After an undefeated season, the Indiana Hoosiers are one win away from winning the College Football Playoff National Championship.
Led by head coach Curt Cignetti and Heisman Trophy winner Fernando Mendoza, the Hoosiers look to win their first championship in program history against the Miami Hurricanes at Hard Rock Stadium on January 19.
What Cignetti has accomplished in Indiana in such a short time is nothing short of historic. Over the past two seasons, he led the Hoosiers from being a perennial loser to going 26-2.
By the 64-year-old coach’s side throughout all his success, Cignetti’s wife, Manette Cignetti, with whom he shares three children, Natalie, Carly, and Curtis. Cignetti recalled telling his wife that he planned to decline Indiana’s offer ahead of the 2024 season to keep coaching at James Madison.
GettyIndiana Hoosiers Head coach Curt Cignetti of the Indiana Hoosiers celebrates with his family at Rose Bowl Stadium on January 01, 2026.
“[Indiana athletic director Scott Dolson] called me up and said, ‘Congratulations, you’re the new head coach at Indiana, and we’re going to kick some butt,’” Cignetti recalled. “He didn’t give me a chance to say no. He told me I’m the new head coach. My wife said, ‘You should have seen that look in your eye,’ like what did I do?”
Here’s what you need to know about Manette Cignetti:
Curt Cignetti Proposed to Manette Lawer After Just a Few Weeks of Dating
Cignetti first met his future wife when they were both visiting their respective parents at home in Indiana, Pennsylvania. Manette attended school in Pittsburgh to become a pharmacist while Cignetti worked as the quarterbacks coach at Rice University in Houston.
The duo hit it off at a party and dated for only a few weeks before the two-time AP Coach of the Year got down on one knee.
“We were doing a long-distance keep in touch,” Manette told the IndyStar in 2024. “Then I went to visit him for Halloween, and he asked me to marry him.”
Curt & Manette Cignetti Got Married in 1989
And what made her say yes? “He’s super organized. He’s everything I’m not,” Manette said. “He’s always looking for the edge. He can juggle anything. He leads by example. He has great integrity. He’s a great role model for these kids. He’s 100% all in and that’s why his players are the same way.”
They tied the knot on May 27, 1989.
Cignetti’s Kids All Followed in Their Mother’s Career Path
While Cigentti followed in his father’s footsteps as a coach — Frank Cignetti Sr. was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2013 — his kids followed their mother’s path into science. Both of their daughters followed up college with medical school.
“Both are doctors now,” the Athletic reported in October 2024, “while Curtis got into medical sales.” Curtis and his wife, Amy, have two kids, Sophia and Isabelle.
As of June 2025, Natalie is an Academic Chief Resident at Carolina Rehabilitation. Natalie’s fiancée, Trent VanHorn, who proposed on the field after Indiana defeated Michigan 20-15 last year, is a neurosurgeon in Charlotte.
Manette Is ‘Really Proud’ of Curt Cignetti & His Success With the Indiana Hoosiers
GettyHoosiers head coach Curt Cignetti hoists the George P. Crumbley Trophy after defeating the Oregon Ducks in the 2025 College Football Playoff Semifinal.
While Cignetti was initially hesitant to take the Hoosiers’ job, Manette was thrilled for her husband and how it all worked out. “We were like, ‘This is the big time. It doesn’t get any bigger than this,'” she told the IndyStar. “I was just really proud. It’s been a long road, and he’s worked so hard.”
The love goes both ways. Curt described his wife as a “superstar” to Bloom magazine.”It’s incredible what she did with those kids. When they were young, we didn’t move much. In coaching, it’s all about family when you have free time.”
Manette Initially Didn’t Want Cignetti to Leave Alabama & Become IUP’s Head Coach
Cignetti was offered to become the head coach of Indiana University of Pennsylvania, where his father once coached, while working on staff at Alabama. Exiting a job at a top national program to lead a Division II school, which included a pay cut, wasn’t exactly appealing.
Manette initially rejected the idea in December 2010. “I said, ‘No, you can’t take it,’” Manette recalled to the Athletic. “I just wasn’t going backward.” While Cignetti turned the job down, they struggled to fill the role and called back two weeks later.
“He looks at me and says, ‘I just really want to be a head coach,'” Manette said. “What am I gonna do? Keep him from his dream? He gave me that look and it was, ‘Oh crap. OK. OK. Let’s go. Let’s do it.’”
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