Tino Sunseri, Who Had Been With Curt Cignetti Since 2021 But Left Before Indiana's National Championship Season, Is Returning to Indiana
Remember Tino Sunseri? Not necessarily from his recent stint as a quarterbacks coach under Cignetti, and his subsequent "mutual parting of ways" with UCLA after serving as their OC for a grand total of 4 games. But non-Indiana/UCLA football fans might better remember the name Tino Sunseri from his quarterbacking days at the University of Pittsburgh.
Tino Sunseri – A+ quarterback name. Before looking at his stats, I would have told he was way better than he was in college. I would have thought Tino Sunseri threw for 4,000+ yards and had Pitt knocking on the door of a Big East Championship. Which is far from the case. They were quite average. But that's what a great name will do for your reputation.
Tino Sunseri also won a Grey Cup with the Saskatchewan Roughriders in 2013 (as the 3rd string quarterback), and according to his Wikipedia page, still holds the all-time professional record (CFL & NFL combined) for most 2-point conversions in a single game. He had 3 of them. He shares that crown with Carson Wentz.
Since retiring from Canadian football, Tino Sunseri embarked on a coaching career. Like most up and coming coaches, he bounced around plenty. He bounced form various low-level coaching jobs with Florida State, Tennessee, and Alabama, before joining up with Curt Cignetti and the James Madison Dukes in 2021. The coaching staff now responsible for the greatest turnaround in the history of sport. Tino Sunseri was the QB Coach on that staff.
Clearly, things went well for Tino Sunseri under Cignetti. In their final season at JMU, they won the Sun Belt, and quarterback Jordan McCloud threw for 3,657 yards + 35 TD's.
Good enough to get Curt Cignetti hired at Indiana. He brought Tino Sunseri with him.
The next QB Tino had to work with – senior transfer Kurtis Rourke. With Kurtis Rourke in 2024, the Indiana Hoosiers shocked the world. They took the most losing ass team in college football history and made the College Football Playoffs in their first year. The coaching staff was incredible. Kurtis Rourke was incredible.
But then Tino Sunseri made a decision that I have to think could haunt him for life. After joining Cignetti's staff in 2021, and witnessing the miracles that were happening underneath him, Bryant Haines, and Mike Shananan, instead of sticking around for just one more season to be a part of the most magical run in college football history… to go down in the history books as the QB Coach of a Heisman winning quarterback on a team that will forever be in the argument for greatest college football team ever… Tino Sunseri took the OC job at UCLA. Under Head Coach DeShaun Foster.
Advertisement
He was in LA. However, only three games into the season, after three consecutive losses to the likes of Utah (10-43), UNLV (23-30), and New Mexico (10-35), DeShaun Foster was fired. After a 4th loss to Northwestern (14-17), Tino Sunseri was out the door.
To make matters worse, once Tino was gone, this is what happened in UCLA's very next game.
Tino Sunseri had to watch his teams triumphantly carry his replacement OC off the field. In one game vs #7 Penn State, as 24.5-point underdogs, the UCLA offense nearly scored more points than Tino Sunseri's offense had in the 4 prior games combined. Jerry Nueheisel was showered with so much praise, half the world thought he was the head coach.
Meanwhile… his friends back in Bloomington…
Advertisement
While things could not have possibly gone worse for Tino at UCLA, things could not have possibly gone better at Indiana. But still, Indiana is thrilled to have Tino Sunseri back. It may seem like small potatoes now, but what Indiana did on offense with him on staff in 2024 still might be the second most magical season in college football history. That's how bad Indiana was before. But god damn… I love you Tino… but that decision to leave for UCLA in 2025 has to be tough to swallow.
Anyways… great to have you back, Tino! Time to go win one for yourself! He's got a hell of a talent to work with in TCU transfer Josh Hoover. Hopefully, now that Tino has rejoined Indiana, the Hoosiers will go on to win countless National Championships. All with this exact same coaching staff. A coaching staff where nobody ever leaves for bigger opportunities and lives happily ever after winning National Championship after National Championship at the same school. So many National Championships that people forget Tino Sunseri ever left, and will just assume he was with Indiana the whole time.
Go Hoosiers.