Is Cignetti potentially our Bill Snyder?

[Harry Hondo]

Kansas State is ranked in the top 20 right now and since Snyder built the program it’s been a good to very good program. Before Snyder they were a terrible program (.370 winning percentage) and he is credited with singlehandedly making them into the winners that they still are today. Can IU sustain this if Cignetti stays here awhile and has a lot of consistent success?

 

[mobilehoosier]

Great post and question. Not sure if he's our Snyder, but isn't it cool that you can ask that question? At least we have someone that may just pull us out of the basement and into the light. Massive grin! I sure as hell hope the answer is yes! Go Hoosiers!

 

[vesuvius13]

If coach Cignetti was younger, you could say he might be our Coach Bowden. People forget or don't know how bad FSU was before Coach Bowden change them into a national power.

 

[Tammany Hall]

Could be a good comp. He started as the HC at K-State when he was 50.

 

[red hornet]

If coach Cignetti was younger, you could say he might be our Coach Bowden. People forget or don't know how bad FSU was before Coach Bowden change them into a national power.

Right, attended the All-American Bowl in 1986 against FSU/Bobby Bowden & his team was more talented than Indiana's.

 

[kmathum]

Kansas State is ranked in the top 20 right now and since Snyder built the program it’s been a good to very good program. Before Snyder they were a terrible program (.370 winning percentage) and he is credited with singlehandedly making them into the winners that they still are today. Can IU sustain this if Cignetti stays here awhile and has a lot of consistent success?

and as recall he did it with transfers and smart scheduling

 

[HoosierinNebraska]

Bill Snyder was the king of brining in Juco players on an annual basis. Gotta hand it to the guy - he found a way to consistently win 8+ games every season. Cig seems like this is where he'd like to retire and I love what he is building here. Kudos to Dolson and crew for getting him.

 

[IUNorth]

Kansas State is ranked in the top 20 right now and since Snyder built the program it’s been a good to very good program. Before Snyder they were a terrible program (.370 winning percentage) and he is credited with singlehandedly making them into the winners that they still are today. Can IU sustain this if Cignetti stays here awhile and has a lot of consistent success?

Hope so! I think it could happen. Cig is a fair bit older, so we likely won't have him specifically as our head coach for as many years as KState had Snyder. But one of my bigger hopes, outside Cig sticking it out and coaching at IU for 5+ years...is establishing IU as a destination level program for aspiring coaches. Cig has them on his staff now, hopefully one of them has the makings of backfilling him when he's done. THAT is what Cig's biggest and most important contribution to IU football might end up being.

We've had little multiple year bright spots in our program before. I'm not sure at the level we're seeing now, but we've little runs where we've been a top 25 level program for a few years. What everyone before him has failed to do, however, is build any sort of continuity. Hopefully Cig wants to do that, at IU...and then someone like Shanahan takes over...and continues it...

 

[TomEric4756]

I had posited the hope the CCC could be IU’s Bill Snyder.
Like the Bowden CCC comparison too.
It’s hard to see where CCC would get asked to retire at 66 1/2.