IU coach Curt Cignetti brought most of his position coaches with him from James Madison to Bloomington.
But much of the personnel staff was new as he looked to assemble a modern Power Four front office in the age of the transfer portal and players getting paid.
In order to facilitate high school and college recruiting efforts for Cignetti, that new team had to quickly learn the head coach’s preferences. What players should they focus on? What film should they clip for the head coach? What traits should they highlight in their reports?
Coming from other programs around the country, positional skill and measurables like size and speed were typically what the head coach focused on.
But in their early days in Bloomington in late 2023 and early 2024, Cignetti’s new personnel staff learned to focus on other attributes.
“When we were watching film with Coach Cig that first weekend we were here, he was talking about how a receiver blocked,” Director of Player Personnel Mike Ferrara said on the Up Close in Personnel podcast with Alex Brown.
“I was like, ‘He can catch the ball pretty well, too, don’t care about that?’ He was like, ‘I gotta see this guy block. Is he physical? Is he aggressive? Is he gonna put his face on someone?’ I’m like, okay, that’s different. Obviously (ability to catch the ball) is gonna be a big part of your offense, but he’s watching junior high school tape wondering if this receiver is gonna block and show aggression.”
This mindset has bubbled up to the surface in public comments made by IU receivers Elijah Sarratt and Omar Cooper, Jr. over the last couple years, along with Cignetti. Receivers were expected to physically set the edge when blocking in the run game, and continue blocking downfield through the whistle. It’s a requirement to see the field in Cignetti’s program.
Some would say it’s old school, and perhaps it is. But it’s also a glimpse into the micro-level details that make his teams a little different.
And it starts with the personnel staff, recruiting at the high school level and in the transfer portal.
“That difference opened our minds in our department,” Ferrara said. “None of us in our department were with him (Cignetti) at JMU, so coming in we all had to adjust and kind of mold our thought process of evaluation to what he was looking for. And that was a big thing for me that stood out at one of the first points, like, alright, he wants receivers to block, they better be willing to put their bodies on the lines for this team when they step between the white lines.”
For complete coverage of IU football, GO HERE.
The Daily Hoosier –“Where Indiana fans assemble when they’re not at Assembly”
- You can follow us on X: @daily_hoosier and find us on Facebook and Instagram
- Seven ways to support completely free IU coverage at no cost to you.
