Curt Cignetti resigns as head coach of JMU Football

Press release from JMU Athletics.

Quote from JMU President Jonathan R. Alger:

We are grateful to Coach Curt Cignetti and acknowledge the tremendous transformation he has led with the JMU football program. Through his leadership and in partnership with Jeff Bourne, director of athletics, and all of us in leadership at JMU, our university and JMU Athletics have made history with a seamless transition to the Sun Belt Conference and FBS level, and we will soon make history again by playing in our very first FBS bowl game. Despite our very best efforts to retain Curt at JMU, we knew that our success created the strong possibility that he would be highly sought after by Power 5 programs with much larger athletics budgets. We congratulate Curt and his family on the next steps in his coaching career, as he has built a tremendous legacy at JMU.  

In the coming weeks, I want our full focus and support to be on our student-athletes and the pending bowl game we have all anxiously awaited. Given our long track record of success, we are confident that the coaching job at JMU will be a highly coveted position, and that we will attract a very strong national pool of candidates. 

This is a great time to be a Duke, and I am incredibly proud of all of our student-athletes! Their success through competition and in the classroom is setting records and is being widely recognized nationally. Let’s take this moment to rally behind our athletes and coaches, and cheer on our Dukes to even greater achievements in the months and years to come.

See the full press release from JMU Athletics.