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I do not fault him for taking the job. Any one of us would have taken it had we been offered. I have no reason to believe he didn't give it his best shot.
IU leaps to 26 in ESPN FPI
- Thread starter TomEric4756
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Again, it’d have to be a massive move up for him to bolt after a single season. Moving down to the ACC for a school like Virginia or Virginia Tech is a lateral move in the P2 era. Unless they offer him a ridiculous amount of money, and they wouldn’t, it’s not a wise or even practical move. Now Florida would classify as a massive upgrade, but guessing 64 year old Cignetti isn’t likely to crack their top 5, maybe even top 10 list. You don’t see elite schools hiring 60+ year old coaches unless they have a long and decorated resume.
I agree. This is the second time IU North predicted Curt bolting for another job. Way too early to be worrying about that. Let’s just enjoy whatever he brings and let the chips fall as they may.
Have you been to a game at Lane Stadium? Va Tech is a step up, likely in every way except the conference they're in. But the ACC is still a P4 conference...and likely quite a lot easier one to navigate going forward than the B10.
8-4 means he'll have turned Indiana around in 1 year. After turning around 2 other programs, in 1 year. I don't think his age will scare many programs away. Florida might have another losing record this year. You don't think they'd seriously consider a guy with his track record of turning programs around immediately. Cignetti for 4-5 years, a stable of younger staff members that will have been with him for a while as candidates to potentially take over when Cignetti is done.
We'll see... I hope it becomes a hot topic nationally, like Allen to various programs did. That means he's doing some cool things this year at IU.
Oh I'll enjoy it. And I hope he creates the talk this year, and then he stays at IU. I get the vibe from him that he processes out certain levels of failure. Like if he does stay at IU to finish his career, and then he hands it off to his best next in line guy...we could have a different program on our hands for quite a while. I wish we had found him 10 years ago.
But I also see his very practical and methodical approach to things, and how he talks. And it took one half of one game to see him very obviously question IU's fanbase. If he does flip everything, and we do go 8-4, and he's looking at half to 3/4 full stadiums in 2nd halves much longer... He doesn't strike me as someone that's going to stick around and "beg" people to come watch the success.
Yes overall MSU performance and subsequent results made me adjust my original evaluation of Jonathan Smith. He looked confident and focused the whole game. Can't say anything like that about Locksley. He's a recruiter, only(?), then you can't say much more.
Yes and Rulhe is competent. He has them playing like a single unit not positions or offense and defense.
No I don’t think Florida would seriously consider a 64 year old candidate after a single 8-4 season, even at a program like IU. Not unless 7 or 8 candidates previously turned down the job.
I think you’re vastly overstating the importance of an empty stadium two games into his tenure. “Build it and they will come” seems to be the mantra Cignetti lives by.
I will be singing CTAs praises again if he returns just half of that buyout.
I get you. But I also remember the vibe at the Cincinnati game a few years ago. That was an awesome environment that I think could have been sustained if IU had kept it going. This fan base is ready for a good program and they will support it. Maybe I still have those rose colored glasses on but why not at this point?
Hope you're right. But the fan base should have been excited to start this year. And while ticket sales were up, butts in the seats were not. If anything, butts in the seats, especially later in the games, was down about as far as I've seen it at IU in a long time. And that's saying something.
I should have started all my posts about this with "I have zero clue on all this, its just a feeling I get watching and listening to Cig." He isn't going to appreciate crowds like this if they continue. He's not wired like Hep was, he's not going to work to create extra theater outside the product on the field. And if they win and the support is lukewarm... I just don't get the feeling he'll want to finish his career at a place he has to convince fans to come to games.
Its just a guess. I hope he keeps the talking point alive by winning a bunch of games this year. We'll see how real the improvements are this Saturday.
Win games and the fans will come. It's as simple as that. The product has been bad for so long that fans stopped caring. I think we've seen over the years that once the football teams provides that small sliver of hope, they'll turn out until you give them a reason not too. Beat UCLA Saturday and the following weeks start to get interesting. Beating FIU and Western Illinois isn't go to move the needle, we've seen this dance all too common.
Lifelong IU football fan here... Sorry, but I've watched this movie play out before. I will not even entertain bowl thoughts until this team wins games like the one coming up.
HE wakes up every morning at the base of the Rocky Mtns. I wouldn't be regretting it!
I’m more worried about him losing his assistants. He’s not used to replacing many. We get poached pretty easily.
The only reason I even had this pop in to my head was watching FSU struggle and lose their first 2 games. Then my IU football pessimism started running wild. Dang...FSU might be looking for a coach, Florida for sure will be, heck maybe Clemson will be, Va Tech loses to Vanderbilt, Notre Dame loses to NIllinois... It really would be the most IU football thing ever for there to be a historic amount of "big schools" looking for coaches in the same year...and IU having a coach that miraculously turned the program around in his first year...
I do think there is some logic driving it. But a lot of things have to happen, including IU winning at a clip that would excite opposing big programs. No matter how it shakes out, I'd love for that to happen.
Good point. I would hope that IU's decision makers would pony up a budget to keep him, AND to keep them...
Its all kumbaya right now...if we look like a solid, well coached, well game planned team and beat UCLA on Saturday... then I think Coach Cig starts getting quite a lot more national attention.
Yea. When I do the rudimentary math on increased media rights less rev share to players, our athletic dept finances look pretty healthy. Could be some costs or liabilities I’m missing but not sure what those would be. Scott should be able to match or exceed offers to our staff if he wants to.
If Cignetti goes 8-4 this year and follows it up with another 8-9+ win season, then sure there may be some legs to your worries. But then again he's another year older. Florida State isn't firing a coach who went 12-0 last year. VT isn't firing Brent Pry after 3 years barring a disaster. Clemson isn't paying Dabo's $60mil buyout. And schools like Notre Dame and Florida would have to have several guys say no before Cignetti ever got a phone call.
You could be right. I think times have changed quite a bit, and they've changed very quickly. Traditional thinking is you go after a hot up and comer...offensive/defensive coordinator from a successful Power 5 school. But turning around IU in 1 season, combined with today's NIL/Portal dynamics, the urgency to win now, all of that...I think Cig will get quite a lot more serious looks that what you're assuming.
I agree completely. Assuming IU were to get 8 wins, people will notice.
Now if the team were to be genuinely good (which we still don't know), the schedule allows for even more wins than 8. The national attention that would come along with that would be immense. They would talk not just about his IU resume but everything prior to that and include what he did with a dormant program in basically 9 months. To think big programs would turn their eye towards to an OC like Nick Sheridan instead, and say it's only been 1 year when it's been his entire career, is nonsense.
Kinda what I've been getting at. It will further cement his track record. The next step would be turning around a bigger name school. His track record indicates basically immediate success...not a longer, multi year process.
I'm not sure going 8-4 with IU's schedule qualifies turning around. Do it 2-3 consecutive years, sure, but that needs to happen first. A school like Florida doesn't need a "program builder". Florida on paper is arguably the best job in the country. Elite conference, flagship school in the hottest recruiting bed in the country, unlimited resources, etc Florida needs somebody who can recruit Florida. Napier isn't guy. They will swing for the fences with Lane Kiffin and then settle on alumnus Jedd Fisch if it comes to that.
I've focused on Florida because they're likely going to be looking, and Cig has Saban ties. Florida might be a little lofty. But we'll see what interest there is in Cig if IU wins this weekend, and then he has a team and program that actually takes care of business and wins the games they're favored to win.
Its easy to poo poo it all now...won't be so easy when/if IU is 5-1 or 6-0 and ranked heading in to some of the higher level matchups later on.
So does Kiffin, as does their current coach who is about to get canned. A lot of coaches have ties to Saban.
Only a few of them have demonstrated the granular approach to coaching that Saban is famous for. Kirby Smart namely. I can see the ESPN gameday story now on Cignetti and his approach being modeled after Saban's most basic principles. Win every rep, the rest will take care of itself. Kiffin has that as well, but he also brings the quirky, flashy side with him...unlike Smart, and Saban...and yes, Cignetti.
I'm not suggesting Florida would choose Cignetti over Kiffin...obviously. Just that Cignetti will get serious looks from lots of programs.
And that's where we disagree. He'd only leave after year 1 if he was offered a Florida or Florida St level job and I just don't see that happening yet. I would agree that he would likely draw some interest from schools with historically better programs than Indiana in which they share mutual ties...assuming those jobs are open in the offseason; Pittsburgh (hometown), West Virginia (Alma Mater), Virginia/Virginia Tech (same state as JMU) but nearly all those schools are lateral moves given the current and future landscape of conference realignment. IU and Duke got into a bidding war at the 11th hour last November and he ultimately chose Indiana. And I think there's a reason for that.
My rose colored glasses have faded over the decades so much that there's no longer lenses in the frame. With 3 strong conference W's the Cincy game atmosphere will be building again. I agree wholeheartedly this IUFB fanbase is receptive and eager for an advancing program to $upport. People really want to attend FB games W or L when competency and effort are representing them on the field.
I'd very much regret playing for a paper tiger, empty suit, a fraud.
If the situation deteriorates for CU the fans will turn on Sanders big time. That act only survives when it is winning.
No doubt suitors come calling after 2 or 3 seasons of improvement and success. That little 'set to' with Duke proves that but provides even more proof AD Dolson will be fast and strong using the deep pockets in Indiana to keep them outside the gates. I hope they come by the dozens. Winning in the AD's office is the 1st step to win on the field.
The depths at which this program has historically been at doesn't react overnight to a new coaching hire. We get those every 5 or 6 years. Beat UCLA, you will see a few more in for Charlotte. Be 4-0 and there will be a crowd for that Maryland game.
We have handled business as we should have with our 2 opponents this year but nobody is going to be a believer until and unless we start beating conference schools. This program has a long and stored history of starting a year 3-0 or 2-1 and ending 4-8 or worse.
These indexes are still very fluid and will be for a few more weeks as we wait for the data to increase. I know I'm a broken record but let's not over-react. WIU was very horrible. Reasons for optimism? Yes. Rank the Hoosiers you cowards? Tapping the brakes on that.
Well I wasn’t intending to infer IU should have been ranked. IU had started the season last (or next to last) in the Big 10. IU is no longer in a a windowless sub basement, based an established set of algorithms with a long history of predicting performance.
I trust my own ocular analysis having watched “in person” most of the IU football coaching debuts since Cam Cameron.
Our play through two games strongly suggests a very competent staff and a team, which plays at a high level. I expect a decisive Hoosier victory.
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