Acme Packing Company
In the press conference leading up to the College Football Playoff National Championship, Indiana head coach Curt Cignetti was asked whether he would ever leave for an NFL job, despite Cignetti having a $15 million buyout (cost to poach) and $93 million in guarantees in his most recent extension. Obviously, Cignetti was never going to say, “Yeah, I’d leave college sports,” ahead of the biggest game of his career, but his response was interesting.
He said, “I’m not an NFL guy. I made that decision a long time ago,” which is a pretty boilerplate statement. Then, he brought up the Green Bay Packers.
“I had a chance to go with the Packers, Tom Rossley, Mike Sherman, Favre was in his heyday. I think Darrell Bevell got the job, ended up taking the job. I declined the opportunity. I almost took it. That’s when I made the final decision, and I’ve always been more of a college football guy.”
Based on the timeline, Cignetti was probably offered to be either the team’s initial assistant quarterbacks coach under head coach Mike Sherman in 2000 (when Tom Rossely was also named offensive coordinator) or the Packers’ quarterbacks coach in 2003. Those are the two jobs that went to Darrell Bevell when Rossley and Sherman ran Green Bay’s offense. Green Bay, officially, didn’t have a quarterbacks coach on staff under Sherman until 2003.
At that point in Cignetti’s career, it doesn’t appear that he had any overlaps with either Sherman or Rossely. From 2000 to 2006, Cignetti coached NC State’s quarterbacks and tight ends, on top of being the team’s recruiting coordinator, coming off a stretch where he was quarterbacks coach for Davidson (1985), Rice (1986-1988), Temple (1989-1992) and his hometown team, Pittsburgh (1993-1999).
Over the last three years, Cignetti has gone 37-3 as the head coach of James Madison and Indiana, hardly known for being football powerhouses. In a different world, though, maybe Cignetti ended up coaching Brett Favre and saving Sherman from the 4-12 season in 2005 that ultimately proved to be the nail in his coffin.
You can watch the 15-0 Hoosiers and the projected number one overall quarterback, Fernando Mendoza, play for the title against the Miami Hurricanes at 6:30 pm CT on Monday on ESPN.
