Indiana Hoosiers head football coach Curt Cignetti was named one of nine coaches selected as finalists for the 2024 Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year Award, the Football Writers Association of America (FWAA) made the announcement with the Allstate Sugar Bowl this afternoon.
The other finalists include : Shane Beamer, South Carolina, Spencer Danielson, Boise State; Kenny Dillingham, Arizona State; Marcus Freeman, Notre Dame; Dan Lanning, Oregon; Rhett Lashlee, SMU; Jeff Monken, Army; and Kirby Smart, Georgia.
The finalists have been placed on a ballot which has been sent to the entire FWAA membership. The award honors regular season performance, including conference championship games. The 2024 recipient will be announced on Wed., Dec. 18. The official presentation will be at a reception Sat., Jan. 18, 2025, in Atlanta, the site of the College Football Playoff National Championship.
The Hoosiers (11-1) own the first double-digit-win season in program history and their 8-1 record in Big Ten play are the most wins by an IU team since joining the conference in 1900. Named the Big Ten’s Coach of the Year last week. IU and Cignetti are currently the No. 10 seed and Hoosiers will open with a road game at No. 7 seed Notre Dame on Dec. 20.
Cignetti is the first Division I head coach to start 8-0 or better in consecutive seasons at different school (he also led JMU to a 10-0 start in 2023). Cignetti is Indiana’s third Eddie Robinson Award finalist following Tom Allen in 2020 and IU’s only winner, John Pont in 1967.
"Our nine Coach of the Year finalists represent everything that has defined college football in 2024: From surprise success stories like Curt Cignetti, Jeff Monken, Kenny Dillingham and Rhett Lashlee to the resurgence of South Carolina under Shane Beamer and Boise State under Spencer Danielson, to the programs with sustained excellence under Kirby Smart, Marcus Freeman and Dan Lanning," FWAA president Andrea Adelson said. "Each coach has demonstrated an exceptional ability to get the most out of his players, and we look forward to the winner carrying on the legacy set forth by the legendary Eddie Robinson."
"The FWAA and the Eddie Robinson family believe this is an outstanding group of finalists with a mixture of conference champions and inspiring breakthrough seasons for some teams,” said Eddie Robinson III, Coach Robinson’s grandson, along with FWAA Executive Director Steve Richardson. “The outstanding coaching jobs done by several rising coaches gives us as much depth to this field as we have ever had.
The FWAA membership will have an interesting time picking a winner.""The Allstate Sugar Bowl is proud to work with the FWAA as the title sponsor of the annual Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year Award," said Sugar Bowl Committee President Walter Becker. "Not only do we get to recognize coaching excellence on the football field from around the country, but we also get to honor the legacy of Louisiana’s own Coach Eddie Robinson. We are looking forward to hosting this year’s Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year event next month in Atlanta." per FWAA press release