President Trump looks for Curt Cignetti on stage, standing beside him, honoring Indiana football team at White House

The 2025 national champion Indiana football team and head coach Curt Cignetti were honored by President Donald Trump at the White House. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

(ASSOCIATED PRESS)

The Indiana University football team visited the White House on Monday to celebrate its 2025 national championship.

Leading the Hoosiers to football glory has made head coach Curt Cignetti a renowned figure in college football (and perhaps the NFL, for teams curious if he could translate his success to the pro game).

Yet despite achieving the seemingly impossible with building a national champion at Indiana in just two seasons and after 15 years as a head coach — seven at the FBS level of college football — Cignetti is still relatively unknown to the general public.

That apparently includes President Donald Trump, who had difficulty identifying the coach when the Hoosiers joined him on stage — even though Cignetti was standing directly to the president’s left.

As he introduced the Indiana football team and noted their achievement, President Trump began to reference Cignetti’s 2023 introductory press conference in Bloomington and his bold response to a question about how he would sell his program to recruits. But he wasn’t aware where the coach he was talking about was standing on stage.

“Who is Curt? Curt Cignetti? Where is Curt Cignetti?” Trump said as he turned to look at the team with him behind the podium. Either he finally realized that the coach was standing beside him or someone whispered to the president where (and who?) Cignetti was.

"Yeah, it's pretty simple. I win. Google me,” Cignetti said in a statement that has already become legendary.

President Trump may have had to follow that suggestion, but he had the benefit of Cignetti standing right next to him. Upon seeing Cignetti, Trump pulled him closer to the podium as he continued an introduction that gained comedic value after the misunderstanding.

“Curt Cignetti has turned out to be, I believe, he’s the coach of the last decade,” Trump added. “Nobody knew him, nobody knew the team and he ended up taking this team all the way.”