Week 7 Other Games Thread

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btowngopher said:
Did I say all 13? A few were.
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You said Cignetti brought ready to play all americans to Indiana, that would mean he recruited or coached up players to an FCS championship game, then a bowl game in their first FBS season, Then The College Football Playoff. Unlike others here I don’t think his success is due to NIL.
 

Unregistered User said:
Give the softest schedule in America credit.

There were at least 7 teams that would have gone 8-1 last year with their schedule, including the Gophers.
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Agree, didn’t comment on his success last year because of it. But he has backed it up, and we never took advantage of the Big Ten west for our big year
 

Obviously Cignetti can coach, but NIL and the transfer portal and soft schedules have certainly helped. The results obviously have been remarkable considering the prior struggles there, but the school seems to have really amped up the support for the football program.
 


LeftofThaDial said:
That money had liitle to do with Cignetti taking the program from 1-8 to 8-1 in “year zero”. Give the coach credit
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Im just pointing out the NIL situation....It's a perfect marriage. Trust me, growing up in Indiana and having several IU grads in my family, I've witnessed a lot of bad IU football, they now have a President and AD who care. With Cignetti, he brings a lot the table which in turn attracts the donors.
 
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Unregistered User said:
Give the softest schedule in America credit.

There were at least 7 teams that would have gone 8-1 last year with their schedule, including the Gophers.
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Assuming we would have lost to OSU last year, we would have needed to go 8-0 against the rest of Indianas schedule to do that. Given that we actually lost to the Michigan team that Indiana beat, and we lost to a 4-5 Rutgers team, im not sold that we would have gone 8-1 against that schedule.
 





btowngopher said:
Not the same as PJ with Morgan. PJ brought recruits with him, not ready to play All American type players that could play immediately.
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This is somehow a defense of Fleck and a negative about Cignetti??

LOL.
 


Gilthorp57 said:
Im just pointing out the NIL situation....It's a perfect marriage. Trust me, growing up in Indiana and having several IU grads in my family, I've witnessed a lot of bad IU football, they now have a President and AD who care. With Cignetti, he brings a lot the table which in turn attracts the donors.
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Did the wins come first, or did the donors come first?

I'm just wondering why doesn't our prez, Coyle, and Fleck attrack the donors in the same way? I guess I don't know about the new prez that much, but certainly Coyle and Fleck want to win and would gladly pay players to come here to make that happen, if they had the money.
 

LeftofThaDial said:
Indianas had like 15 transfers last year from JMU, money didn’t bring them Cignetti did. Our players get paid too, they drive Corvettes and Raptors and T-Rex’s around campus
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Yeah I think 2024 in particular was impressive and less controversial.

Cuban said he made a donation to IU athletics this offseason which I take as the department, not the NIL collective or bags of money. He’s made donations to other school departments and clubs in the past. Could it be? Yes. Should we assume Cuban is paying players directly or indirectly, though. I think that’s a leap but certainly possible. Cuban likes to take public credit for his work (nothing wrong with that).

I suppose we’d need to go through the roster line by line and look at the offer sheet for each. Did blue blood schools want the same guys?
 



LeftofThaDial said:
You said Cignetti brought ready to play all americans to Indiana, that would mean he recruited or coached up players to an FCS championship game, then a bowl game in their first FBS season, Then The College Football Playoff. Unlike others here I don’t think his success is due to NIL.
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It's all of the above He's a good coach, he has done well in the portal, and they have a much better NIL situation than us.
 


Word said:
It's all of the above He's a good coach, he has done well in the portal, and they have a much better NIL situation than us.
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Well said. Left of the Dial is clearly an Indiana fan or someone with a weird fascination with Cignetti.

Cignetti is an a$$hole but he might be the kind of a$$hole who is perfect for this current college football landscape. Will be interesting to see if he sticks it out at Indiana or jumps ship after this season because he will probably have helmet schools after him.

He is clearly the right fit for their current situation.
 

GopherGrit said:
Did the wins come first, or did the donors come first?

I'm just wondering why doesn't our prez, Coyle, and Fleck attrack the donors in the same way? I guess I don't know about the new prez that much, but certainly Coyle and Fleck want to win and would gladly pay players to come here to make that happen, if they had the money.
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In the IU case, they decided to make a stronger investment in football, new facilities, stronger donor engagement. The icing on the cake was attracting Cignetti and the promise of a higher salary pool for assistants.

I understand with MN, the salary pool for assistants is lacking, hence the constant turnover. I do not know how much Fleck has addressed this with Coyle. Coyle seems to make good hires, but he doesn't seem to be a good fundraiser. PJ seems to be one who is trying to schmoose the donors.
 

Here are the IU 2025 cycle assistant pool salaries. Bostad jumps out, was of course part of the Wisconsin OL glory years. Haines OC was a nobody Cignetti brought with him from JMU. Shanahan DC same, a nobody from JMU. No relation to the NFL coach.

Ojong, a nobody
Owings spent time at TTU and UCF before joining Cignetti at JMU
Kuntz was a nobody before going to JMU and then Indiana
Cain ditto
Ola Adams spent a year each in the NFL as a secondary coach and Penn State as analyst
Buddha Williams spent time at NDSU then CSU as DL coach
John Miller was a GA at JMU then Texas at QC for 2 years then JMU coach in 2021

Minnesota could match these salaries but the question is whether the outcome would be the same. The performance came before the payday for almost all of them. However we feel about Cignetti they are a great sports story.





Last month when the terms of Cignetti’s new deal were released, we learned the Hoosiers had committed $11 million per year for the football program’s on-field staff and support staff, to be allocated at Cignetti’s discretion. Per USA Today, Ohio State ($11.43 million) is the only known school whose assistant salary pool is higher than IU’s new figure.

Here’s what the latest records request reveals about how most of that massive pool will be allocated:

  • Defensive coordinator Bryant Haines: $1.8 million in 2025, $1.9 million in 2026, $2 million in 2027, plus $75,000 annual retention bonus, plus $150,000 if the team finishes in the top third of the Big Ten (one of the top 6 teams) in fewest points allowed on average per game or fewest yards allowed on average per game
  • Offensive coordinator Mike Shanahan: $1.15 million in 2025, $1.2 million in 2026, $1.25 million in 2027, plus $50,000 annual retention bonus.
  • Offensive line coach Bob Bostad: $900,000 per year
  • Cornerbacks coach Rod Ojong: $650,000
  • Strength coach Derek Owings: $635,000
  • Defensive tackles coach Pat Kuntz: $625,000
  • Special teams/tight ends coach Grant Cain: $575,000
  • Safeties coach Ola Adams: $550,000
  • Defensive ends Buddha Williams: $550,000
  • Running backs coach John Miller: $425,000
Haines was making $1.1 million under the terms of his original deal with IU. Shanahan was getting $800,000. They both signed three year deals. All of the coaches have received significant bumps while signing either two or three year deals.
www.thedailyhoosier.com

New IU football assistant coach deals include massive raises and bonus opportunities

IU football is making a significant investment in its assistant coaches. Via a public records request, The Daily Hoosier obtained copies of the memorandums of understandings between Curt Cignetti&#…
www.thedailyhoosier.com www.thedailyhoosier.com
 
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USAF said:
This is somehow a defense of Fleck and a negative about Cignetti??

LOL.
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Umm no, it’s neither. Just pointing out it wasn’t as similar a situation as OP made it out to be. Cignetti bringing over players that could play immediately is completely different than Fleck bringing over some members of a recruiting class that hadn’t even left high school yet.
 

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