Known for turning high school 0-stars into college 5-stars, IU football coach Curt Cignetti’s ability to evaluate talent is becoming legendary.
And it’s the foundation of the incredible turnaround he has orchestrated in Bloomington.
Just how on point have Cignetti and his staff been in evaluating and bringing in talent from the transfer portal?
“I can only think off the type of my head one mistake we’ve made in the winter portal in two years,” Cignetti said last week on the Y-option podcast.
One mistake would be a fairly incredible outcome since Indiana has by our count brought in 40 players over the last two winter transfer portal cycles. The list of the 40 players is below.
Who might be the one miss?
Cignetti really didn’t miss on anyone in the winter portal cycle ahead of the 2024 season, although he did have the luxury of bringing several players with him from James Madison. But all 21 players IU brought in via that initial haul were producers for the team if they weren’t injured before the season.
There are two players who might fit the description of a miss in the winter cycle ahead of the 2025 season. Wide receiver Makai Jackson only played in four games and saw just 51 snaps before he decided to shut things down and preserve a redshirt season. He was a player who arrived with a lot of promise but couldn’t crack the main rotation.
And cornerback Amariyun Knighten only played two games and 20 defensive snaps in 2025. He has since transferred out of the program.
There is no secondary spring transfer portal cycle this year, but there were spring cycles ahead of both the 2024 and 2025 campaigns.
Cignetti says they’ve missed on three or four players in those spring cycles, and he suspects that might be in part due to the players arriving late and having less time in the program. The players he’s likely thinking of in that regard are defensive backs Cedarius Doss and DJ Warnell, and linebacker Nahji Logan. They all arrived in the spring of 2024.
One problem that has arisen with some of those players is they arrive late, aren’t able to climb the depth chart, and end up carving out a secondary role (e.g. on special teams, etc.). Some have then decided after four games they’d rather sit out to preserve a redshirt season. That appears to have been the case with Warnell and Logan. To his credit, Doss played his special teams role throughout the season while seeing limited defensive snaps.
Indiana also hit some home runs in the spring cycles, including the additions of D’Angelo Ponds, C.J. West, Tyrique Tucker, Stephen Daley, and Kellan Wyatt.
In addition to evaluating how a player performs, Cignetti is also big on preserving the culture of his program. He says he won’t budge when transfer prospects make demands.
“When I have a guy and they want to be promised this or that, playing time, they’ve told me ‘I’m going to start,’ no, no. I’ve never done that and never would,” Cignetti said. “How could I possibly not lose the locker room if I’m promising guys that they will do this or they will do that? Everything’s earned.”
The list of players Indiana has added via the portal following the 2023 and 2024 seasons is astounding when considering how productive they ended up being. Here’s the list of all players who have transferred in ahead of the last two seasons:
PORTAL CYLES AHEAD OF 2024 SEASON
Winter portal
- Justice Ellison – RB (via Wake Forest)
- Kurtis Rourke – QB (via Ohio U.)
- Trey Wedig – OL (via Wisconsin)
- Miles Cross – WR (via Ohio U.)
- Myles Price – WR (via Texas Tech)
- Ke’Shawn Williams – WR (via Wake Forest)
- Mikail Kamara – DE (via James Madison)
- Ty Son Lawton – RB (via James Madison)
- Mark Langston – LS (via Georgia Southern)
- Derek McCormick – K (via Louisiana Monroe)
- Nick Kidwell – OL (via James Madison)
- Aiden Fisher – LB (via James Madison)
- Zach Horton – TE (via James Madison)
- James Carpenter – DL (via James Madison)
- Jailin Walker – LB (via James Madison)
- Kaelon Black – RB (via James Madison)
- Tyler Stephens – OL (via James Madison)
- Shawn Asbury – S (via Old Dominion)
- Terry Jones – S (via Old Dominion)
- Elijah Green – RB (via North Carolina)
- Elijah Sarratt – WR (via James Madison)
Spring portal
- Cedarius Doss – CB (via Austin Peay)
- Tyrique Tucker – DL (via James Madison)
- DJ Warnell – S (Arizona)
- D’Angelo Ponds – CB (James Madison)
- Solomon Vanhorse – RB (James Madison)
- Nahji Logan – LB (UMass)
- C.J. West – DL (Kent State)
PORTAL CYLES AHEAD OF 2025 SEASON
Winter portal
- Lee Beebe, RB, UAB
- Amariyun Knighten, CB, NIU
- Brendan Franke, K, Texas State
- Mitch McCarthy, P, UCF
- Hosea Wheeler, DT, Western Kentucky
- Dominique Ratcliff, DT, Texas State
- Riley Nowakowski, TE, Wisconsin
- Roman Hemby, RB, Maryland
- Fernando Mendoza, QB, California
- Makai Jackson, WR, Appalachian State
- Louis Moore, S, Ole Miss
- Zen Michalski, OT, Ohio State
- Grant Wilson, QB, Old Dominion
- Kahlil Benson, OL, Colorado
- Tyler Morris, WR, Michigan
- Ryland Gandy, CB, Pitt
- Holden Staes, TE, Tennessee
- Devan Boykin, S, NC State
- Pat Coogan, OL, Notre Dame
Spring portal
- Stephen Daley, DL, Kent State
- Kellan Wyatt, Maryland
- Jonathan Brady, Cal
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