When Curt Cignetti left James Madison for Indiana football, life became chaotic for Daniel Ndukwe.
The edge rusher nicknamed ‘Duke’ — a play on his last name — committed to JMU over the summer after building strong connections with the coaching staff. It was a perfect fit — ‘Duke’ playing for the Dukes. And he was excited about doing so.
But Cignetti’s departure changed things. He and his fellow JMU commits were unsure how they’d proceed and waited for more information to come out. And after seeing a number of assistants including defensive line coach Pat Kuntz follow Cignetti to Bloomington, Ndukwe decommitted from JMU. Things were already crazy before that — a coach from another school that had recruited him texted him the night before Cignetti’s move asking, ‘Are you going to come here if your coach leaves?’ But it reached another level when he officially decommitted.
“Once I actually decommitted, phone started blowing up again. I’m like, ‘Man, here we go again.’ Took me back to junior year in spring and summertime, when recruiting really gets kind of hectic for a lot of players,” Ndukwe told The Daily Hoosier in a phone interview. “There was some more power-five schools coming in. But with me, it’s like, ‘I don’t even know you guys. I’m still trying to graduate early, I don’t have enough time to get to know you guys. So I’m going to go with the guys that I trust.'”
Kuntz reached out to Ndukwe when he got to IU, a few days after Cignetti’s hire, and formally offered the Lithonia, Ga. native. He took an official visit to Bloomington the weekend of December 8, which only reaffirmed his bonds with the staff. Ndukwe felt strongly about Kuntz and defensive coordinator Bryant Haines, along with Cignetti, dating back to his recruitment at JMU.
Defensive ends coach Buddha Williams, who came over from Colorado State, is the one coach Ndukwe would work with at Indiana who wasn’t at JMU. Ndukwe hadn’t met Williams before the official visit, but it didn’t take long for him to feel a connection. He had a joint meeting with Williams and Kuntz — who will focus on defensive tackles at IU — and they got right to business.
“We were watching some film, just on some NFL guys. He was almost already coaching me in that room. We’re watching film, next thing I know, I’m in a four-point stance. That man was literally teaching me the right stance in the film room. I’m like, ‘Wow, OK, we get straight to it,'” Ndukwe said. “Him and Kuntz are going to be working hand-in-hand, obviously. I feel like they pretty much clicked immediately. They’re literally just saying the same things; it’s like their third conversation ever. I got pretty good vibes from coach Buddha.”
Ndukwe was also impressed by IU’s campus and facilities during the visit. He said Indiana’s campus is beautiful, noting the festive holiday season decorations around the downtown area and the good restaurants he enjoyed.
But the facilities stood out even more. Ndukwe was astonished by how much Indiana football is working with. And he’s already excited about what new strength and conditioning coach Derek Owings, who also came over from JMU, can accomplish with everything now at his disposal.
“Everything we need is in that one building at the stadium. Incredible weight room, incredible training facilities, nutrition, incredible. I know D.O., our strength coach, they done messed up giving him that many resources. I mean, holy moly,” Ndukwe said. “The things he did at JMU, it’s like visually astonishing. You could just see the differences that he’s made, just transforming people’s bodies and their performances. Because there’s the before and after contrast, and he made sure we saw that. I’m looking forward to that.”
Ndukwe officially committed to IU on Monday, December 11, the same day that quarterback Alberto Mendoza and defensive lineman Mario Landino also flipped from JMU to Indiana. Ndukwe is rated a three-star recruit by 247Sports Composite, and checks in at 6-foot 3 and 225 pounds. He started playing at pass-rusher when he was in middle school, mostly on the edge, with a little 3-technique mixed in. He models his game after Micah Parsons and Harold Perkins, among others.
The jump in competition level from the Sun Belt to the Big Ten is real. But Ndukwe said IU’s new staff made clear they wouldn’t have offered him a spot on the Hoosiers’ roster if they didn’t think he could handle it. He said Kuntz told him that he’ll get to prove to the other schools in the conference how big a mistake they made in not recruiting him.
“I could see some people critiquing what they’re cooking up there. Coming from that season, they (IU) won about three games, just missed a bowl game. And now it’s a whole lot of players from the Sun Belt coming up to the Big Ten, and there’s some doubters for sure,” Ndukwe said. “But these guys are ballers. I can tell you for a fact, I’m a baller. I can tell you for a fact, Mario’s a baller. All those guys that just committed up there, Alberto, we’re not just coming up there just to fool around. We’re on a mission, for sure.”
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