Cignetti Recruiting Highlights Overall Goal – Win Now
Pete DiPrimio | IUHoosiers.com
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - If you want guarantees, stay away from Curt Cignetti.
If you want a coach who will push you, develop you, challenge you; a coach who will believe in you and give you every opportunity to become a difference-maker, then Indiana’s new head football coach is your guy.
At least 32 new players (25 were announced during Wednesday's National Signing Day) have bought into Cignetti’s message as he seeks to transform the Hoosiers into consistent winners.
“Everything's earned, not given,” he said during Wednesday’s Zoom session. “Nobody's promised anything.”
Occasionally, recruits want a promise.
Here’s Cignetti’s promise -- out-perform the other guy.
“Nobody has anything. Everything’s earned. That’s how we run our program.”
Cignetti has a new IU staff -- although it’s not totally new given seven assistant coaches followed him from James Madison to Bloomington -- and a proven plan for success. He’s never had a losing record.
"There will be a new culture, identity here, and expectation level in the way we play the game,” he said.
Building it requires enormous sacrifice he’s wired to make. His hours rival that of vampires -- he goes to work in the dark, comes home in the dark. He pushes a pace that would break 98 percent of the world’s population because that’s his nature and it comes with this hard-earned wisdom -- it’s the only way to succeed, and you’d better believe he aims to do that now, and not in, say, a year or two.
“This is my fourth head-coaching job,” he said. “The first two were major rebuilds, and we won big Year One.
“I fully expect to win big this year.”
Some football coaches turn recruiting into quantum physics. Cignetti targets recruits and college transfer portal players with blunt confidence:
“It's pretty simple. I win. Google me.”
Quarterback topped Cignetti’s recruiting priority, and for good reason -- no position in any sport is more important. A good one can win you championships, and yes, that’s on Cignetti’s wish list.
IU has landed former MAC Offensive Player of the Year Kurtis Rourke out of the transfer portal and Ohio University, ex-James Madison commit Alberto Mendoza, and state-of-Indiana four-star prospect Tyler Cherry from Center Grove High School between Bloomington and Indianapolis.
That’s in addition to returning quarterbacks Tayven Jackson and Broc Lowry, which should produce fierce position competition under quarterbacks coach and co-offensive coordinator Tino Sunseri, who has an impressive record of developing quarterbacks.
Rourke has one year of eligibility remaining. At Ohio, he threw for 7,651 yards and 50 touchdowns. He also ran for 1,240 yards and 11 TDs.
“Kurtis Rourke knows how to play quarterback,” Cignetti said. “He’s got to do it between the white lines at Indiana. I fully expect him to do it. I think he's going to be a great player for us.
“The emphasis was finding the quarterback. We thought Kurtis was a great candidate. Now, he's got to earn it.”
Cherry decommitted from Duke and picked IU over Michigan State. In three seasons at Center Grove, he completed 68.5 percent of his passes for 5,461 yards, 56 touchdowns, and 11 interceptions. He led the Trojans to the Class 6A state title as a junior.
“Tyler Cherry is a great candidate, and guess what, he's going to be here for spring ball,” Cignetti said. “I've had two freshmen in my coaching career that were here for spring ball that were the quarterback in the fall, and they were Newcomer of the Year, and we had great seasons both years.”
As far as the overall quarterback situation, “I was looking for a guy that could come in and be the guy, compete to be the guy,” Cignetti said. “Tayven Jackson has started games.
I’m excited to see how far Tino Sunseri could take him. All these quarterbacks, really, with the same guy tutoring them from Day One until the end of the season, which they didn't have last year."
Cignetti’s first IU class includes 16 college transfers. Nine were announced on Wednesday; the rest will be when they’re done playing in bowl games.
The transfers will be on campus for the winter semester, as will six high school players.
When it came to bringing in college transfers, Cignetti wanted proven guys, productive guys, consistent guys, guys who know how to win and deliver in crunch time.
All the transfers fit that description.
“They did it on the field over a number of years.”
That includes three strong receivers -- Wake Forest’s Ke’Shawn Williams (1,385 career receiving yards, five touchdowns), Ohio’s Miles Cross (1,301 yards eight touchdowns), and Texas Tech’s Myles Price (1,751 yards, 10 touchdowns).
Meanwhile, 25 Hoosiers entered the transfer portal. Some, Cignetti and his staff wanted back. Some, they did not.
"I think we got the right guys off the bus, the right guys on the bus, adding to the bus, and it's going to change the complexion of this football team," Cignetti said.
Big bus guys were receiver Donaven McCulley, running back Trent Howland, starting left tackle Carter Smith, and safety Jordan Grier. Cignetti convinced all of them to withdraw from the transfer portal and stay Hoosiers.
The 6-foor-5 McCulley passed on offers from Michigan, Penn State, Florida State, and Texas A&M. He led IU with 48 catches for 644 yards and eight touchdowns. That including 11 catches for 137 yards at Illinois.
“That was a great day,” Cignetti said about when McCulley told him he was staying. “I was not expecting that. The word on the street was Florida State.”
Cignetti’s strong record of receiver development (two 1,000-yard receivers in the past three seasons at James Madison) was a big factor.
"We are cutting edge offensively,” he said. “We are going to find ways to free him up. He can make contested catches too. We are going to take his game to another level, I know what he wants. I think it's a great marriage."
Howland, who rushed for 354 yards last season while averaging 3.27 yards per carry after contact, de-committed from Minnesota. Smith rated as IU’s second-best offensive lineman last season.
That matters because it shows those players believe in what Cignetti is building. It didn’t hurt that Cignetti retained offensive line coach and run game coordinator Bob Bostad, who rates among college football’s best.
They are part of an offense that Cignetti said will be more complex than the one he used to great success at James Madison.
“It was pretty fundamental and basic, fairly simple. I think ours will probably have a lot more pass concept volume and other things, which I think will put the defense in conflict more. Now we've got to execute it.”
Cignetti’s recruiting plan for IU started with an overall roster evaluation. Cignetti had the previous coaches from Tom Allen’s staff each rank every player from No. 1 to No. 50.
“I get a good feel for the roster right there. Now, some of those guys are in the portal. Some of them aren't.”
Then Cignetti met with the previous staff to get a deeper sense of those 50 players, everything from playing ability to character to being a good teammate.
“Is he consistent? Does he work hard? Is he committed? Is he a pain in the butt?”
Of the Hoosiers who entered the portal, Cignetti said if he got a bad report on a player, he didn’t renew him even if the player wanted to come back.
“You don't have to call him in your office, have a talk with him, call his parents, explain the situation. They chose to leave the program.
“Some of the guys in the portal, you're trying to retain. It's no different than recruiting a portal guy from somewhere else. The difference is you're selling your vision and how it's going to change and exactly what it's going to feel like when you've been invested in the program and now begin to have success.
“A lot of them buy into it. Most do. But some are just ready for a change.”
Cignetti was ready for a change after going 52-9 in five seasons at James Madison, ready to embrace a Big Ten challenge and a brutal workload to deal with the transition and all it entails.
What drives him?
For one thing, he’s the son of a coach (Frank Cignetti is a member of the College Football Hall of Fame). He’s known since the third grade he wanted to coach and build his own legacy.
What drives him?
Winning, and winning the right way. No cheating or short cuts. Just relentless work, vision and confidence, and if some see it as cocky, that’s their problem.
“We’ve got some momentum going,” he said. “We have a lot of people to buy in.
“The administration here wants football to win. I probably have some things that the other coaches didn't. They got a guy who knows what he’s doing. So it's really pretty simple.”