I think Cignetti might be the best cfb coach ever. So impressive.
Coaches
- Thread starter HankTheTank
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What he’s done is pretty much unheard of. Taking a perennial doormat and immediately turning them into a national title contender, I don’t know if that’s ever happened before. Truly impressive.
Bill Snyder did, just not as quickly.
Without the transfer portal
Yeah, but I don't remember hearing that the IU portal haul was very good. Were they even rated at the beginning of the season?
How much was Saban’s success due to having Cignetti on staff? Can we please find “that kind of guy” to be our DC.
Utilized a lot of Juco players. As did Nebraska.
Indiana has always had talent sprinkled in their roster. They had a reasonably good team a few years ago. The portal, Cignetti and Cuban’s money elevated them.
Cig bought half the team with him from his previous team that had several years of eligibility left they got a top quarterback in the portal, Bill Snyder did a lot more with a lot less and there is no comparison
Got the best QB in the portal. Without him I doubt they’re in the playoff this year. 12/15. 192 yards from the 2nd quarter on. The int was a tipped ball early.
Right, but they were James Madison recruits. I doubt few if any of them were more than 3 star recruits.
The man obviously knows how to identify & develop talent. Not to mention instilling a winning mentality.
What Snyder did was impressive, but this is just as if not more impressive. Did you see the stat that IU has the 2nd most losses in CFB history?
Fans wanted Charlie McBride ran out of town in the 1980’s when he got talent he was the greatest, if Nebraska wants to win again they really need to look at strength and conditioning and what kind of supplements teams like Ohio State and Indiana are using both of those teams aren’t just doing it by eating right and lifting weights. Once Nebraska does that we’ll start winning
What he did was impressive - but I don’t believe he got to the point where KSU was ever considered a national championship possibility. I could be wrong though.
I believe they were a game away from playing for the NC one year.
Overly simplistic. By your reasoning, James Madison should’ve been in the running for titles every year.
No you're right. Their best chance was probably in 1998 when they went undefeated in the regular season and were ranked #2, but lost the Big 12 Championship game and missed out on the BCS title game. Then went on to lose their bowl game and finished #10. Snyder had already been there for 10 years by that point. I think the highest they ever finished was #6. Snyder built and sustained a high level for a long time, but he didn't do what Cignetti's done.
This. I am sick and tired of hearing how what Cignetti has done at Indiana is a totally unique situation because he brought most of his players with him. What rubbish. The players he brought were not a group of four star P4 guys. Coaching matters damn it and the guy is just flat-out a great coach. What a shame that Rhule can't seem to even put a stable coaching staff together let alone properly identify and develop athletic talent. Jeff Sims anyone? And don't tell me that was a "rushed" thing. He talked Sims up big time and made him sound like the next Tom Brady. The usual Rhule overhype. Just like Rhule gushed and gushed in our preseason about how great our defensive line was going to be and what a strength our offensive line would be. So he is either a liar who hypes players he knows are not that good, or he is a lousy evaluator of talent.
But we are stuck with Rhule probably for another two years at least. So we had just better hope that at the very least Rhule can learn from his own mistakes, and learn from the Cignetti's of the world, step back and put together a high caliber coaching staff and then lets them coach while he manages the bigger picture aspects of the program. I am hopeful that Rhule can learn and will change, despite my criticisms above. He has real issues and so far has not proven to be a solid coach. But I think patience is in order here and there is hope he can learn and adapt.
In this era of coaches getting fired at the drop of a hat perhaps we can be different and actually stick with a struggling coach so long as he does manage to bring in good recruits and transfers. Even in the modern era of football it may take four or five years before a coach hits his stride. I think programs that keep dumping coaches, as we have done, are only setting themselves up for constant upheaval. Rhule is so far a disappointment and we may yet end up firing him. But it is too soon to write him off and it is in our best interest for him to stay, develop stability and finally bring in a coaching staff that can coach and recruit at a high level.
imo Rhule still needs to get the players to buy in. when he made the comment that players were missing assignments after 11 games he has issues. To agree with a little bit of kong hes soft on the players needs to be more forcefully demand more perfections like a former player said about TO they were practicing a certain play and weren’t doing it correctly TO said run it again he made them keep running the same play until they got it right
If you wrote down a list of all the things Rhule is good at as a head coach and a list of all the things he's bad at, I think it would be very depressing to compare the lists.
Cignetti is the Barry Switzer of our current age of college football minus Barry's humor of course, Cignetti takes a no nonsense approach to reporters questions and is a reporters nightmare to interviews. Rhule reminds me of the way Nebraska fell behind Oklahoma but this time WAY BEHIND and had to learn how to catch up to Oklahoma doing it the right Nebraska way if that makes any sense. Matt Rhule may have seen the light or been shown the light and told he must act now regardless of whose feelings may be hurt. You know who's hurting more than Nebraska fans right now, OSU, MU, PSU and even IOWA fans, they use to scoff and laugh at the Hoosiers after whooping them in football but no longer. The old standard bearer's of the BIG are now looking up at the new KINGS of the BIG and are in awe of what just took place and can't believe their throne was taken from them by a lowly court jester. 
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Smart people use what’s available to them at the time to create opportunities.
Are Bezo, Ellison, and Zuckerberg successful without the internet?
gotta adapt or lose out
I Think a lot of Rhules talk is for the players . We as fans hang on every word and take it as the gospel even though IMO it not really for us.
That defensive line **** IMO was definitely for THE PLAYERS. As fans we already had a very good idea we would struggle. At least I did. If u watched enough football you knew what it was.
Now the Sims **** was different. We didn't know him. That was a horrible over sell. Whether he knew it or not idk.
He better learn to under sell and over deliver instead of the other way around. Our fans have memories like elephants. Ask Frost...
Holla
I do not think IU loses to either OU or Bama, but they could lose to the winner of the Ducks (hard to beat a team twice) and Texas Tech. On the other side of the bracket, both Ohio State and Georgia can give them a game.
Cignetti is building a machine at IND.
And yes, Snyder was good, mainly through the juco route.
From that initial James Madison influx of players, IND really only has 4 foundational players, the rest are just good enough to play near flawless football.
Saturday, OSU had 11 kids who were 5* and 56 kids that are 4*.
Indiana has 7 kids that are 4* and 55 kids that are 3*.
Cig doesn't chase stars, he chases "fit." It appears IF you don't know your entire assignments, you can't get on the field. Knowing the playbook allows those kids to play fast and not bust assignments.
Anything can happen, but if Cig is able to identify, and he will, some high 4* or 5* kids in the near future that "fit" his offense or defense, they will likely get better and better. Yet, it may not matter how talented that player is if he doesn't "fit" the Cignetti model.
Ever since Frost, NU likely has had close to 7 or more 4* star kids in each class, (forget this year, lol) and what has it gotten us? To say Cig brought "half" the JM team with him is not an accurate statement.
I think this is a very difficult time to win the title. There are about 6 teams with a legit shot, of course, avoiding key injuries, and getting hot is gonna be a huge factor.
The level of improvement from year 1 to year 2 with Indiana, they learned how to outscore a VERY good offensive team in Oregon on the road, persevered to win a tough game at IA, found some magic late at PSU, and now have beaten the BEST defensive team they will face this year. Would they beat OSU again if they played, I'd say no more than 50-50.
I will root for IND this year because I'm tired of the old OSU, GA, BAMA gig every year. As far as I'm concerned, IND is MILES ahead of NU and we won't be catching up anytime soon.
He been coach at Indiana for two seasons don’t compare him to BarryCignetti is the Barry Switzer of our current age of college football minus Barry's humor of course, Cignetti takes a no nonsense approach to reporters questions and is a reporters nightmare to interviews. Rhule reminds me of the way Nebraska fell behind Oklahoma but this time WAY BEHIND and had to learn how to catch up to Oklahoma doing it the right Nebraska way if that makes any sense. Matt Rhule may have seen the light or been shown the light and told he must act now regardless of whose feelings may be hurt. You know who's hurting more than Nebraska fans right now, OSU, MU, PSU and even IOWA fans, they use to scoff and laugh at the Hoosiers after whooping them in football but no longer. The old standard bearer's of the BIG are now looking up at the new KINGS of the BIG and are in awe of what just took place and can't believe their throne was taken from them by a lowly court jester.
Sims does have tantalizing physical talent. Reminds me of Dak in a lot of ways. Then you see the ball come squirting out of his hands for no reason at all. ….