One thing Cignetti had that NO coaches had in past history, is immediate transfer eligibility and the larger roster limit. He's picked a veteran transfer QB to fit his system, brought in a slew of transfers many from his old school. All eligible immediately. It was a Deion Sanders type transition.
I would like to see what Cignetti could have done with 85 scholarships and only jucos & incoming 18 year olds eligible to play that first season. Does he take 20 transfers and let them sit out a year? Play the first season with 65? No way.
We'll never really know, will we? Some guys can evaluate talent in athletes, staff and frankly, some can just flat out coach. Those select few like Bob Stoops, Nick Saban and Urban Meyer can take over down an out programs, take one year to shape it and win the national title in year two. Again, some coaches can just flat out evaluate.
In any day and age, Cignetti will "find" that outstanding QB from Miami (OH) or California and next thing you know, the kid turns into a viable Heisman candidate because Cignetti knows the difference between a Jeff Sims and a Fernando Mendoza. This ability to evaluate likely permeates throughout his entire selection process.
Maybe in a couple years, we will find that much of Cig's success has to do with outstanding minds on his staff in terms of evaluation, etc. Kind of like Hawkins at Boise State who had great success, only to find as time went along, the real brains of the operation was Chris Peterson who went on to a great career at both Boise and U of Washington.
Having said that, it's not likely IND is ready to make a super serious play on a national title in year 2 of his regime. As much as anything, IND does not have the long standing football tradition of an OK, LSU, BAMA, FLA or OSU. That's what makes Cigs rise that much more impressive, regardless of nowaday rules.
I do believe in any era, coaches like the 3 I mentioned, along with your TO's, Barry Switzers, Bobby Bowdens, Peter Carrolls all just have that something extra that 99% of other coaches lack. As those coaches reached near their 60th or so birthday, they rarely made a mistake at the key QB position.
And Katie bar the door once they began to quit trying to outscore everyone and got serious about upgrading the talent level on team defense. The OSU defense is what now separates them from the most serious contenders. Just like TO had to track OU's great talent base that resulted in NU's rise to the top just to compete with a juggernaut in their own conference, the same thing will eventually drive IND to trying to close that gap with the Buckeyes.
NU has a coach trying to stay with the IA, MINN, ILL's of the football world, the reach to the top 4-5 in the conference are beyond his grasp and ability to narrow that gap. The results will be slightly above .500 football and a meaningless low level bowl game. Whooppee!!