Coach Curt Cignetti to INDIANA... Forever and Ever, Amen!

[OGIUAndy]

45 minutes ago, Artie86 said:

What fans wouldn’t be upset? I would too, but that’s the nature of the business.  All those recruits committed to play for Coach Cignetti and his staff, JMU happened to be where they would go to school and play. I realize some universities help make player’s decisions because of what the school offers educationally. Speaking for Coach Cignetti, I wouldn’t change a thing! You lose an extremely popular coach and several highly anticipated recruits on top of that. Coach wants what he knows and what he thinks will help playing in the BIGTEN. 

I would be upset, but I would not go on Twitter and mock a high schooler. 

[cthomas]

To field a competitive team, you might have to hurt some feelings. We are in no position to be nice. CCC knows what he needs and he is going after it. He seems to have a bit of a rough edge. I'm good with that.

[bcp_jmu]

Hey Hoosier fans - I come in peace!

Glad to see the excitement over this hire - mixed feelings at JMU, but cannot deny that the man kept the winning going and took us through an incredible transition to FBS. CC has some serious swagger - the only real knock on him is that sometimes BIG moments scramble his brains a little (very weird TOs, clock management, and play calling on rare occasions). The phrase "don't get too cute" was thrown around his first couple years...if you know what I mean. The guy is world class at recruiting, eyeing talent, and getting other coaches on board. 

This interview that someone posted a few pages back is pretty spot on - good luck this year...we'll sorta be rooting for you.

https://www.thedailyhoosier.com/qa-on-cu...orts-news/

 

 

[Stuhoo]

12 minutes ago, bcp_jmu said:

Hey Hoosier fans - I come in peace!

Glad to see the excitement over this hire - mixed feelings at JMU, but cannot deny that the man kept the winning going and took us through an incredible transition to FBS. CC has some serious swagger - the only real knock on him is that sometimes BIG moments scramble his brains a little (very weird TOs, clock management, and play calling on rare occasions). The phrase "don't get too cute" was thrown around his first couple years...if you know what I mean. The guy is world class at recruiting, eyeing talent, and getting other coaches on board. 

This interview that someone posted a few pages back is pretty spot on - good luck this year...we'll sorta be rooting for you.

https://www.thedailyhoosier.com/qa-on-cu...orts-news/

 

 

Great first post! Glad to have you here.

How do you think Cig's recruiting style will shake out at Indiana? More specifically, at JMU he seems to have been recruiting for a big-time small school program, largely against other small schools. At Indiana he's at a very unsuccessful mega-school that plays much more successful mega-schools -- kinda the opposite. So does he try to fight against the big boys for recruits (and will he succeed at that) or does he try to do more with lesser recruits?

[bcp_jmu]

Thanks for the welcome! Really cringing at this "Purdue Jockstrap" label...but i'll have to post more... ;) 

Non-defensive comment - JMU isn't small...22,000 students (OK, compared to B1G schools...) but we aren't Holy Cross (see what I did there?)

I'd say this - it's a blend:

1) he's gonna get the most out of any kid that buys into the process - you'll hear that a lot from him. Trust the process, win each play, do your job. 

2) he's a very good promoter (tad too cocky for my taste...but ya'll need a boost) - any positive stat for the team, school, etc will be repeated and used in a smart way with recruits (for QBs, he'll say "look what I did with the last fourJMU QBs - compare their performance before and after my presence). All those QBs had incredible improvements - Cole Johnson, DiNucci, Centaio, McCloud

3) you'll start beating out some other P4 schools for recruits, but that's a slower ship to turn than squeezing the most juice out of what you have (and he's good at that)

Edited December 12, 2023 by bcp_jmu

[Stuhoo]

1 minute ago, bcp_jmu said:

Thanks for the welcome! Really cringing at this "Purdue Jockstrap" label...but i'll have to post more... ;) 

Non-defensive comment - JMU isn't small...22,000 students (OK, compared to B1G schools...) but we aren't Holy Cross (see what I did there?)

I'd say this - it's a blend:

1) he's gonna get the most out of any kid that buys into the process - you'll hear that a lot from him. Trust the process, win each play, do your job. 

2) he's a very good promoter (tad too cocky for my taste...but ya'll need a boost) - any positive stat for the team, school, etc will be repeated and used in a smart way with recruits (for QBs, he'll say "look what I did with the last three JMU QBs - compare their performance before and after my presence). All those QBs had incredible improvements

3) you'll start beating out some other P4 schools for recruits, but that's a slower ship to turn than squeezing the most juice out of what you have (and he's good at that)

JMU is 22,000 students? Didn't realize it's a public university 'til now either - my bad!

Looking forward to the 'juice-squeezing-blend', to pick and choose your words.

[Hovadipo]

1 hour ago, bcp_jmu said:

1) he's gonna get the most out of any kid that buys into the process - you'll hear that a lot from him. Trust the process, win each play, do your job. 

Another welcome from me. Going to pick your brain a little more myself.

 

Regarding the quoted...he was pumping up a "player friendly" (or something along those lines) program early on; how they run practices, the logistics behind the scenes, etc. Any specific insight on this? I realize it may also have been out of the public eye for JMU fans, just wondering if there were any specifics on how he runs the show. For all the negatives about Allen - there were plenty - he also ran a very player-friendly program and I would say a large percentage of his players respected the hell out of him, but I would guess the 2 coaches' ideas of this are different.

[bcp_jmu]

12 minutes ago, Hovadipo said:

Another welcome from me. Going to pick your brain a little more myself.

 

Regarding the quoted...he was pumping up a "player friendly" (or something along those lines) program early on; how they run practices, the logistics behind the scenes, etc. Any specific insight on this? I realize it may also have been out of the public eye for JMU fans, just wondering if there were any specifics on how he runs the show. For all the negatives about Allen - there were plenty - he also ran a very player-friendly program and I would say a large percentage of his players respected the hell out of him, but I would guess the 2 coaches' ideas of this are different.

 

Many thanks. 

That's not a term we heard at JMU...Cig is oddly warm and fuzzy - runs deep but may not feel genuine to a 19 year old. Maybe he received some feedback on that front and is adjusting a bit? He's a CEO first...he'll tell a kid to his face "you were the best last year. you just lost three matchups in practice, and haven't hit the weight room, enjoy the bench until you earn your role back"

It's an odd term - any coach that is "player unfriendly" is certainly out of a job!

[Hovadipo]

6 minutes ago, bcp_jmu said:

It's an odd term - any coach that is "player unfriendly" is certainly out of a job!

Haha, touche. Just didn't know if that was regular press conference ammo or there was anything they had been doing. Appears it was the former. (Which is fine!)

[NashvilleHoosier]

2 hours ago, bcp_jmu said:

very weird TOs

My friend, Tom Allen had to take a timeout just last season, on the road at Nebraska, before a single second ran off the clock. Got the ball first, touch back on the kick off, so much confusion before even running a play he had to burn a timeout. This was after talking during the week about getting better starts to games. The most inconceivable of weird timeouts. No matter how weird Coach Cig's TOs have been during his JMU tenure, I don't need to know any details to be confident they won't sniff the weirdness of a Tom Allen timeout.

[bcp_jmu]

14 minutes ago, NashvilleHoosier said:

My friend, Tom Allen had to take a timeout just last season, on the road at Nebraska, before a single second ran off the clock. Got the ball first, touch back on the kick off, so much confusion before even running a play he had to burn a timeout. This was after talking during the week about getting better starts to games. The most inconceivable of weird timeouts. No matter how weird Coach Cig's TOs have been during his JMU tenure, I don't need to know any details to be confident they won't sniff the weirdness of a Tom Allen timeout.

LOL...oof, that's a face-palm right there Coach Allen....

Here is what you'll see sometimes - yourself yelling at the TV - "call a timeout. why no timeout? CALL A TIMEOUT!!"....

7 seconds later from the announcers...."coach Cignetti has called a timeout"

Again - I'm not trying to run the guy ragged, but you'll see "too cute" - against NDSU in the championship we are running it on them. i mean, all over them...so he abandons it and switches to pass happy (in *advance* of them adjusting...). We lost.

 

Edited December 12, 2023 by bcp_jmu

[Class of '66 Old Fart]

@bcp_jmu welcome to btb and hope you stick around for awhile.  Really appreciate the amount of info you've brought to the board in just a few posts.  

[CSP]

2 hours ago, bcp_jmu said:

LOL...oof, that's a face-palm right there Coach Allen....

Here is what you'll see sometimes - yourself yelling at the TV - "call a timeout. why no timeout? CALL A TIMEOUT!!"....

7 seconds later from the announcers...."coach Cignetti has called a timeout"

Again - I'm not trying to run the guy ragged, but you'll see "too cute" - against NDSU in the championship we are running it on them. i mean, all over them...so he abandons it and switches to pass happy (in *advance* of them adjusting...). We lost.

 

"in the national championship" 

(Thumbs up) 

[RaceToTheTop]

3 hours ago, bcp_jmu said:

LOL...oof, that's a face-palm right there Coach Allen....

Here is what you'll see sometimes - yourself yelling at the TV - "call a timeout. why no timeout? CALL A TIMEOUT!!"....

7 seconds later from the announcers...."coach Cignetti has called a timeout"

Again - I'm not trying to run the guy ragged, but you'll see "too cute" - against NDSU in the championship we are running it on them. i mean, all over them...so he abandons it and switches to pass happy (in *advance* of them adjusting...). We lost.

 

The only thing IU fans are reading from this is the word ‘championship’…..we are hoping that our complaints get to the point where the main complaint is what happened in a game against top teams.

[Lebowski]

20 hours ago, bcp_jmu said:

Hey Hoosier fans - I come in peace!

Glad to see the excitement over this hire - mixed feelings at JMU, but cannot deny that the man kept the winning going and took us through an incredible transition to FBS. CC has some serious swagger - the only real knock on him is that sometimes BIG moments scramble his brains a little (very weird TOs, clock management, and play calling on rare occasions). The phrase "don't get too cute" was thrown around his first couple years...if you know what I mean. The guy is world class at recruiting, eyeing talent, and getting other coaches on board. 

This interview that someone posted a few pages back is pretty spot on - good luck this year...we'll sorta be rooting for you.

https://www.thedailyhoosier.com/qa-on-cu...orts-news/

 

 

Thanks for sharing.  Questions, what was your experience watching him coach Elon against your Dukes? Do you know if he cleaned house at Elon or if he won with the same players that were already there? And how surprised were you to see the quick turnaround with that school?

[bcp_jmu]

22 minutes ago, Lebowski said:

Thanks for sharing.  Questions, what was your experience watching him coach Elon against your Dukes? Do you know if he cleaned house at Elon or if he won with the same players that were already there? And how surprised were you to see the quick turnaround with that school?

Thanks for the great question - Elon was a dog for a long time...so didn't follow them closely - but we knew by halftime that we were going to lose. CC had clearly out-thought and out-prepped our coach for that game...went right after our weaknesses and Elon played "up" that day...probably a big part of why we hired him.

If memory serves me....Elon already had a beast of an RB that year, probably should have been FBS but this was prior to the "free for all where IU keeps taking JMU recruits" days ... ;)

Edited December 13, 2023 by bcp_jmu

[go iu bb]

1 minute ago, bcp_jmu said:

Thanks for the great question - Elon was a dog for a long time...so didn't follow them closely - but we knew by halftime that we were going to lose. CC had clearly out-thought and out-prepped our coach for that game...went right after our weaknesses and Elon played "up" that day...probably a big part of why we hired him.

For some of the things that might not be perfect about his coaching that you and others have mentioned, he does bring a lot of things that IU has been missing. Game prep is certainly one of them, so having a coach that does that well will be welcome. Same with player development, which is key if IU to ever turn it around since we're not going to be landing tons of talent any time soon.

[Artie86]

I feel Coach Cignetti's approach to the development of "his" players and the team is similar to boot camp and military.

He wants to break them down, then teach, train, and develop. JMO

[bcp_jmu]

37 minutes ago, Artie86 said:

I feel Coach Cignetti's approach to the development of "his" players and the team is similar to boot camp and military.

He wants to break them down, then teach, train, and develop. JMO

I'd say you're probably right on this.....it gets back to "the standard" and "the process".....earlier we discussed being player-friendly - I know that Cig removed some of the BS / barriers for student athletes (an incredibly tough thing to do both successfully!). For example - bring the tutors closer to the students (why trudge across campus 4 times?)....rearrange the schedule so they can sleep, focus, etc.

If your football culture didn't study film - that's about to change. Was always impressed when players would say post-game "oh yes, we saw that on film and we weren't surprised when they did x,y,z"

[Hovadipo]

7 minutes ago, bcp_jmu said:

I'd say you're probably right on this.....it gets back to "the standard" and "the process".....earlier we discussed being player-friendly - I know that Cig removed some of the BS / barriers for student athletes (an incredibly tough thing to do both successfully!). For example - bring the tutors closer to the students (why trudge across campus 4 times?)....rearrange the schedule so they can sleep, focus, etc.

On the flip side, this is the type of thing already built in here that will make Cig's life easier too. Just going off of your example - and I understand that he made this happen already at JMU - but IU's student-athlete academic center is amazing, a 30-second walk through the stadium from position meeting rooms, and staffed with some wonderful people. IU isn't toward the top in the B1G/P5 for a lot of logistical things like this, but simply coming up to this level will give him the types of resources he's never had as a head coach. I'm really excited to see him maximize them.

(And none of that is to say that JMU's facilities/resources are anything to scoff at)