grades than the man who did the seemingly impossible and made the Indiana Hoosiers nationally relevant again? Curt Cignetti has redefined what it means to immediately impact a program. After all, he's been doing it at every spot along his coaching journey. Yet, this time, the spotlight of national attention shone more brightly on his accomplishments than ever before.
Cignetti would have you Google his accomplishments, but let's spell some out for you here. No other first-year head coach led his team to a bigger winning swing than the eight-game difference from 2023 vs. 2024. Indiana's Big Ten record contained seven more wins this year compared to last. His team scored 19.1 more points per game than the one left behind by Tom Allen while allowing 14.2 less.
From wins to basic and advanced statistics to recruiting to transfer portal prowess, everything about Indiana football under Cignetti was simply better than it has been for years.
Their run to the College Football Playoff was electric despite the national scrutiny and protestations that the Hoosiers didn't belong. Not only did they earn the right to national attention, they're well set up to remain there.