He had to do something to reset the overall TEAM mindset/approach so in that sense bringing in the JMU guys seems to be a good move...
My only concern is that he may actually believe JMU was capable of playing a Big Ten schedule and still having a winning record last Fall... If he's deluded himself into believing that then we might be in for a long season... Confidence is a good thing to have... Hubris..., not so much...
Right now I believe our greatest weakness is at Linebacker, specifically MLB... If Cignetti truly believes he can win while playing his All Sunbelt guy from JMU at that position as the starter I fear he's in for a rude welcome to Big Ten Football...
I'm extremely disappointed that we haven't brought in at least one more LB from the Portal to go along with the guy from UMass...
Of all the JMU guys that transferred in that you saw play in the spring game, which of those players was worse than a returning player? I didn't see one. I suppose you could argue that Sarratt might be worse than Williams or McCulley, but Sarratt is legit.
Missing out this spring were the two OL (Stephens and Kidwell), the DT (Carpenter) and the linebacker (Walker) was dinged up, who is supposed to be outstanding.
Just going by position group makes things even clearer:
QB: Rourke/Jackson of 2024 is far better than 2023 Sorsby/Jackson;
RB: Black (JMU); Ellison (portal); Lawton (JMU) are better than last year's crew of Lucas, et al;
WR: Sarratt (JMU), Price, McCulley, Cooper, EJ WIliams, Cooper, Cross and Ke'Shawn Williams are light years above last year's group.
OL: Carter/Stephens (JMU)/Katic/Kidwell (JMU)/Wedig might be better than last year's group or it might be a draw, but I will take Stephens, Kidwell, Wedig over Benson all day
DL: Kamara (JMU); West; Carpenter (JMU); Burris, Carr, Tucker will be better than last year's group as a whole with Carter/Blidi/Cox and Lucas gone. Cox and Lucas were not good at all. Kamara might end up being a better pass rusher than Carter and Carpenter/Burris will be far more active in this system. And CJ west is the real deal when you watch him play against really good teams;
LB: We lose Casey, and that's a problem, but Fisher appears to be a quicker version than Casey and active. Not sure he is quick to diagnose as casey tho. Walker is great. He is legit and is an upgrade. Again, two JMU guys who are clearly better than what was on the roster.
CB: Pond is a legit player (another JMU guy). Losing Minor hurts, but Jamier Johnson looked good in spring game. Not sure what to make of Sharpe. I think we have a pretty good shot at being a lot better at the corner position
S: Losing Moore hurts. I think the guys we have that were in for spring looked decent enough, but Moore was damn good.
Point being is that the JMU guys that came in were all upgrades--not even sure it was close. Sad to say, but Allen's staff did not ultimately recruit well enough overall and certainly not consistent enough over the years. Pretty sure the current staff would likely echo that sentiment.