E113 Curt Cignetti The Cignetti Way his story his coaching rise part 2 The late-bloomer who is blossoming in Bloomington, and is now and currently the best college football coach bar none. Best coach in college football. He has taken the mantle from Kirby Smart who took it from Nick Saban. Cignetti spent nearly 30 years as an assistant coach, an unusually long path in modern college football. While many chase early head-coaching opportunities, he chose to learn—quarterbacks, receivers, recruiting, program management—under multiple staffs and systems. Stops at Pitt, NC State, and Alabama gave him exposure to everything from rebuilding efforts to championship standards. Then he goes into coaching as a coaching lifer. Takes a serious of positional offensive coaching jobs, but was never an offensive coordinator or defensive coordinator during his car ...