New coach Curt Cignetti flipping everything IU football's way: recruits, narratives, hope
A college football team hires a new coach, like IU did in November, and people get excited. Recruiting immediately goes up a notch. A decent transfer or two shows up. Fans get excited. Happens every year. You’ve seen it.
But you’ve not seen anything like what’s happening at IU football.
First, the obligatory disclaimers: Wins and losses happen on the field, not the offseason. Results matter, not words. Insert something here about hot air, hot takes, blah blah blah.
Now, the truth.
The hire of Curt Cignetti has changed IU football.
How it started: Donaven McCulley returns
Where do you even begin? With Donaven McCulley coming back? Yeah, let’s start there, because McCulley is better positioned than anyone to make a statement about Cignetti, and here’s what the senior receiver from Lawrence North just said:
I’ll take Cignetti and IU football over Michigan.
McCulley, the former four-star quarterback recruit who has become a future NFL wide receiver, was one of the most coveted receivers in the transfer portal. I mean, I don’t know that. But I know it, you know? He’s 6-5 and 210 pounds of rising superstar. The guy’s been playing receiver for just two years, and in his second year — in the Big Ten, for an IU football team with inconsistent quarterback play — he caught 48 passes for 644 yards and six touchdowns. If he’s a Pro Bowl receiver someday, well, are you really going to be shocked?
Michigan wanted him, and McCulley was excited to get that offer. He posted the news on Twitter on Dec. 6 with a huge picture of Michigan’s logo below the words:
Michigan offered!
Michigan has qualified for the College Football Playoff in each of the past three seasons and figures to be a national contender as long as Jim Harbaugh is there and finding different ways to cheat, but McCulley took a look at what was happening with the Hoosiers under Cignetti and made this decision, as the versatile player/social media user wrote on Instagram:
I’mma get good where my feet at.
Check out that post. See the emoji there? It’s a cigarette. That’s a reference to what’s happening under Curt Cignetti.
This Cig is smokin.’
Insider Zach Osterman: What WR Donaven McCulley's transfer portal return means to IU
Doyel: IU football hires James Madison's Curt Cignetti, and this guy is different
How it's going: New QB, WRs, RBs
Any idea how many options players in the transfer portal have? These aren’t high school recruits, kids with obvious potential but zero experience in college football. These are Division I players, men, many of them with three or four years of experience, which means statistics and game film.
Now, check out how many of these established college football players surveyed their options and chose IU football:
∎ The quarterback from Ohio, Kurtis Rourke, the 2022 MAC Offensive Player of the Year and a guy with 7,651 career passing yards, 50 touchdowns and 16 interceptions. His career completion percentage is 66.3%. He has run for 828 yards and 11 TDs.
∎ The receivers from Texas Tech (Myles Price), Wake Forest (Ke’Shawn Williams) and Ohio (Miles Cross). All have at least 100 career catches, and combined they bring to Bloomington 373 receptions for 4,437 yards and 23 TDs.
∎ The running back from Wake Forest (Justice Ellison). He has run for 1,901 yards and 15 TDs in three college seasons. Former All-ACC third-teamer.
∎ The running back from IU: Yes, Trent Howland. By the end of the season, after moving from linebacker to running back, he had become the Hoosiers’ RB1, posting 75 carries for 354 yards (4.7 yards per carry). Howland is 6-3 and 240 pounds. Give him a full season, with an offense with those weapons to spread the field? Watch him approach 1,000 yards in 2024.
You may have missed the Trent Howland news. To be honest: I did. Found that only as I went through our recent IU football coverage, the news that Howland had left the transfer portal — and his commitment to Minnesota — to return to the Hoosiers. Hard to keep up with everything Cignetti is doing, like the 6-7, 318-pound offensive lineman from Wisconsin (Trey Wedig). Another transfer portal addition. Missed that one, too.
Wedig can play alongside left tackle Carter Smith, who withdrew from the portal to play for Cignetti.
Say, did you know Cignetti landed the highest-rated recruit in James Madison history, four-star Philadelphia cornerback Jah Jah Boyd, in July? This was before the 2023 season, before Cignetti took James Madison on that 10-0 joy ride that earned the Dukes a visit from ESPN’s “College GameDay” show. Cignetti sold Boyd on his vision of JMU football, not results.
Well, now Cignetti has sold Boyd on his vision of IU football, because Boyd just flipped his commitment to the Hoosiers.
Cignetti has been flipping everything in IU’s direction — recruits, narratives, hope.
First, the obligatory disclaimer: Let’s see what happens next fall.
Now, the truth: Can’t wait.
Find IndyStar columnist Gregg Doyel on Twitter at @GreggDoyelStar or at www.facebook.com/greggdoyelstar.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Curt Cignetti using transfer portal to remake IU football immediately
