Curt Cignetti transformed Indiana football into a winner in 2024, and on Tuesday he was rewarded by capturing AP Coach of the Year honors.

Cignetti earned 30 of 45 votes from AP Top 25 voters. Arizona State coach Kenny Dillingham finished 2nd with 8 votes, Oregon coach Dan Lanning received 5 votes and SMU’s Rhett Lashlee got the other 2 votes.

Those 4 coaches all have 1 thing in common — they led their programs to the inaugural 12-team College Football Playoff this season, led by Cignetti, who coached the Hoosiers to a school-record 11 victories and a top-10 ranking. Indiana’s only loss of the regular season came in November at Ohio State, but the Hoosiers still made the Playoff and will face Notre Dame in a first-round showdown on Friday night in South Bend.

“Thank you to The Associated Press for this tremendous team honor,” Cignetti said. “Our program has had a great season, and we look forward to opening the College Football Playoff against Notre Dame on Friday.”

The success at Indiana might have been a surprise to many, but Cignetti has won everywhere he’s been, and it was no different this fall in his first season in Bloomington. The 63-year-old Cignetti has a combined coaching record of 130-36 following his 11-1 season at Indiana, with previous successful stops at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Elon and James Madison.