If Indiana can do it stop with the we can’t because our history
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Without a doubt the most improbable champion in CFB history. No serious debate can be had there. Worst P4 team in history. First to go 16-0.
They did it with a combined eight 4* and 5* players. Cignetti built incredibly strategically from the portal with older, experienced players. What they accomplished likely would not have been possible without the portal.
They did it with a combined eight 4* and 5* players. Cignetti built incredibly strategically from the portal with older, experienced players. What they accomplished likely would not have been possible without the portal.
Wonder how their BOT is appointed?
I have to agree with you on this. If someone ever again says that it can't happen here they're just making lame excuses, the same excuses I've heard for 50+ years.
Now that SB has done the overhaul, which was long time coming, maybe we are headed in the right direction.
Nice to have donor like Mark Cuban also.....
There are no adjectives to describe Cignetti's accomplishments at IU. However, I doubt he's made a dent in changing IU's DNA, which is basketball. If IU were to regress to a respectable 8-4 next season...which at any other time in IU history would be a great season for them....I expect you'll see fan enthusiasm drop off a cliff. Maybe not.
It's theoretically possible but only doable when you get all the right people together. We haven't even started the process in football whatsoever.
Cuban has more money in the cupholder of his car than all of our donors have combined.
Reality is, IU simply got lucky with the Cignetti hire. For all the usual talk from the AD...we knew what we were getting, etc...they had no idea. Nobody did.
It really doesn't matter whether they were lucky or not. No team wins the national championship without having all the right people together at a given time. Look no farther than Pickens County.
Governor
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Carrying on a two-century tradition of excellence
The Indiana University Board of Trustees is the university’s governing body. Established by the state legislature in 1820, the board has shaped the growth of the university since its beginning.The board is made up of nine trustees, and its business is overseen by six officers. All trustees are appointed by Indiana’s governor.
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Well, sure, but it starts at the top. IU ain't winning diddly without Cignetti. He had an eye for the right staff and especially for the portal players.
Cignettie is a great coach, He had 4 Top 10 teams prior to going to Indiana. He won at multiple schools prior to going to Indiana. He was a proven winner. Beamer has to produce on the "coaching" front. Yes recruiting is important. But we are never going to be able to recruit at a high level with consistency. We never have and never will. And I have given the reasons why many times. Does Shane Beamer have the coaching chops? Let's hope so.
Cignetti is a great coach. He's 64. Beamer is 48. Cignetti was still a journeyman assistant at 48. It's pretty much impossible to compare them for that reason (not suggesting Beamer is a better coach b/c he became head coach quicker). Just 2 completely different career trajectories. Can we hang with Beamer 16 more seasons to see if he turns into a Cignetti????
Correct. We should never hear anything about our history uttered again. In any sport.
Clemson won their championships the way they always had, they cheated. The worst kept secret in college football was that Clemson and Auburn were paying top players to come to their teams. NIL gutted those two programs. It is no mystery why as soon as NIL payments became legal, Clemson and Auburn saw their football programs fall off of a cliff.
Is Fernando Mendoza's brother going to take over as QB #1 for them next season?
The most interesting thing to me about Cignetti is that he learned at the feet of Saban and credits his time there with learning what it takes to run a winning program, but he was outspoken this postseason about not being holed up in his office until 2 every morning and not expecting that from his assistants.
All that is needed is a billionaire donor who is willing to buy talent and a coach and staff who can get the best out of them.
Right now, we have neither.
Right now, we have neither.
My essential point is that no one wins without having all the right pieces together, and that is irrespective of how schools go about it.
Nothing ever changes what has been. If we won three in a row from this point, although we would feel a lot better, and rightly so, what's done would still be done. After things settled down, the talk would change to, "Whose fault was it that we sucked for so long?"
And it's that point where we are bereft. We ain't got a Cignetti in Columbia. People talk about Beamer's Daddy up at Va. Tech and how much time he got, and sure enough, he turned it around. But did he ever win a national championship? There ya go.
How much did Indiana spend to put together this team? I was under the impression it was mostly 2 and 3 stars.
Daddy Beamer also "turned it around" at a time when players couldn't transfer without sitting out a year and there was no NIL money to compete with. Also, what does Daddy's record look like without the Vick boys? Sometimes, a player makes a coach look much better than he really is. Vince Dooley is a perfect example. Without Herschel Walker, Dooley was a good, not great, coach. He was a 7 win a year coach without Herschel Walker. With him, Dooley won a national championship and won the SEC three years in a row.
Estimated at $20-21 million. Mendoza, Black and Hemby were all NIL acquisitions. Cignetti went after proven, older players he knew could contribute immediately. NIL and the portal have proven that star ratings are really only important in recruiting HS players. Look at Pavia, he was a 3 star. Mendoza was a 4 star from Miami and Miami didn't show any interest in him.
I give Dooley a little more credit than that. Throughout his time down there, beginning in 1964, and I actually saw him coach a game that year, not against us, he was a difference-maker - 7-3-1 and a Sun Bowl victory.
Georgia had been flat before then. He was one of the best coaches I've ever seen at using defense and special teams to keep his team close and win games at the end. He could extend games that needed to be extended and shorten games that needed to be shortened, which is great coaching.
His record was 201-77-10 . No one can credibly sneeze at that.
Shane might not be around in 2027, much less 16 seasons. That said, he has to produce "coaching-wise" if he is going to stick around. Anyone hoping we can get there by bringing in the "Jimmys and Joes" is sadly fooling themselvesCignetti is a great coach. He's 64. Beamer is 48. Cignetti was still a journeyman assistant at 48. It's pretty much impossible to compare them for that reason (not suggesting Beamer is a better coach b/c he became head coach quicker). Just 2 completely different career trajectories. Can we hang with Beamer 16 more seasons to see if he turns into a Cignetti????
This is where it's significant that Cignetti did it with eight total 4* and 5* players. He looked for a specific type of player in the portal to fit what he was trying to do, and it worked to perfection.
IU is the least talented team on paper to win the title in recent memory. Even Mendoza was only a 2*.
I became a Vince Dooley fan when I heard him speak at one of my high school football banquets. One of his trademarks was that his teams came out of halftime like a different team with fire in their eyes. That never did not happen. I don't know what he would do or say at halftime. But, whatever it was, it worked. Yes, Dooley was a great coach.
That's amazing. He inherited a team that won just 9 games TOTAL in the prior 3 seasons. He comes in and goes 11-2 in his FIRST season at Indiana finishing number 10 in the nation. In his 2nd season, he wins the national championship at Indiana. To quote Steve Spurrier, "Why not us?".
Halftime adjustments is one area where Beamer has tons of room to grow.
I’m probably in the minority here, which doesn’t bother me at all, but I’ve seen enough of Beamer to wait another three years to see how the changes work out. He’s won 7, 8, and 9 games in the toughest conference over the past 5 years. That’s not earth shattering but there’s enough evidence to make me think he’s growing as a coach.
He initially hired well when assembling the defense staff and he’s now revamped the offense. Time will tell if Brile’s is the answer but Beamer is adjusting and making improvements. Frankly, I don’t see him as a Cignetti-type coach (X’s and O’s) but he can still be successful if he continues recruiting well and setting up his staff to succeed.
He initially hired well when assembling the defense staff and he’s now revamped the offense. Time will tell if Brile’s is the answer but Beamer is adjusting and making improvements. Frankly, I don’t see him as a Cignetti-type coach (X’s and O’s) but he can still be successful if he continues recruiting well and setting up his staff to succeed.
I'm inclined to give it more time given the very serious changes he made on the coaching staff this year. He made his 4 most serious hires since he's been here. I don't know how much of that is him coming around on his own vs Donati pushing the issue. But all 3 coaches we hired are guys who could get jobs at other P4 programs. Scarcely few of anyone else Beamer has hired would fit into that category.