It was one of the more questionable decisions in the history of IU football.
After starting at quarterback for Indiana for three seasons, Antwaan Randle El was only a few yards from becoming the first player in NCAA history to pass for 6,000 yards and to rush for 3,000 yards in a career.
And that’s when head coach Cam Cameron, in year five of a seven-year contract and squarely on the hot seat, did the unthinkable.
Randle El insisted at the time it was his idea, but Cameron signed off on moving one of college football’s most dynamic players to wide receiver before the 2001 season.
To Cameron’s credit, he saw potential in Randle El that would ultimately lead to nine-year NFL career during which Randle El would catch 370 passes and return five punts for touchdowns.
“We think he is going to be a decent punt returner,” Cameron said to the media at the time of his decision to move Randle El to receiver. “Secondly, it met a need at wide receiver. And third, we have a lot of confidence in our other quarterbacks.”
The other quarterback who started in week one of the 2001 season was Tommy Jones. And he didn’t play poorly. Jones completed 18-of-31 passes with a touchdown and no interceptions. But he had -6 rushing yards, and the offense was mostly stagnant in a 35-14 loss at N.C. State.
Cameron did get Randle El involved. He rushed 7 times for 37 yards, and he caught 4 balls for another 30 yards. But without the threat to throw the ball or escape the pocket, the Wolfpack were largely able to contain him.
Salivating on the opposite sideline on that Thursday evening in early September was none other than Curt Cignetti. He was a recruiting coordinator and coached quarterbacks and tight ends for N.C. State from 2000-06.
On Wednesday evening, during a Q&A session with radio voice Don Fischer, it was mentioned Cignetti had faced Indiana a couple times during his coaching career.
Cignetti actually coached against IU three times, once when he was on staff at Rice in 1987. Bill Mallory’s Hoosiers won that one 35-13 at Memorial Stadium in Bloomington. And then he faced the Hoosiers twice while with N.C. State, at Indiana in 2000, and then the fateful return trip to Raleigh the following season.
Cignetti knows the Wolfpack got an assist from Cameron in that 2001 meeting.
“Played them (Indiana) a couple times, beat them a couple times. Well, it really helped that you put Randle El at receiver,” Cignetti quipped to Fischer.
Indiana’s offense only produced a total 276 yards that evening in Raleigh. And the decision had to seem especially strange to Cignetti and the N.C. State staff. Because with Randle El at quarterback the year prior in Bloomington, IU posted 38 points and 476 yards against the Wolfpack. Randle El was in vintage form, passing for 241 yards and 2 touchdowns, and rushing for 81 yards. It took 5 touchdown passes from future NFL star quarterback Phillip Rivers, including a 47-yarder in the game’s final minute, to take down the Hoosiers that day in Bloomington.
Cameron corrected the mistake in week two, putting Randle El back at quarterback for the rest of the season.
With the tragic events of Sept. 11 that year, the Hoosiers had 16 days between games to get Randle El back into a rhythm at quarterback.
But it took him a while to shake off the rust after preparing all offseason to play receiver. IU lost home games to Utah and Ohio State in weeks two and three, before Randle El got hot down the stretch and led Indiana to wins in four of the last five games.
But the Hoosiers still came up just one win short of bowl eligibility, with everyone left wondering what might have been in week one.
Randle El would go on to become the first player in NCAA history to score 40 touchdowns (45) and throw for 40 touchdowns (42) in a career, the first to record over 2,500 yards of total offense in four seasons, and the first to pass for over 6,000 yards and rush for over 3,000 yards in a career.
Cameron was fired by Indiana after that 2001 season, while Cignetti would eventually take the same job 22 years later.
And in a strange twist, now Cameron believes Cignetti just might be the man who can finally get the IU program rolling.
But he’ll probably want to leave Kurtis Rourke at quarterback.
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