22.
That’s the number of players Indiana added from the transfer portal this offseason from Group of Five (G5) conferences, or even lower levels of college football.
13 of that total followed new head coach Curt Cignetti from James Madison, while players from UMass, Old Dominion, Ohio, Kent State, Austin Peay and elsewhere have also arrived in Bloomington.
And these aren’t just depth pieces to round out the roster.
Players like quarterback Kurtis Rourke (Ohio), wideout Elijah Sarratt (JMU), linebacker Aiden Fisher (JMU), cornerback D’Angelo Ponds (JMU), defensive end Mikail Kamara (JMU), tight end Zach Horton (JMU), offensive lineman Nick Kidwell (JMU), defensive tackle James Carpenter (JMU), defensive tackle C.J. West (Kent State), and linebacker Jailin Walker (JMU) all appear to be strong contenders to start.
That’s a potential 10 of 22 starters, with several others clearly in the conversation to make the two-deep depth chart, if not also start.
Also in the mix — defensive backs Shawn Asbury and Terry Jones (Old Dominion), cornerback Cedarious Doss (Austin Peay), running backs Kaelon Black and Ty Son Lawton (JMU), wide receiver Miles Cross (Ohio), linebacker Nahji Logan (UMass), offensive lineman Tyler Stephens (JMU), and defensive lineman Tyrique Tucker (JMU).
Nearly half of IU’s two-deep will probably be transfers from non-Power Four schools. And it quickly becomes apparent, Indiana is only going to improve in year one under Cignetti if these players are able to replicate their performance at the Power Four level.
Cignetti says often he values production over potential. That means his preference is take a G5 player from the portal who has started, stayed healthy and performed at a high level over a more highly-rated player who hasn’t been able to see meaningful snaps at Power Four school.
He’s going to give that theory a serious test run this fall.
Cignetti has won everywhere he’s been, so there is no sense in questioning his ability as a coach. And he’s been around the game at the highest levels long enough to know what Power Four talent looks like. Cignetti spent four years as the recruiting coordinator for Nick Saban’s earliest Alabama teams. His talent evaluation there helped build a dynasty.
So what was Cignetti’s process for evaluating whether his 22 newcomers from lower levels will translate to the Big Ten?
“It’s not a whole lot different than a high school guy really,” Cignetti said. “There’s certain position-specific criteria. At skill positions, things like receiver speed and separation, contested catches, ball skills.
“And you’ve got to have ankle, knee and hip flexibility to play this game. It’s a start and stop game, you generate power when you have ankle, knee and hip flexibility.”
But while Cignetti feels like he has a pretty good handle on what to look for when building a Big Ten roster, he’ll also acknowledge nothing is foolproof when dealing with 18 to 23 year-olds.
That’s why Cignetti says he’s just as focused on intangible traits, like how a player is wired competitively, to help him evaluate the fit.
“Is there a little bit of an unknown in terms of how it is going to translate? Yeah, sure there is. But I’m confident,” he said.
“To me it’s more important to get the team buy-in on how we want to compete play-in, play-out. Can this guy be trusted day-in and day-out, rep-in, rep-out? How’s he going to react when things are tough? How’s he going to react when we’re ahead by two scores?
“It’s those things, that are a bigger concern to me then how it’s going to translate.”
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