Long before Cignetti led Indiana to its first perfect regular season and the No. 1 seed in the College Football Playoff, he built a winner while honing a blueprint for success at his first head coaching job -- Division II IUP. Cignetti had spent nearly three decades as an assistant, including four seasons (2007-10) under Nick Saban at Alabama, before he got the opportunity to run his own program.
"I think Mac was one of those guys who was in bad situations in New England relative to coaching and all that type of stuff, and who was the offensive coordinator, and how did he get developed when he came into the league. He hasn't been in great circumstances. I think, right now, he is in a really good circumstance with Shanahan and their offense."