In order to appreciate sport from a fan’s perspective, it’s imperative to understand the full scope of how impactful the coaches are. Especially in collegiate sport, where raw and malleable players are moulded. Prodigies and potential cultivated into productivity. Not merely the coaches you see trudging along the sidelines on Saturdays, barking instructions and calling intricate plays. There are coaches in the shadows whose imprint is just as crucial, but maybe not as cherished. USC’s Lincoln Riley tried adding one such coach to his staff, but his current employers, Indiana and Curt Cignetti, have put their foot down to thwart their B1G contemporaries.
You don’t need to be privy to the Xs and Os to be a strength and conditioning coach. Instinctively, and maybe a little naively, you may think of these coaches as glorified personal trainers. Brutes who run bog-standard drills and exercises across the team. Replaceable, even. You’d be thoroughly mistaken. These are professionals with extensive, in-depth knowledge of how to go about things. What epitomizes their role is the fact that they’re tasked with physically preparing young adults who seek to play and thrive in a game that exacts a bigger physical toll than any other. Every regime for every player is carefully crafted to suit them. Since biology isn’t linear or transferable across humans. Coach Cignetti’s Indiana boasts one of the top S&A coaches in the country. Courtesy of Coach Riley’s interest, he’s now going to get paid like that, too!
IU’s Director of Athletic Performance Derek Owings found himself garnering eyeballs all the way from the Pacific Coast. Owings has been on Curt Cignetti’s staff for 5 years now, entering his 6th. Since coming over to Bloomington from James Madison last year, the duo has instantaneously changed the fortunes of the program. Leading this perennial afterthought amidst the stacked Big 10 to the CFP. Head coach Cignetti has naturally gained plaudits in the mainstream. But Owings’ contributions certainly didn’t go unnoticed among his peers in the coaching realm. There’s been publicized interest from USC to bring him over. In some ways akin to how they just poached Notre Dame GM Chad Bowden earlier in the offseason. So to fend off their fellow conference members and, at the same time, reciprocate the value he brings, IU has given Derek Owings a huge pay rise.
Over on X, CBS Sports’ Matt Zenitz reports, “Indiana’s new deal for Derek Owings is set to be in excess of $900,000 per year and will make him one of the nation’s five highest-paid strength and conditioning coaches, a source tells @CBSSports. They’d made it a big priority to keep Owings, who had been a target for USC.” His work and eminence reverberating over to the West Coast sure worked out well for Owings. Zenitz also contextualized how much of a rise in income this really is. “Owings, who’s viewed as a big-time rising star in the strength and conditioning world, has been a key behind-the-scenes piece for Curt Cignetti at both Indiana and James Madison. Had been making $635,000. Now set for a significant jump with the new deal,” he added in the comments of the aforementioned X post.
Indiana’s new deal for Derek Owings is set to be in excess of $900,000 per year and will make him one of the nation’s five highest paid strength and conditioning coaches, a source tells @CBSSports.
They’d made it a big priority to keep Owings, who had been a target for USC.… pic.twitter.com/Qoqjl999gk
— Matt Zenitz (@mzenitz) May 6, 2025
The post Tough Blow for Lincoln Riley as Curt Cignetti Does the Unthinkable to Stop USC’s Desperate Poaching Attempt appeared first on EssentiallySports.