How did Indiana go from zero to hero?

Donate To GopherHole
Otis

Otis

Well-known member
Joined
Aug 13, 2014
Messages
5,964
Reaction score
3,223
Points
113
Before Cignetti, they had 2 winning seasons since the 2000 season!

Now they have two seasons of 11-2 and 13-0! Number 1 ranking and the top dog in the playoff! This is like NCAA video game stuff!

Did Mark Cuban and Little Pink Houses give the football team all of their money?

Why can’t Minnesota do something like this?
 


It' like the 1980 hockey team winning the fold medal. A Miracle that happens once in a lifetime.
 




Kitzmann57 said:
It' like the 1980 hockey team winning the fold medal. A Miracle that happens once in a lifetime.
Click to expand...
I don't know if what is happening at Indiana is a once in a lifetime thing....but you can bet lots of schools are going to try and duplicate what they have done and chances are very high the vast majority are going to fail.

Kind of feels like the stars aligned and allowed them to pull off something that other teams have not been able to. Now we just have to see if it is a short term spike or something that can be sustained at a place where having sustained success in football has not come easily.
 






We have to zoom out. Indiana is, culturally, a huge sports school. There is more buy-in from the admin, alumns, etc. Even if they have not won big in NCAAB recently, their past success has helped instill that into IU sports culture. Indianapolis and the surrounding regions love football and love HS football. They have notable alumni who are willing to throw money at the program.

Cignetti was the home run hire of home run hires. He's like prime NDSU Craig Bohl on steroids. He knows exactly how to build a winning program down to a science. Indiana plays disciplined, clean, tough, and together in ways I haven't seen since prime Saban Bama Death Star years. He brought all of his good JMU kids with him (under-recruited or transfers from bigger schools) who knew the system so he could go 0-100 right away last year. Indiana is also close enough to recruiting hotbeds to absorb talent easier than Iowa State or Minnesota.

Basically, they had a once in a lifetime coaching hire, pre-existing sports-obsessed school/state culture, and donors waiting in the woodwork to pounce on an opportunity like this. They really hit the holy trinity of program turn-arounds.
 









GooningGopher said:
Maybe I’m retarded, but I think it’s the combo of good coaching and a good amount of money.
Click to expand...
The money allowed a faster build. Coaching, which includes talent identification as well as development (remember many of their transfers were JMU and G5 players) and finally getting all these new players to play effectively together, is the main component. There are loud people who say it’s only about the “billionaire backing” which is not even as consequential as it sounds; it’s not as if Mark Cuban can hand Mendoza $50 million. There are quite a few programs with plenty of NIL money who aren’t having the success of Indiana under Cignetti.
 



Sent too soon. Heisman quality QB, online and Dline both first rate, receivers who are big and fast with good hands, dbacks who look ready for the next level, special teams get the job done well. Looks like skill wise they’re on a par with the usual suspects OSU, Georgia, Clemson etc. I’ve been thinking it must be a huge influx of cash to buy these top players but many here who know better than me say that may not be the case. Either way it’s been a great pleasure for me to watch them put down OSU and I hope they win it all!

They’ll make a movie of it some day I hope.
 


Sustainable or not, I'd take it right now. I was born the year Indiana last won a Big Ten tittle.
They tied the Gophers and Purdue.
Purdue won in 2000. . Indiana this year. Minnesota has not won since.
We are sustainably not even close to winning one.
I love Gopher football, but you'd think there would be a breakout year once since 1967.
 

1) Recruit good coaches and get boosters on board to sign key positions including a nice NFL quality portal QB.

2) Get super lucky in 2024 with an incredibly weak schedule. No Top 25 wins with losses vs Ohio State and Notre Dame. Get really lucky with injuries. Still, the resume' is bolstered.

3) The really good 2024 adds credibility and leads to more booster interest, more fan interest, and allows Cignetti to again recruit a top Heisman level QB and more key portal additions.

4) 2025 schedule again has only one top performing Blue Blood in Oregon, but Indiana plays well and has wins at Iowa and at home vs Illinois for the regular season. Gets really lucky with injuries. Indiana follows up with a great win vs Ohio State in the championship game. Indiana gets the top seed in the CFP but that doesn't mean much.

5) 2026 will be tougher for Indiana but still not a killer schedule. They probably revert closer to the mean unless they get another NFL quality QB.

I'd opine that Fleck had a similar chance to build on the nice 2019 season but COVID killed the momentum in 2020 then tons of key injuries in 2021 further put a damper on things. They reverted closer to the mean.
 

It was all there for us at least for one year: Game Day present; 10-1 leading our rival 7-0 and with 4th & 2 at the opposing 37 yard line. And we punt despite having both an efficient and big play offense. Opportunity missed. Had not recurred. Cignetti would not have punted.
 

I've read on here that if we (or our coach) just wanted to win more we would have a season just like Indiana's. So that must be how they did it.
 




Married@SiebertField said:
It was all there for us at least for one year: Game Day present; 10-1 leading our rival 7-0 and with 4th & 2 at the opposing 37 yard line. And we punt despite having both an efficient and big play offense. Opportunity missed. Had not recurred. Cignetti would not have punted.
Click to expand...
Yeah, we didn’t lose by multiple scores because of that decision.
 


You must log in or register to reply here.



Top Bottom