Indiana will keep its Director of Football Performance, Derek Owings, despite intense speculation that he would leave to join a Big Ten rival in the same role. According to 247Sports’ Matt Zenitz, USC identified Owings as a top target for its head of strength and conditioning role.
However, hours after the report, Indiana sealed a new deal with Owings, which gave him a significant pay rise, according to ESPN’s Pete Thamel. The coach had previously inked a new contract in December, but the Hoosiers were forced to improve the offer after USC’s approach.
“Sources: Indiana Strength coach Derek Owings is staying at IU after signing a three-year deal with a big pay raise. USC made a strong push for him, but IU keeps a key piece of the program’s success,” Thamel wrote on X.
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USC parted ways with Director of Football Sports Performance Bennie Wylie on Tuesday, ending his three-year tenure with the program. Wylie teamed up with the Trojans in 2021, following Lincoln Riley to the program from Oklahoma, where Riley had originally hired him in 2018.
Derek Owings enters his second season at Indiana in 2025 after joining the program alongside head coach Curt Cignetti last season. Cignetti, who led the Hoosiers to their first-ever 10-win season in history, expressed his confidence in him before the team’s spring camp.
“Derek Owings is a guy I got a lot of confidence in,” Cignetti said in February. “Strength and conditioning has really changed through the years. It’s become a very scientific thing. I think he’s on the cutting edge, gets great results. I have 100% confidence in him. I don’t mess with him. That’s his area. I let him go.”
Derek Owings admires his working relationship with Curt Cignetti
One of the factors that could have played a role in Derek Owings’ decision to stay at Indiana was his working relationship with Curt Cignetti. In a February episode of “Under the Hood with Indiana Football,” Owings describes the level of autonomy he has in his job under Cignetti.
“The biggest thing that I love about (Cignetti) is he lets me do my job,” Owings told Rhett Lewis on the podcast. “You know there’s a lot of coaches that want to micromanage.”
“They want to have this, they want to have that, inside the strength conditioning department. He always tells me I hired you for a reason and to go out there and do the best job in America and for me. Our vision is right in line with fast physical, relentless, and that’s how we train.”
Owings first joined Curt Cignetti’s staff at James Madison in 2020, where he spent four seasons overseeing the program’s strength and conditioning efforts. His longstanding professional relationship with Cignetti played a key role in fueling Indiana’s successful 2024 campaign, and the Hoosiers made sure to hold onto his services.
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Edited by Brad Taningco
