A Love Letter to Indiana Football & Coach Cignetti

Dear Coach Curt Cignetti,

Thank you for everything!

Thank you for helping galvanize our team, win our community over with your team’s skill and might, and bring life back to my home for 16 years in Bloomington, Indiana.

This team and your staff have brought our community to a positive standstill. We have gone through coach after coach, but we have had a few over the years who brought success, such as Lee Corso, Coach Hep, Tom Allen in 2019 and 2020, and even Bill Lynch, who led our team after tragedy.

This team is different than the others.

We are a more smashmouth approach to a once mediocre football team and right away you made an impact that I never thought in your first season that you would make this much of an impact.

Your offensive linemen are off-the-charts impressive, and the offensive line led by quarterback Kurtis Rourke has made an impact right away.

Our receivers are hitting their strives, our team, in one season, is doing an incredible job at providing a spark to our offensive line and driving to the endzone.

The defense… what more can I say?

Compared to a year ago where we struggled to find a defensive coordinator, our team with guys you transferred from your previous role at James Madison, is just eating men for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

As my sister would say, it seems like our defense, “Loves Chum” ing the quarterback everytime we blow a team out by 40 points, even that would have not happened a year ago, even ten years ago!

What you have done for alums like me is special!

We had Joe Buck, the legendary ESPN sports commentator who admitted back in 1995 when he started working for his dad at KMOX FM in St. Louis, that he never graduated from IU, wore your shirt, like many other alums have done, screaming, “CIGNETTI” in the shape of the Marlboro logo. Promoting our team and our school on MONDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL!

Yes, THAT Monday Night Football!

Our alums are united sporting your shirts and hats like we did once Coach Tom Allen promoted the message L-E-O (Love Each Other) and even after Terry Heoppner’s passing, we sported our love about his Rock you tap every time you take the field.

You have united our alumni network, with shoutouts from Buck, Trayce Jackson-Davis, and even some of my friends who graduated this May, and other who graduated from 1933-2023 love what you have done to this team.

As our over 600,000+ alums have never been this united over a good football team in a long time!

Every time I see #IUFB on my X/Twitter feed, we have always been #NeverDaunted, but more than ever you have proven to the non believers and to the whole Big Ten Conference, which is weak in nature, that we are daunted and united as a campus.

You also have united our student body and staff, dealing with the controversial rulings and laws abided after a disastrous last two weeks of classes last semester. Leadership and their role in dealing with how to handle the Israel and Palestinian War has been a mess and a black eye to our university as we are still dealing with this problem.

Every time IU is on, people stop and watch because they know we are making history every time you and your team step on the field!

We can be a school of controversy, but a future athletics department that is set up for success for the long and even the short term.

Some people may not believe the hype, but I do.

After watching some mediocre football, we needed this change, but I never thought it would come this far this quickly!

A year ago, I never thought we would be here, even three years ago, I never thought we would be sitting here talking about a 6-0 IU football team being bowl-eligible for the first time since the COVID-19 2020 season, or the 2019 regular season for better comparison.

We have seen some terrible football in Indiana. Some bad Colts teams, some bad teams at Purdue and Notre Dame, but Indiana University was hit the hardest with the most losses by any team in the Big Ten Conference.

Who would have even thought teams such as Cal, Navy, Army, and Pitt, teams that were at the bottom of the barrel, are doing as well as IU has done this season.

I am so proud of this team, and proud of this university’s football team.

You have saved our lives in more ways than one as this is a love letter to you and your team. We are 6-0, probably will be 12-0 by the end of this season, and I thank you for saving our school and for providing joy in our lives.

Thank you for everything, and let’s beat Nebraska in two weeks on College GameDay!

Go IU,

Braydyn Lents

IU Bloomington Alumnus, Class of 2024