BLOOMINGTON – Pat Kuntz left Roncalli High School twice in his life.
Once, as a celebrated defensive tackle, a three-time state champion bound for Notre Dame. And a second time, as a young coach who — after five years mentoring young men walking the same path Kuntz once trod — was ready to test himself in college football again.
Described by Curt Cignetti as “a fireball,” Kuntz is in his seventh year as a full-time college assistant. The sophomore tackle Roncalli coach Bruce Scifres used to watch challenge seniors like a team captain is carving out a career coaching his old position, and coaching it well.
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At James Madison, Kuntz’s lines anchored some of the most disruptive defenses in the Sun Belt Conference, and helped the Dukes rise from FCS powerhouse to FBS success virtually overnight.
Now, he’s back home, with Cignetti, trying to do the same thing at the school where he once worked as a graduate assistant. And he couldn’t be happier.
“You learn in every opportunity,” Kuntz said. “I thought, ‘I can coach at this level,’ going out from high school, for 5-6 years, and just scratching and clawing to get this opportunity.
“Once I was here, I knew that I belonged.”
‘You knew he was destined for big things…’
Kuntz caught Bruce Scifres’ attention during his sophomore year at Roncalli.
Funny and easygoing off the football field, Kuntz could not have been more different on it. He attacked every practice, every lift, every film session with intensity Scifres had rarely seen in a player so young. But his coach knew with certainty Kuntz was different one day during individual 1-on-1 drills.
Roncalli was at the peak of its powers in the early 2000s. After winning three state titles in the 1990s, the Rebels would tear off three in a row from 2002-04, Kuntz’s last three seasons in high school.
Winning was such a habit for Roncalli in those days, young players rarely challenged older ones. Kuntz was the exception. When it was time to call out an opponent for blocking drills, or when a senior needed barked at to sharpen his focus, it was the fiery sophomore tackle whose voice Scifres heard more and more often.
“He’s naturally just a highly competitive person, and extremely intense,” Scifres said. “He’s one of those guys, he’s got a great sense of humor, he’s a lot of fun to be around off the field, but the moment practice would start, or especially a game would start, I never coached a more intense player.”
Kuntz played a part in those three-straight state titles, then took his career to South Bend. A four-year letterwinner, he started at nose guard for three seasons. Twice, he was named Fighting Irish lineman of the year, and he led the country in pass break-ups by a defensive lineman in 2007.
After a brief stint with the Colts, Kuntz returned to his high school alma mater to coach defensive line.
Scifres had seen Kuntz flourish under Roncalli’s developmental pillars — faith, character, academics, athletic achievement — and he knew Kuntz’s passion for football. The hire was an easy one.
“He was so passionate about it. He has great people skills. He was highly motivated himself, and thus able to motivate others as well,” Scifres said. “It was one of those things where you knew he was destined for big things if he was going to stay in coaching.”
From 2010-13, Kuntz coached Roncalli’s defensive line. He spent two more years as full defensive coordinator, before coming to Scifres with an opportunity.
A graduate assistant position had opened up at Indiana. Kuntz, who always retained college-level ambitions, wanted to take it. He went with his old coach’s blessing.
“I had zero doubt,” Scifres said, “that was where he was going to end up.”
High-energy: ‘That’s just the way he’s wired.’
Bryant Haines occupied one of those defensive GA spots in Bloomington before Kuntz.
Haines, an All-MAC linebacker at Ball State during his playing career, spent 2012 working in the role for then-coach Kevin Wilson, before another year as a GA at Ohio State and then a full-time job as defensive line and strength and conditioning coach at Indiana (Pa.).
He worked there for two years, for a coach named Curt Cignetti. In 2016, Haines left for UC-Davis but a year later Cignetti, by then at Elon, wanted him back. Haines went to Elon, then James Madison, with Cignetti, who eventually elevated the former Cardinal to full defensive coordinator in 2022.
One of Haines’ first priorities: find a defensive line coach. He remembered a former Indiana GA, by that point at the Virginia Military Institute, friends recommended and Haines himself knew.
“I knew coach Kuntz from a long time back,” Haines said. “I knew that he and I were aligned. We had talked enough ball for me to understand that he was kind of in the same boat as me.
“As I started to call around for D-line coaches, he was one of my first calls. Just good conversation. Philosophically, if you have ball guys, you can recognize them pretty quickly.”
Kuntz had been part of a VMI staff that guided the Keydets to their first Southern Conference title since 1977. Four of his players won all-conference honors. He preached an aggressive playing style and matched it with the same demanding passion Scifres had recognized in him years earlier.
Kuntz’s philosophical alignment with Haines translated to the field immediately.
“He coaches the hell out of those guys, and the coaching points he has are always almost the exact same thing I would say,” Haines said.
In 2022, James Madison finished second nationally among FBS teams in rushing yards allowed and tackles for loss logged per game.
The next fall, the Dukes did one better — in both categories.
“What makes him a good coach is not just what he teaches, Xs and Os and the scheme within the defense, but the life lessons he gives us and the energy he brings,” said Jamree Kromah, now with the Chicago Bears. “He always brings energy and motivation. He knows how to control the room and keep guys motivated.”
When Cignetti made the move from Harrisonburg to Bloomington last winter, he brought six assistants with him. Kuntz was among them.
“He’s a high-energy guy,” Cignetti said. “Probably has been that way his whole life. That’s just the way he’s wired.”
Already making a difference with IU football
Kuntz approaches every player with the same question to begin the offseason: What’s your WHY?
It’s an acronym: What Holds You. It underpins the approach of a position coach whose players praise him as a person just as much as they do a mentor.
“I categorize it in two ways,” Kuntz said. “What holds you back? What holds you accountable?”
Maybe the first is a lack of confidence, or a fear of failure. The second is a motivating tool. Together, they help Kuntz coach players who return his sometimes-tough love with equal belief.
Kuntz’s toughness breeds theirs. His energy infects. And his investment in his players as people earns their implicit trust.
“It’s not about the plays. It’s about the players you have. You put guys in the best positions to be successful,” Kromah said. “Coach Kuntz, he saw something in me I might not have seen in myself at the time.”
On the field, Kuntz’s personality matches his coaching philosophy. He emphasizes aggressiveness after the snap and a clear-eyed picture of everything going on before it, so his players can be ready for any necessary adjustment.
At Indiana, he coaches defensive tackles specifically, but James Carpenter — who was with Kuntz at James Madison — says the style hasn’t changed anymore than the man has.
“He’s big on verticality, getting in the backfield, playing free,” Carpenter said. “He doesn’t really put too many limitations on us, which is good as a defensive lineman. I don’t want to be in there thinking, what happens if this happens, certain blocks. He lets us play free, open, vertical, up the field, which is kind of a dream as a defensive lineman.”
Returns through these first two weeks match those from Kuntz’s previous stops.
Working with defensive ends coach Buddha Williams, Kuntz has helped build a line at the heart of the only defense in the Big Ten already in double digits in sacks. The Hoosiers are third in the league in tackles for loss as well, having allowed just three rushing plays of 10-plus yards.
Small sample sizes, yes, and overmatched opponents, to be sure. What Cignetti will be most encouraged by is IU’s immediate embrace of the same aggressive, attacking defense that returned so much success at James Madison. And among his tackles, the same camaraderie and belief that made the Dukes so tough up front.
“We’ve been able to play a lot faster, a lot more physical,” returning defensive lineman Marcus Burris said. “He’s a lot more intense than a lot of the D-line coaches that you see today. It’s been really effective, really fun. I’m actually glad I got a chance to stay here and play for somebody like coach Kuntz.”
‘I’m the luckiest man in the world.’
His players aren’t the only ones grateful.
Bloomington holds special meaning for Kuntz. He met his wife, Amber, here. Her family spreads from Bloomington to Evansville, and coaching at IU means being close to Kuntz’s family as well. That means grandparents time with Kuntz’s sons, Axel and Harlow, who he described eagerly as “little hellraisers.”
“I’m the luckiest man in the world,” Kuntz said.
If the decision to move back to Indiana was easy, the job ahead is more difficult. The Hoosiers have managed a strong start to Cignetti’s first season, albeit against a forgiving nonconference schedule.
That schedule toughens starting Saturday, with what shapes up as a pivotal conference opener at UCLA. These are the coin-toss games (IU is a narrow favorite) on which seasons turn toward bowl berths — or quiet ends.
The start thus far has been particularly encouraging for an Indiana defense still building depth and searching for playmakers. Already, Haines’ attacking style has yielded results, adopting the same identity that served his defenses so well at James Madison.
Central to that has been Kuntz, the firebrand tackles coach who teaches tough and preaches togetherness. Whose players take hard coaching because they know the man dishing it out makes them his priority.
Pat Kuntz is back home, hellbent on raising IU football up and loving every minute of it.
“That’s just Pat Kuntz, man,” Cignetti said. “He loves football. He loves coaching. He loves being on the field. He gets after it in recruiting. …
“He’s come a long way as a coach in the three years he’s been with me. He’s been a tremendous asset.”
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