Curt Cignetti

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Cignetti is a great coach who has a great eye for talent.
They’re spending their NIL dollars smarter.
While I have no doubt they don’t have the most money…I also think based on interviews their near the top 10-20 range.
He has said he expects them to be in the top 10. Don’t think he would commit to staying at Indiana if they didn’t follow through on that expectation.

That being said, some of the biggest money programs are shit shows because they don’t spend money well.


Cignetti seems to me to be a top 15-20 coach in football but as of right now the number one undisputed roster manager and staff manager.
 

MNVCGUY said:
That isn't what he said, he was just pointing out that Cignetti didn't develop Mendoza and Hemby he acquired them.

Everything has come together for Indiana in an amazing way the past few seasons. Cignetti deserves a ton of credit but what they have been able to do is also a major byproduct of this current college football landscape where they have been able to bring in tons of transfers.

They have done a great job identifying talent and getting the guys they needed. They have hit massive home runs in the portal at the QB position and have had good luck on the health front.

Will be interesting to see if they can sustain it.
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All programs can bring on transfers, and the overall classes (transfers and recruits) Fleck and Cignetti brought in for 2025 were ranked very close (IU #38, MN #43). In 2024, Fleck's overall class was #33, Cigneitti's was #46. I agree coaching is the difference in the on te field results.
 

Some guy said:
This is a statement that means absolutely nothing until you know who burns considers peers

If Wisconsin is the peer…they largely think they’re behind because of NIL

If Ohio state is the peer…burns is lying or wrong….


Would be interested to know if he has said who the peers are.
As you said, nobody outside burns knows the real Mn
And burns doesn’t know the real numbers from other places


So he’s kind of just making half of his comparison up
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As I recall it he was referring to our peer rivals. Don’t quote me. As legitimate as someone saying there is no NIL?
 

Pompous Elitist said:
As I recall it he was referring to our peer rivals. Don’t quote me. As legitimate as someone saying there is no NIL?
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Someone with no knowledge of how much Iowa has saying Mn has as much as Iowa has the same amount of credibility as someone who has no idea how much Mn has saying how much Mn has

Yes.


It is possible someone has Iowa disclosed how much Iowa has. In which case he would have more credibility.



I think all of the numbers are much lower than people think because nobody wants to make their program look behind by giving the real number. And the speculated high numbers drive fundraising. But I have no idea.
I would bet money Minnesota is in the top 45
I would bet money Minnesota is not in the top 15
I could possibly lose one of those bets.
 

Cig is such a phenomenal genius at the sport, doing things that no one else can even conceive of ...... that's why:

- he did those things in 2023 at JMU, with the same coordinators and doing exactly all the same things, didn't even make their conference championship game
- he was brought into the P4 by the school that beat everyone else out to be able to hire him ........ let me check my notes on that one again .... ah yes, Indiana.



How does this not register?
 


GopherGrit said:
Cig is such a phenomenal genius at the sport, doing things that no one else can even conceive of ...... that's why:

- he did those things in 2023 at JMU, with the same coordinators and doing exactly all the same things, didn't even make their conference championship game
- he was brought into the P4 by the school that beat everyone else out to be able to hire him ........ let me check my notes on that one again .... ah yes, Indiana.



How does this not register?
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Because he's obviously a really good coach. How does that not register?

You think he's just getting lucky? And stop with the nonsense that Indiana bought this team. Yeah they paid for the QB this year.

Besides that, they are the least talented team in the B1G based on recruiting rankings.
 

GopherWeatherGuy said:
Because he's obviously a really good coach. How does that not register?

You think he's just getting lucky? And stop with the nonsense that Indiana bought this team. Yeah they paid for the QB this year.

Besides that, they are the least talented team in the B1G based on recruiting rankings.
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Agree that having the Heisman winner purchased for them (thanks Cal for the development!) is the difference between what they've done this year and going 9-3 in the regular season with losses to Iowa, Oregon, and Penn State.
 

GopherGrit said:
Agree that having the Heisman winner purchased for them (thanks Cal for the development!) is the difference between what they've done this year and going 9-3 in the regular season with losses to Iowa, Oregon, and Penn State.
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Kudos to Cignetti for identifying the right QB for his system and continuing to develop him. He was the #4 ranked QB in the transfer portal, and he's better this year than he ever was at Cal.

If Mendoza was all that mattered then why was Cal 6-7 the last two years with him at QB, and 7-6 this year without him?
 

GopherWeatherGuy said:
Kudos to Cignetti for identifying the right QB for his system and continuing to develop him. He was the #4 ranked QB in the transfer portal, and he's better this year than he ever was at Cal.

If Mendoza was all that mattered then why was Cal 6-7 the last two years with him at QB, and 7-6 this year without him?
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Where are you seeing #4? Thought it was top or maybe #2. Rankings, as we all know, don't often get it correct.

There is no amount of development that can occur in one year on a guy who already gained most of his improving on mistakes elsewhere, that can take him into a Heisman. He already had it there.


Yes agree, IU also bought plenty of other players too. Cal didn't have the Cuban's to do that.
 



It's a lot of the same staff as was at JMU in 2023. In some cases, the same players.

They didn't even make the conf championship game in 2023 at JMU.

I doubt they're doing a single thing differently. They just have much better players.
 

GopherGrit said:
Where are you seeing #4? Thought it was top or maybe #2. Rankings, as we all know, don't often get it correct.

There is no amount of development that can occur in one year on a guy who already gained most of his improving on mistakes elsewhere, that can take him into a Heisman. He already had it there.


Yes agree, IU also bought plenty of other players too. Cal didn't have the Cuban's to do that.
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Saying players can't improve in a year is completely moronic. Coaches and players are constantly improving, and that is the case with Cignetti and his program.

Cal bought the #1 QB which is where your argument completely falls apart.

Cuban bought Indiana a bunch of 3* transfers then. I guess he should donate more.

 

GopherWeatherGuy said:
Saying players can't improve in a year is completely moronic. Coaches and players are constantly improving, and that is the case with Cignetti and his program.

Cal bought the #1 QB which is where your argument completely falls apart.

Cuban bought Indiana a bunch of 3* transfers then. I guess he should donate more.
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High school rankings are irrelevant to transfers and their rankings as transfers. I think you should be a bit more honest about that.

How much did Cal pay Mendoza and how much did IU pay? We can't know, but guessing the latter was far higher. That also doesn't prove that Cal didn't blow its available wad on the QB and didn't have nearly as much to match the supporting cast that IU could buy.


I reject that Mendoza improved in one year enough to go from meh to Heisman. He was already that good, he just needed the supporting blocking protection and receivers to prove it.
 

GopherGrit said:
High school rankings are irrelevant to transfers and their rankings as transfers. I think you should be a bit more honest about that.

How much did Cal pay Mendoza and how much did IU pay? We can't know, but guessing the latter was far higher. That also doesn't prove that Cal didn't blow its available wad on the QB and didn't have nearly as much to match the supporting cast that IU could buy.


I reject that Mendoza improved in one year enough to go from meh to Heisman. He was already that good, he just needed the supporting blocking protection and receivers to prove it.
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I posted his transfer ranking and obviously you didn't click the link.

The only thing you reject is thinking with a brain.
 



GopherWeatherGuy said:
I posted his transfer ranking and obviously you didn't click the link.

The only thing you reject is thinking with a brain.
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You added the link at some point after my post, as is proven by my quotation not containing it. Apologies I missed it.

Here's one:

www.si.com

Indiana Lands Cal Transfer Quarterback Fernando Mendoza

Following a sophomore season with 3,004 passing yards at Cal, quarterback Fernando Mendoza is transferring to Indiana and teaming up with his brother, Alberto.
www.si.com www.si.com

Following three seasons at California, quarterback Fernando Mendoza will transfer to Indiana. Mendoza is a 6-foot-5, 225-pound quarterback with two seasons of eligibility remaining. He's ranked No. 2 among transfer portal quarterbacks by On3 and No. 3 by 247Sports.
 

Some guy said:
Cignetti is a great coach who has a great eye for talent.
They’re spending their NIL dollars smarter.
While I have no doubt they don’t have the most money…I also think based on interviews their near the top 10-20 range.
He has said he expects them to be in the top 10. Don’t think he would commit to staying at Indiana if they didn’t follow through on that expectation.

That being said, some of the biggest money programs are shit shows because they don’t spend money well.


Cignetti seems to me to be a top 15-20 coach in football but as of right now the number one undisputed roster manager and staff manager.
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Yeah this is it. He’s done awesome at evaluating high school talent as well as navigating the portal. I think one thing he seems to do is he finds talent that is somewhat held back by being on bad teams, I imagine he is able to stretch NIL funds this way. Mendoza and Coogan were highly rated transfers, but for the most part they haven’t been super highly rated guys, especially the ones from two years ago. He can coach and has a really good staff, but this has been predominantly where his great results have come from.
 

GopherGrit said:
It's a lot of the same staff as was at JMU in 2023. In some cases, the same players.

They didn't even make the conf championship game in 2023 at JMU.

I doubt they're doing a single thing differently. They just have much better players.
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GG, you really need to get your facts straight. Just a little research on your part would have saved you from looking silly. For everybody’s information, JMU won the Sun Belt East Division in 2023 with an 11-2 record but were NOT ELIGIBLE to participate in the Sun Belt Conference Championship because they had recently moved up from FCS to FBS. 2023 was the second year of their probationary period. Let's not let facts get in the way of someone's narrative...a lot of that going around here in the DC area.


In the “Official 2025 Conference Championship Weekend thread” on 7 Dec 2025, you wrote the following in response to one of my comments:

“I can only interpret this post to mean that you agree that Cignetti is no coaching genius nor is he some talent evaluation genius. Otherwise, we would've beaten NDSU when he was coaching JMU at the FCS level.”

Allow me to refresh your memory with my response to this post:

START RESPONSE
“And of course, you have interpreted my comment incorrectly. You're entitled to your opinion of course but allow me to share some facts about recent Cignetti-coached teams that are easily verified on the Sun Belt, B1G, and IU web sites.

First, Cignetti's coaches. Stability of Coordinators and Assistant Coaches has been critical to Cignetti's success. The following coaches went with Cignetti to Indiana from JMU and are still with Cignetti at Indiana.
Mike Shanahan (OC): Has worked for Cignetti since 2016 (IU of Pennsylvania)
Bryant Haines (DC): Has worked for Cignetti since 2017 (Elon)
Grant Cain (ST/TE): Since 2019 (JMU)
Pat Kuntz (DT): Since 2022 (JMU)
John Miller (RB) Since 2021 (JMU)
Derek Owings (SC): Since 2020 (JMU)

Given Cignetti's head coaching success at every stop he's made since 2011 (IU of PA; Elon; JMU; and now IU), I think I can safely opine that Cignetti is a coaching genius and has a very sharp eye for coaching talent.

Next, his players. Here are the All-Conference selections of JMU players from Cignetti's last four teams (2022-2023 from the Sun Belt and those (in bold text) who transferred with him in 2024-2025 to Indiana):

2022 (Sun Belt):
Todd Centeio (QB): Sun Belt POY; Newcomer of the Year; 1st Team
Kris Thornton (WR): 1st Team
Isaac Ukwu (DL): 1st Team
Nick Kidwell (OT): 2nd Team
Jamare Edward (DL) 2nd Team
James Carpenter (DL): 2nd Team
Percy Agyei-Obese (RB): 3rd Team
Taurus Jones (LB): 3rd Team
Drew Painter (TE): HM
Jailin Walker (LB): HM
Sam Kidd (DB): HM
Jordan Swann (DB): HM

2023 (Sun Belt):
Jordan McCloud (QB): Sun Belt Off POY; 1st Team
Jalen Green (DL): Sun Belt Def POY; 1 Team
Elijah Surrat (WR): 1st Team
Reggie Brown (WR): 1st Team
Zach Horton (TE): 1st Team
Jamree Kromah (DL): 1st Team
Tyler Stephens (LG): 2nd Team
James Carpenter (DL): 2nd Team
D’Angelo Ponds (DB): 2nd Team
Mikail Kamara (DL): 2nd Team
Ryan Hanson (P): 2nd Team
Aiden Fisher (LB): 3rd Team
Camden Wise (K): 3rd Team
Jailin Walker (LB): HM
Phoenix Sproles (WR): HM
Chauncey Logan (DB): HM
Francis Meehan (DB): HM

2024 (B1G): Only those JMU players who went to IU with Cignetti
Mikail Kamara (DL): 1st Team (M&C)
Aiden Fisher (LB): 1st Team (M&C); FWAA All American
D’Angelo Ponds (DB): 1st Team (M&C)
Elijah Surrat (WR): 3rd Team (M&C)

2025 (B1G): Only those JMU players who went to IU with Cignetti
Aiden Fisher (LB): 1st Team (M&C)
D’Angelo Ponds (DB): 1st Team (M&C)
Tyrique Tucker (DL): 1st Team (M&C)
Elijah Surrat (WR): 2nd Team (M&C)

Given the success of Cignetti's players from the standpoint of All Conference selection, I'd say that Cignetti has had a pretty good eye (dare I say "genius"?) for identifying and recruiting talented players. That coupled with his undeniable success as a head coach at the aforementioned schools, he and his staff have been able to place those talented players in positions to maximize their success and that of the team.

As I said above, you are entitled to your opinion, but I hope these facts shed some light on Cignetti's success and his ability to recruit and retain talented coaches and players. You may not think Cignetti is a "genius" or like his schtick (just as some on this board aren't fans of PJ's schtick), but the guy is a proven winner.”
END RESPONSE

It appears you and Ope missed reading this earlier response or chose to ignore it. In any case, both of you should stop with the silly anti-Cignetti talk. I don’t think Cignetti is a magician - I think he is a damn fine football coach who has an eye on recruiting and developing talented football players and coaches. I'm happy for his success at Indiana - wish Minnesota could have the same success.

Oh, by the way, how but that beat down Indiana put on Alabama. Didn't you want the OK/AL winner to beat Indiana? Sorry!
 



GopherGrit said:
Neither the 2024 IU team nor the 2025 IU team with just swapping Mendoza and Rourke, beats Iowa, Oregon, or Penn State from the 2025 schedule.

9-3 is still historically great for IU ... not that history means a single thing now ... but that's not CFP and no one is talking about it.
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Good thing that Cignetti took Indiana to an 11-2 record and the CFP in 2024.

I am sure the proof of concept to his Coaching Genius played a significant role for the financiers of Hoosiers football to set up their resources which helped convince Mendoza to transfer to Bloomington.
 




GoldRush said:
It's kind of been the perfect storm. Cignetti never won a natty at any previous stops and has been coaching forever. But he goes to Indiana and it's all working like a well-oiled machine.
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I agree. Cignetti needs to do this a bit longer before I crown him king. He is obviously an excellent coach! Because he's an excellent coach, he brought many of his best players from JMU to Indiana and kept a lot of their roster and so sort of doubled up for a year on talent. Then the money started flowing in and he got some good portal adds. He gets Mendoza, one of the highest ranked players in the portal that turns out to be THE BEST player in all of college football! That helps a lot! How much of that was him coaching Mendoza up vs. it being there all along? No one knows. We'll know more when Mendoza leaves. Indiana isn't going anywhere for a while. That's for sure. The question is does he come down to earth a bit in the near future? That seems very likely.

A good very recent example is Lane Kiffin. He just left Ole Miss for LSU, but Ole Miss is still killing it in the CFP. Their QB, Trinidad Chambliss, is amazing and so is their RB. How much of this was just timing and good luck? Again, no doubt Lane is a good coach, but did he get too much credit for the stars also aligning? LSU hopes not!

Another recent example is Deion Sanders. He loses two great players to the pros and goes from a great coach and turnaround king to crap! It's not a complete accurate analogy because Curt Cignetti has a much longer track record of success. I'm just saying sometimes great players make you look a little better than you are. Only time will tell how good Curt really is. I'm rooting for the guy. He grinded for a LONG time before hitting it big. GOOD FOR HIM!

"I'm a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it." —Thomas Jefferson
 
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MinneNoVA said:
GG, you really need to get your facts straight. Just a little research on your part would have saved you from looking silly. For everybody’s information, JMU won the Sun Belt East Division in 2023 with an 11-2 record but were NOT ELIGIBLE to participate in the Sun Belt Conference Championship because they had recently moved up from FCS to FBS. 2023 was the second year of their probationary period. Let's not let facts get in the way of someone's narrative...a lot of that going around here in the DC area.


In the “Official 2025 Conference Championship Weekend thread” on 7 Dec 2025, you wrote the following in response to one of my comments:

“I can only interpret this post to mean that you agree that Cignetti is no coaching genius nor is he some talent evaluation genius. Otherwise, we would've beaten NDSU when he was coaching JMU at the FCS level.”

Allow me to refresh your memory with my response to this post:

START RESPONSE
“And of course, you have interpreted my comment incorrectly. You're entitled to your opinion of course but allow me to share some facts about recent Cignetti-coached teams that are easily verified on the Sun Belt, B1G, and IU web sites.

First, Cignetti's coaches. Stability of Coordinators and Assistant Coaches has been critical to Cignetti's success. The following coaches went with Cignetti to Indiana from JMU and are still with Cignetti at Indiana.
Mike Shanahan (OC): Has worked for Cignetti since 2016 (IU of Pennsylvania)
Bryant Haines (DC): Has worked for Cignetti since 2017 (Elon)
Grant Cain (ST/TE): Since 2019 (JMU)
Pat Kuntz (DT): Since 2022 (JMU)
John Miller (RB) Since 2021 (JMU)
Derek Owings (SC): Since 2020 (JMU)

Given Cignetti's head coaching success at every stop he's made since 2011 (IU of PA; Elon; JMU; and now IU), I think I can safely opine that Cignetti is a coaching genius and has a very sharp eye for coaching talent.

Next, his players. Here are the All-Conference selections of JMU players from Cignetti's last four teams (2022-2023 from the Sun Belt and those (in bold text) who transferred with him in 2024-2025 to Indiana):

2022 (Sun Belt):
Todd Centeio (QB): Sun Belt POY; Newcomer of the Year; 1st Team
Kris Thornton (WR): 1st Team
Isaac Ukwu (DL): 1st Team
Nick Kidwell (OT): 2nd Team
Jamare Edward (DL) 2nd Team
James Carpenter (DL): 2nd Team
Percy Agyei-Obese (RB): 3rd Team
Taurus Jones (LB): 3rd Team
Drew Painter (TE): HM
Jailin Walker (LB): HM
Sam Kidd (DB): HM
Jordan Swann (DB): HM

2023 (Sun Belt):
Jordan McCloud (QB): Sun Belt Off POY; 1st Team
Jalen Green (DL): Sun Belt Def POY; 1 Team
Elijah Surrat (WR): 1st Team
Reggie Brown (WR): 1st Team
Zach Horton (TE): 1st Team
Jamree Kromah (DL): 1st Team
Tyler Stephens (LG): 2nd Team
James Carpenter (DL): 2nd Team
D’Angelo Ponds (DB): 2nd Team
Mikail Kamara (DL): 2nd Team
Ryan Hanson (P): 2nd Team
Aiden Fisher (LB): 3rd Team
Camden Wise (K): 3rd Team
Jailin Walker (LB): HM
Phoenix Sproles (WR): HM
Chauncey Logan (DB): HM
Francis Meehan (DB): HM

2024 (B1G): Only those JMU players who went to IU with Cignetti
Mikail Kamara (DL): 1st Team (M&C)
Aiden Fisher (LB): 1st Team (M&C); FWAA All American
D’Angelo Ponds (DB): 1st Team (M&C)
Elijah Surrat (WR): 3rd Team (M&C)

2025 (B1G): Only those JMU players who went to IU with Cignetti
Aiden Fisher (LB): 1st Team (M&C)
D’Angelo Ponds (DB): 1st Team (M&C)
Tyrique Tucker (DL): 1st Team (M&C)
Elijah Surrat (WR): 2nd Team (M&C)

Given the success of Cignetti's players from the standpoint of All Conference selection, I'd say that Cignetti has had a pretty good eye (dare I say "genius"?) for identifying and recruiting talented players. That coupled with his undeniable success as a head coach at the aforementioned schools, he and his staff have been able to place those talented players in positions to maximize their success and that of the team.

As I said above, you are entitled to your opinion, but I hope these facts shed some light on Cignetti's success and his ability to recruit and retain talented coaches and players. You may not think Cignetti is a "genius" or like his schtick (just as some on this board aren't fans of PJ's schtick), but the guy is a proven winner.”
END RESPONSE

It appears you and Ope missed reading this earlier response or chose to ignore it. In any case, both of you should stop with the silly anti-Cignetti talk. I don’t think Cignetti is a magician - I think he is a damn fine football coach who has an eye on recruiting and developing talented football players and coaches. I'm happy for his success at Indiana - wish Minnesota could have the same success.

Oh, by the way, how but that beat down Indiana put on Alabama. Didn't you want the OK/AL winner to beat Indiana? Sorry!
Click to expand...
Remind me never to contradict you - wowza
 




MinneNoVA said:
It appears you and Ope missed reading this earlier response or chose to ignore it. In any case, both of you should stop with the silly anti-Cignetti talk. I don’t think Cignetti is a magician - I think he is a damn fine football coach who has an eye on recruiting and developing talented football players and coaches. I'm happy for his success at Indiana - wish Minnesota could have the same success.
Click to expand...
Just to be clear, none of my posts have been anti-Cignetti. I think he IS a genius.

I was hoping that Indiana lost to Alabama, but that has nothing to do with what I think of him. Until proven otherwise, dude walks on water as far as I am concerned.
 

SeaBee_Gopher said:
I agree. Cignetti needs to do this a bit longer before I crown him king. He is obviously an excellent coach! Because he's an excellent coach, he brought many of his best players from JMU to Indiana and kept a lot of their roster and so sort of doubled up for a year on talent. Then the money started flowing in and he got some good portal adds. He gets Mendoza, one of the highest ranked players in the portal that turns out to be THE BEST player in all of college football! That helps a lot! How much of that was him coaching Mendoza up vs. it being there all along? No one knows. We'll know more when Mendoza leaves. Indiana isn't going anywhere for a while. That's for sure. The question is does he come down to earth a bit in the near future? That seems very likely.

A good very recent example is Lane Kiffin. He just left Ole Miss for LSU, but Ole Miss is still killing it in the CFP. Their QB, Trinidad Chambliss, is amazing and so is their RB. How much of this was just timing and good luck? Again, no doubt Lane is a good coach, but did he get too much credit for the stars also aligning? LSU hopes not!

Another recent example is Deion Sanders. He loses two great players to the pros and goes from a great coach and turnaround king to crap! It's not a complete accurate analogy because Curt Cignetti has a much longer track record of success. I'm just saying sometimes great players make you look a little better than you are. Only time will tell how good Curt really is. I'm rooting for the guy. He grinded for a LONG time before hitting it big. GOOD FOR HIM!

"I'm a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it." —Thomas Jefferson
Click to expand...
Go look at his success at every level. Like he said "Google me, all I do is win." As a college HC at multiple levels, he has never had a losing season in 15 years. His teams have been nationally ranked 12 of those 15 years.
 


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