INDIANA JUST CRUSHED BAMA. Thinking down the road (actually a hundred miles or so), in a couple of weeks Andy has to be among the first to contact the Indiana staff, secure a meeting, and pick their brains on how take a bottom dweller to the top. That guy took FBS JMU to FBS in an eye-blink and then turned IU into a national championship contender in two years. Waddle has got to reach out to this guy. He absolutely has to.
As a former HFBC, myself, I can attest to the fact that colleagues enjoy sharing success stories and teaching colleagues the tricks of the trade. Simple, a call and a day with a coach from the next level helped me immeasurably. Andy has to do this cuz this guy is a magician.
And we need some magic about now.
- A great idea! Homer once visited with Bobby Knight who he said was quite gracious and helpful in helping to get Bryce more open looks. Seemed to work!
INDIANA JUST CRUSHED BAMA. Thinking down the road (actually a hundred miles or so), in a couple of weeks Andy has to be among the first to contact the Indiana staff, secure a meeting, and pick their brains on how take a bottom dweller to the top. That guy took FBS JMU to FBS in an eye-blink and then turned IU into a national championship contender in two years. Waddle has got to reach out to this guy. He absolutely has to.
As a former HFBC, myself, I can attest to the fact that colleagues enjoy sharing success stories and teaching colleagues the tricks of the trade. Simple, a call and a day with a coach from the next level helped me immeasurably. Andy has to do this cuz this guy is a magician.
And we need some magic about now.
I had thought of the same while waiting for yesterday's game to begin. Cignetti's record is even better than listed. He did turn around jobs at Indiana University of Pennsylvania and Elon prior to JMU.
INDIANA JUST CRUSHED BAMA. Thinking down the road (actually a hundred miles or so), in a couple of weeks Andy has to be among the first to contact the Indiana staff, secure a meeting, and pick their brains on how take a bottom dweller to the top. That guy took FBS JMU to FBS in an eye-blink and then turned IU into a national championship contender in two years. Waddle has got to reach out to this guy. He absolutely has to.
As a former HFBC, myself, I can attest to the fact that colleagues enjoy sharing success stories and teaching colleagues the tricks of the trade. Simple, a call and a day with a coach from the next level helped me immeasurably. Andy has to do this cuz this guy is a magician.
And we need some magic about now.
Tonight’s the BIG one — CFP Championship. Go IU!
Cignetti is in the driver’s seat after the Hoosiers crushed Alabama and Oregon. Unfortunately, I sadly suspect my idea above will fall on deaf ears, because of a now clearly defined gap in coaching philosophy. To wit…
— VU72’s chat with Waddle at Homecoming where Andy affirmed his approach of primarily building through the traditional model and not being a fan of the portal (72, I hope I summarized this correctly).
— The makeup of the 2026 class, so far, that reflects a heavy reliance on incoming HS athletes. Granted, as JD24 points out, Valpo is at the lower end of the FCS portal food chain and must wait out the scrum-for-talent at higher levels [hopefully, we’ll be able to attract a few experienced and talented athletes once the dust settles].
VS….
Historically, an extremely pragmatic approach to adjusting to the environment at the time rather than trying to rigidly push an approach.
This was brought home to me after reading a USAToday preview of tonight’s game. The entire thrust of it was how Cignetti has made it a practice of adapting to current conditions and then optimizing at every level he has coached at. He did it on the DII level. Then took it to JMU, immediately won at the FCS level where they jumped to low-tier FBS and still won. That got him the IU job, and in two years he took the worst major football program in FBS history to this game. How? USAToday didn’t mince words: he signed 19 xfers just this year alone who became game changers. But, of course, he certainly can coach em up too.
It’s too late to impact the class of 2026, but I still hope Andy contacts Cignetti. However, IF we see a repeat of 2025 next season with promising youngsters bailing, I hope Andy opens his mind, because, despite what some on this board say, this, despite being non-scholly, is a totally different animal than DIII.
62, yes, that is what Andy said to me. We’ll have to see how transfers work out, but I’m wondering whether or not we’ve ever had a QB with the rating and scholarship offered which the transfer from Miami of Ohio has. Gatorade Indiana POY, three full rides to MAC schools, etc. Just wondering.
Washington was a higher level recruit out of high school but he was on his 4th enrolled school. Jalen LeAndre / Caron Tyler were 3* athletes in rivals evaluation era.
Ehrlich is certainly the he highest rated player we’ve had come in with four years of eligibility.
247 had Noah as a 3 star
Forgot we got Donovan Dey. Dey was also a three star. He has transferred to Mount Union.
Noah / Washington appear to be a cut above. Washington had an offer to Saban Bama. That was a 1/1. But no reason Noah can’t be our first all conference QB since….?
