JDCAG (NOT Colin) said:

---

I don't understand why so many of you seem to think a coach that was missed by literally all but one school in college football was simply an A&M miss.

The hindsighting on this board is unreal.

To my knowledge, there was like 1 poster on here that mentioned him BEFORE he went to IU.

Everyone else is just quick to talk about how obvious it was that he was greatness, while never saying a word before.

If you want to impress people, don't say that it was obvious how great Cignetti was going to be years ago, but tell me who the big name will be in 2, 3, 4 years. That would be impressive.

---

Exactly

CStewTAMU said:

---

I just hope Cignetti resets these ridiculous long term contracts coaches get. If he can do this at the school that's been the doormat of the Big 10 for
a century in 2 years, there's no reason to give a coach more than 3 years, 4 tops.

---

Is this based on pure envy or stupidity? Long term contracts are necessary in the college game because you are asking kids to make a 4 year commitment to your program. Thats a hard ask when you only have 1 year left on your contract.

CapCityAg89 said:

---

agracer said:

---

Cignetti entered completely different circumstances at Indiana than Elko entered at A&M.

Indiana expected basically nothing out of him for several years b/c the program was a dumpster fire. He had a completely different set of players, who'd seen almost zero success prior to his arrival. The Indiana players probably were excited as hell to have a coach who preached winning and excellence. If you've ever had a boss, supervisor, coach, whatever who just wasn't successful, then suddenly things change and the new guy starts talking excellence and winning, the winners (and lets face it, despite their abysmal results, D1 Indiana players are in fact good athletes) in the program are going to be motivated as hell to start winning.

Now compare that to A&M being full of 4-5 star entitled, locker room pot smokers who's former coach was frequently AWOL and spent more time yelling at his players for small mistakes instead of actually coaching them. While the fan expectations at A&M were much higher, it was obvious the coach didn't expect much and the continued 8-5 record reflected that.

Indiana fans probably though Cignetti, who looked good on paper, might get them to a few bowl games, but not much else.

---

This makes zero sense and is almost completely wrong. He ran off almost the entire team and brought in his guys who were used to winning. Then hit the portal hard with big dollars. Pulled a winner with Mendoza and ta-da.

---

My mistake, I didn't realize he's run off the entire team.

Don Powell said:

---

Elko is more elite. Just need the right players.

---

Good Lord make it stop

nbbob said:

---

All anyone had to do was Google him

---

I mean, he did tell everyone to "google me". It's safe to say he was pretty confident about himself.

jja79 said:

---

People who don't watch much college football or follow it closely would have melted down. He's been a winner for a long time and people that follow closely knew it.

---

Please link us to all of your posts predicting that Cignetti would win big at Indiana, because obviously if you follow college football closely you would have been telling everybody here about his forthcoming success.

We'll wait.

All I know is get Cignetti a beer.

Its all the man wants.

Don Powell said:

---

Elko is a better coach. We just need a billionaire to step up like Cuban.

---

this is why there are Aggie jokes.

My opinion. Cuban adds more to the equation than just his money. Money always has strings attached. Either he's pulling the right strings or knows how to stay out of the way.

I wanted Cignetti from the get go. I knew him and his family here in the Pittsburgh area and they are known for being great football coaches. He was my choice.

vander54 said:

---

JDCAG (NOT Colin) said:

---

I don't understand why so many of you seem to think a coach that was missed by literally all but one school in college football was simply an A&M miss.

The hindsighting on this board is unreal.

To my knowledge, there was like 1 poster on here that mentioned him BEFORE he went to IU.

Everyone else is just quick to talk about how obvious it was that he was greatness, while never saying a word before.

If you want to impress people, don't say that it was obvious how great Cignetti was going to be years ago, but tell me who the big name will be in 2, 3, 4 years. That would be impressive.

---

Exactly

---

Brent Vigan-head coach of Montana St. Bookmark it.

Coaching at Rice University in the Southwest Conference got his coaching career off to a good start.

Jimbo4win said:

---

vander54 said:

---

JDCAG (NOT Colin) said:

---

I don't understand why so many of you seem to think a coach that was missed by literally all but one school in college football was simply an A&M miss.

The hindsighting on this board is unreal.

To my knowledge, there was like 1 poster on here that mentioned him BEFORE he went to IU.

Everyone else is just quick to talk about how obvious it was that he was greatness, while never saying a word before.

If you want to impress people, don't say that it was obvious how great Cignetti was going to be years ago, but tell me who the big name will be in 2, 3, 4 years. That would be impressive.

---

Exactly

---

Brent Vigan-head coach of Montana St. Bookmark it.

---

Username does not check out.

Cig landed a job that really had very little expectation, plus a Mark Cuban that listened and gave him what he needed, Kelvin Sampson is doing it in basketball with Fertitta money, you have to have a guy that has a long range goal for these billionaires to release money.

jja79 said:

---

People who don't watch much college football or follow it closely would have melted down. He's been a winner for a long time and people that follow closely knew it.

---

Come on man be fr, no one thought this was going to happen. It's going to be funny watching other power teams try and replicate it, will cost a lot of people a lot of money.

WolfCall said:

---

Coaching at Rice University in the Southwest Conference got his coaching career off to a good start.

---

He really is old.

Don Powell said:

---

Elko is more elite. Just need the right players.

---

But that is also his job. Cignetti did it.

Well, we did see the reactions of a bunch of posters to the suggestion...

Don Powell said:

---

Elko is a better coach. We just need a billionaire to step up like Cuban.

---

It was actually John Mellencamp, who has overseen the team's transformation from laughingstock to No. 1. In a college sports landscape lorded over by billionaires, none other than John Mellencampthe 74-year-old heartland rockerhas played no small part in Indiana's rise from laughingstock to the No. 1 team in the country. Year after dismal year, Mellencamp trudged to Hoosiers games on Saturdays. At a time when nobody saw Indiana football as a good investment, he gave $1.5 million to build the team's practice facility: the John Mellencamp Pavilion.

The Chain-Smoking Rock Star Who Made Indiana Football Hurt So Good - WSJ

Curt Cignetti has been a proven winner at every stop, but we can only wonder what he would have done with the QB situation. Would he have started with Conner Weigman before switching to Marcel Reed? Would he have brought over Fernando Mendoza from Cal in his 2nd year like he did at Indiana?

Elko did not throw the interception in the end zone

Stop defending Elko as better than he had two years, too…

cevans_40 said:

---

CStewTAMU said:

---

I just hope Cignetti resets these ridiculous long term contracts coaches get. If he can do this at the school that's been the doormat of the Big 10 for
a century in 2 years, there's no reason to give a coach more than 3 years, 4 tops.

---

Is this based on pure envy or stupidity? Long term contracts are necessary in the college game because you are asking kids to make a 4 year commitment to your program. Thats a hard ask when you only have 1 year left on your contract.

---

Not anymore

Iraq2xVeteran said:

---

Don Powell said:

---

Elko is a better coach. We just need a billionaire to step up like Cuban.

---

It was actually John Mellencamp, who has overseen the team's transformation from laughingstock to No. 1. In a college sports landscape lorded over by billionaires, none other than John Mellencampthe 74-year-old heartland rockerhas played no small part in Indiana's rise from laughingstock to the No. 1 team in the country. Year after dismal year, Mellencamp trudged to Hoosiers games on Saturdays. At a time when nobody saw Indiana football as a good investment, he gave $1.5 million to build the team's practice facility: the John Mellencamp Pavilion.

The Chain-Smoking Rock Star Who Made Indiana Football Hurt So Good - WSJ

---

$1.5 MM? LOL. That's cute.
I know he's donated to IU over the years but make no mistake, this was Cuban's work. Both the money and access to cutting edge AI that helped the team prepare week after week.

Would $1.5 million even cover mobilization for construction?

Two years ago, TAMU had expectations of playoffs and hopes of a nattie. Two years ago, Indiana didn't have any expectations and so hiring a promising outsider like Cignetti would have been easy call for Indiana. They would have been happy with 8-5 or 9-4 seasons. If the gamble didn't work, they were in the same spot as before. It was NOT a no-brainer for any high profile SEC or B10 team that Cignetti would yield such amazing results much less so quickly.


Lesson here might be that in NIL era, any Team with good coaching and competitive NIL resources can be immediately competitive. And if you have an eye for unappreciated talent (ie under valued NIL) you might be able to get just a little more out of your roster than big spending programs.