great hire for them and coaching gets stronger in the B1G
JMU's Cignetti to Indiana
- Thread starter Obliviax
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Wow, this conference with new coaches and new schools will just get that much tougher. A Conference champion will be little different than a national champion every year. Good for Indiana.
His father Frank is familiar to all old timer Lion fans. He passed last year.
Do you think that he'll be any more successful at IU than Schiano has been at Rutgers? Except for an outlyer season like IU had in 2020, schools like IU and Rutgers, even if the coaches do great jobs, are going to have a ceiling for wins, and it's probably 7 at most, and I would wager that IU will be fortunate if they even have a 6 win season under Cignetti especially with the new competition.
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good question. I think one of two things happens: He's unsuccessful and leaves in three years like Allen. He's successful and leaves in three years like Jonathan Smith at Oregon State.
It is next to impossible to build a program. The stadium only has 52,000 seats, less than half of UM, PSU and tOSU. The facilities are OK but not good. It is a basketball school.
I always think teams like Duke and NW at least can tell a great academics story and have a shot. But what is your recruiting pitch? "Penix once played here?"
Bit surprised he cashed in his chips on that IU job. Given his track record of success, he could have played it out a bit longer. Between Duke and IU, I think Duke is a better job and/or stepping stool. I dont see that for IU.
Both jobs are very hard. I mean, look at Duke this season; just after one injury, albeit to their most important player, they basically collapsed. Duke at least is located in a part of the country where it seems as if there just is more talent that is close, whereas IU is located in an area of the country where it seems as if the talent is drying up, and they have almost no chance of keeping the very best players in their vicinity from the superpowers around them like ND, OSU, Michigan, and even Louisville.
He has to be able to do a few things to make IU competitive again:
-Needs to keep the best Indiana players that are highly rated, though less than other states.
-Capitalize on the relationships he built in the DMV with high schools and convince some of those higher rated players to come build a program. Stiff competition there against PSU, SEC, and ACC.
-Convince IU boosters to increase NIL for football. Tough sell.
He is an excellent coach, but he has to get the "Jimmy's & Joes".
Being able to assure you family's financial success for several generations is very attractive.
No doubt but if IU can put that $ up, he could have gotten what Elko was making at Duke which would set up a family for a few generations as well. Also, Duke has shown a willingness to give HCs there patience. B10 is going to be a gauntlet and IU may not show that patience if IU basically becomes fodder for all the big guns in the conference. ACC is essentially staying the same so he could have similar success that Elko and Cutcliffe had.
I agree. His positioning has to be he is a step up from MAC and not quite UM/tOSU/PSU/USC/WA/OR. He needs to continually beat the next tier to do that: ILL, NW, UCLA, Minny, Sparty, etc. I would think he can then poach high-performing MAC-level players via the portal to fill in for recruiting gaps.
But Iowa, who fields competitive teams thru superior instruction of the basics of football and a strategy to control the clock and the game. They may have the worst recruiting state in the B1G.
And Elko still turned that into the A&M job
He's just looking for one solid year at Indiana and then will jump. They have 8 or 9 winnable games next year. Doesn't mean they'll win they all but it's possible.
2025 is even less scary--they miss Ohio State, Michigan, Washington and USC. It plays out okay for them for the next couple years--then he needs to jump
I was hoping Cignetti would end up with a better program than IU. It will be an uphill battle for him but he’s been a success his whole career. I was hoping somehow he would have ended up at Penn State (pipe dream) because this guy gets a lot out of his players. Good pick up for Indiana. This is he second time being a head coach at Indiana. He was IUP’s head coach for a while and did very well. Like his father.
Played for Frank. He was one hell of a coach! Terrific guy!
Really good move for Indiana and Curt. He was the head coach at IUP (like his dad), then Elon, then JMU and now the Hoosiers, so he’s paid his dues.
Somewhere there’s a good dad joke about IUP/IU. Curt is 62, and it was probably a now or never move for him to be a P4 head coach. He’ll be fine so long as he doesn’t hire his brother!
Somewhere there’s a good dad joke about IUP/IU. Curt is 62, and it was probably a now or never move for him to be a P4 head coach. He’ll be fine so long as he doesn’t hire his brother!
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Yes, he was the head coach between Bowden and Nehlan. Got fired, and coached for many years at IUP and built them into a D2 power.
In fact, I believe he diagnosed with a rare form of cancer when he was head coach at WVU. The classes he recruited or terrific and is replacement benefit from Franks efforts.
Just saw him on B1G and he is my kind of coach. He never looks at star numbers. He relies on coaches' and personal evaluations. Development, the person, the student and the player are a very big part of his success at JMU.
I agree. The path to 7 or 8 wins would appear to be a lot easier at Duke.
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