Not sure I've ever had confidence like I do now in recruiting. I can see why Dolsen had recruiting coordinator as a prerequisite for the HC profile. Got to know how to put deals together to get kids paid. Love to learn how the $$ flowed at Bama Pre-NIL. Cig knows where the Bama $$ skeletons are. Massive grin! Go Hoosiers.
Enjoy watching a master class in portal management.
- Thread starter mobilehoosier
- Start date
Yup. Everyone can pay players now and suddenly....SURPRISE...the SEC is made of mere mortals.
Probably that was more about the recruiting process in general than the portal process in particular.
This year’s portal haul is all the more impressive in that commitments are from all over and not JMU heavy.
As the saying goes … it’s more about the Jimmys and Joes …
Having Cignetti running the operation just gives a sense of big confidence. The guy popped off an 11-2 season in year one, you damn right I trust his recruiting/development.
247 has our portal class ranked 15th as of now.
Are we close on anybody who might get us in the top ten?
Saban swears recruiting was good because Alabama did things 'the right way' and recruits came to practice against the best.
You wouldn't think those McDonalds bags would've been so important though. But I guess athletes doing a lot of weightlifting eat plenty of McMuffins. Dang, no wonder Harbaugh got in trouble for buying recruits some hamburgers, it really pays off!
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Cigs has commented that he wants to rely more on HS recruiting following the 2025 season. That will be an interesting change because that will mean he is expecting current young players to grow into most of the starting roles. (doubt he is expecting a lot of instant starters from the 2026 hs class).
Basically was using 2 years of transfer portals to get instant success that he can sell to jump start hs recruiting. That transition will be the next challenge.
Basically was using 2 years of transfer portals to get instant success that he can sell to jump start hs recruiting. That transition will be the next challenge.
I think you are right but feel like he is going to have to be pretty portal heavy for another couple of classes. You don’t grow most kids into starters over night and you don’t go to the CFP with HS classes ranked in the 40s.
getting hits in your hs classes is more important than where the media has it ranked. if you look back at our past classes (even before the portal era), it was amazing to see the percentage of each class that didn't contribute at all to the team (at least on the field) before flaming out or disappearing.
Cigs isn't paying attention to where a class is ranked by the media. However, I bet he will be better than past coaches at getting a higher percentage of hits from his hs classes though. Getting more hits will equal better depth, which is often as big of an issue for us as top end talent.
Portal diving to cover up misses that happened in hs recruiting will always be needed every year (portal will never/rarely go to 0) but the focus won't be on portal from here on out if everything goes as planned.
NIL has killed their depth. They don't have All Americans 3 deep anymore. They had bad ass linemen and speed waiting in the wings. Now they can move on freely if there is a log jam.
Derrick Henry wasn't Alabama's feature back until his junior year. Now he'd be incentivized to be in the portal.
WIth a punter and kicker driving the ratings down.
We've seen however, how important the kicking (punting) portion is on overall performance especially in big games, aka. OSU & ND. Our punting there cost us dearly.
Everybody knows the Alabama recruits and SEC recruits in general just want an endless supply
of corn pone & okra.
At JMU Cig built his teams with HS recruits. 13 of them were good enough to come to IU and 2 of them became AA's. I'm not worried about how he will recruit the HS ranks now that he's at IU. He's in a great spot to be able to attack it from both sides. He's got way more buzz than ever before, plus the recent CFP appearance, and that's what you need to recruit HS kids. He has a proven track record with transfers and we have the NIL to afford them.
3 All Americans. All returning.
The kicker is a walk on, from my understanding.
The two portal gets with no rankings (N/A) are a Kicker and a Long Snapper.
Interesting to look at the BT as well.......OSU, Michigan, and Penn State are three of the LEAST active teams in the portal. Oregon IS active, but my understanding is that they are losing a lot in the portal.
Meanwhile, on the cusp teams like Nebraska, Wisconsin, and Indiana are quite active. I think its the portal, not NIL, that is making 2nd tier teams more competitive.
We’ll see.
Not all portal activity is voluntary.
You can’t just add more HS kids to replace upper class transfers out. Even the top programs have plenty of those.
A team like Ohio State is as active as they need to be. They got 2 starting DBs, a starting lineman, RB1, QB1 and QB1 heir apparent. That’s just the guys I remember off the top of my head.
I agree that the portal is more important than NIL. But the marquee guys are leaving for cash. Just my opinion.
HS recruiting is going the way of the dodo. Portal and free agency is where it’s at.
Recruit, develop, and pay to retain OL/DL and exercise the portal to fill immediate skill position needs. Should be the blueprint to follow going forward.
