What Curt Cignetti Said During His Signing Day Press Conference

Signing day was the topic, but Curt Cignetti talked about the transfer portal and preparations for the College Football Playoff.

Curt Cignetti speaks during a press conference at Memorial Stadium during the 2024 season. / Todd Golden | Hoosiers On SI

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - Indiana football coach Curt Cignetti conducted a press conference on Wednesday. He gave his thoughts on high school signing day as the Hoosiers signed 21 new players.

Cignetti also delved a little bit into Indiana's plan for the transfer portal and into how Indiana is preparing for a likely College Football Playoff apperance against an opponent still to be determined.

Here's everything Cignetti had to say:

Opening statement ...

Cignetti: Signing day sure has changed. They've moved it up, which is good. The month of December has changed a lot as well across the country, whether you still have games remaining or not.

Got all of our papers in early this morning. Signed 21 guys. Fourteen will be early enrollees. Seven will enroll for the fall and report in the summer. Nine on offense; 12 on defense. Four from Indiana and Ohio. Two from Illinois and Tennessee. One from St. Louis. So 13 roughly from a four-hour radius.

I like these guys. Good players, good people, good character, good students. This game is all about recruiting and development and then retention. You know, keeping the guys that eventually produce. So excited about them.

Questions.

On half of the class being players who play in the trenches on either side of the ball and how to develop them ...

Cignetti: Well, it all starts up front, and the defensive linemen will always be the hardest to find and get. So we got two inside guys and two ends, and pleased with that.

Offensively, three offensive linemen all report in midyear and then the two tight ends. The one in-state tight end will be an early enrollees, and Blake Thiry will be a fall enrollee. I feel good about that. Feel good about all these guys.

On revenue sharing, how aware high school players are of it, and what discussions are had as a result ...

Cignetti: Well, NIL has been a thing for a while, and the rev-share component was in its infancy when a lot of these guys were being recruited.

It all comes down to a number, and where that comes from really is of no consequence. You know what I mean? But, you know, the rev-share thing will kick in July 1st as long as the court case is approved April, what, 4th, I believe. We're all counting on it across college football, athletics in general. That will change quite a bit how things are done once that kicks in on July 1st.

On the framework of keeping 85 scholarships with the roster limit and whether there's been discussions with the Big Ten about how they're going to approach that ...

Cignetti: There's a roster limit that will go into effect right now if everything stays the same. Will that go into effect in August camp or the week of the first game? There are some things to be worked out there.

In theory, if a team wanted to offer 100 -- let's say the number is 105. If a team wanted to offer 105 scholarships, they could, but as soon as you go over 85, it takes 2.5 million off the cap right off the bat.

I saw a poll around the conference -- who is planning on staying at 85; who is planning on going over? It appears right now the most people are going to stay at 85 scholarships because the other thing that's going to change is once you go to 85 scholarships with rev-share, you'll be able to give partial scholarships too. A quarter scholarship or a half or one-third, kind of like my D2 days.

But it all has to equal 85. Otherwise, you go over what 85 would equal, 2.5 million comes off your rev-share cap.

On whether Indiana is sticking with 85 scholarships ...

Cignetti: Yeah.

On factors like being a multi-sport athlete, tardiness and class attendance ...

Cignetti: Yeah, well, we don't give academic scholarships, but I do look at the transcript. I like to see the transcript on every guy and see what the grade point average is, a core grade point average.

I do look at the absences. I think that's a reflection of his habits and accountability, right, and doing what he's supposed to do.

Multi-sport athletes, that's all good, but at the end of the day this is football, and football is different than basketball and baseball and track in terms of the skill set required. It can be helpful in an evaluation, but it's more about what the guy does on tape or at our camp or another camp, things like that.

On what his recruiting process is like for high school athletes ...

Cignetti: Well, they're all signed up now. So now we've been spending a lot of time right now on portal guys, evaluating portal guys, which opens up Monday, the 9th.

We're going to be preparing for a football game also. So we want to kind of be as far along in that evaluation as possible because even though the portal doesn't open until Monday, if a guy is graduated or if a coach has been fired, right, then they're technically in the portal now.

Under classmen can't officially be in the portal until Monday, and then it could take 24 to 48 hours to be processed, so it could be Wednesday, but all you have to do is go on Twitter and see who has announced that they're going to go into the portal, and that doesn't prohibit you from pulling up their PFF tape and evaluating them. So there's a lot of that going on right now.

Then we're going to practice today, and we're going to practice tomorrow. We're going to practice Friday. Right? Players lifted yesterday. Had Monday off. Today will be like a Monday routine, and tomorrow will be like a Tuesday, and Friday will be like a Wednesday to stay sharp with our fundamentals and our timing and that kind of thing. Then we'll find out who with he play Sunday at 12:15.

On balancing time between high school recruiting, the transfer portal and advance game prep ...

Cignetti: Yeah, it's a juggling act, the things that I just mentioned. You know, the portal evaluation is taking up a good bit of time right now, and today's practice in terms of the preparation for today's practice, an hour, hour and a half. If you count the scripting, maybe two hours.

Then we're having conversations also. I've had a couple of conversations with returners about next year, but not too many because I want our team to focus right now on -- we're in season, and the main thing has to be the main thing, right? You guys all know that today has to be a great day and a great meeting and all that stuff that we preach, so...

On what role his success with player development plays in recruiting ...

Cignetti: Well, yeah, you can look at them positionally in terms of what guys have done through the years, but I think it's a reflection of team success really, recruiting and development. Guys want to be a part of a winning program. Obviously winning here opens doors in the recruiting process and will continue to open doors as long as we continue to be successful, which we plan on being obviously.

So the high school part of it really is the guys have been committed a while, right, so the last few days we've been in the office it's been more portal evaluation.

On having 'people over the player' ...

Cignetti: Well, I think it's all about people... the coaches you hire, the players you recruit. There's a lot of good players out there. I mean, you're looking for people that are passionate about what they do, goal-oriented, know how to set goals and go about achieving them.

Now, they're still young guys, and they're going to need developed and guided, correct? Then it's process, but as you get closer to the season, the key to the drill then becomes getting everybody to think alike and keep their eye on the prize, focused on the bull's-eye, you know, the intangibles as you get into the season.

But the winter conditioning program leads up to that. Spring football, summer conditioning, and fall camp. So I like the class. I think these guys all have a chance, and we're excited about them.

On having no quarterback in the class, whether he'll seek on in the portal, and what positions will be important in the portal ...

Cignetti: Well, we have two young quarterbacks in the program that we like: Tyler Cherry and Mendoza. So we didn't feel a real need to sign a young quarterback this year.

We will definitely recruit a quarterback out of the portal. In terms of our other needs, I'll let you guys put pen to paper and figure out who is coming back and who we're losing and figure that out on your own.

On whether there's been conversations with players with NFL aspirations to get certainty for the portal ...

Cignetti: Well, no. Let's say we have 55 returning scholarship players, and I had the staff rate them 1 to 55, right? Well, I didn't start my conversations at 55. So I've had a couple; not many.

On using his FCS experience to keep a team fresh for the postseason ...

Cignetti: You are looking at about a three-week turnaround. This week the players are going to get two days of weights, and we'll get three practices in. One will be more of a walk-through.

Then next week we'll look more like a normal game week in terms of what we do on the field. It will be closer to a game week.

On preparing for the playoffs ...

Cignetti: Next week will be very similar to a game week. It might not be exact, but we'll start preparation in earnest. We still have to balance the portal, the evaluation, and we'll probably have official visits coming in during December as well.

You know, preparation on the opponent, depending on who that is. Some of these teams we know already. Some of them we don't. So next week won't be quite like a game week, but it will be similar.

On whether Cignetti knows how big his portal class will be ...

Cignetti: Yeah, I do. (Smiles knowingly.)

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