BLOOMINGTON — First-year Indiana football coach Curt Cignetti has laid out lofty expectations for the 2024 season ever since landing the job.
“We’re going to win and we’re going to win this year and we’re going to change the brand and the expectation level and the way people see Indiana football,” Cignetti said.
Cignetti didn’t have to set such a high bar for himself in year one considering the team has only nine wins over the last three seasons and only three wins against power five opponents during that stretch.
That’s just not how Cignetti is built though.
The work starts on Thursday when IU opens spring practice, here’s some questions we have for the team going into Cignetti’s first spring camp:
How long will it take Indiana football’s transfer-laden roster to gel?
Indiana’s previous coaching staff relied on the transfer portal as much as any team in the country from 2022-23. The Hoosiers signed 38 transfers (fifth most of any FBS team) but the results weren’t what they hoped for.
They landed very few impact players and none of the quarterbacks they signed panned out.
For every success story of a team relying heavily on the portal — Ole Miss had a three-win improvement after signing 23 transfers last season and SMU won four more games than it did after signing 26 players — there’s a team that continued to struggle like Colorado (51 signees) and Arizona State (31 signees).
Indiana’s new coach Curt Cignetti had to rely on the portal given the mass exodus of talent. It’s much different than any of his previous rebuilds since the portal was just in its early days when he took over at JMU in 2019.
Cignetti has expressed plenty of confidence in his evaluation process — he does have a proven track record — but it’s still hard to expect everything to immediately click into a place with so little continuity. He’s going to lean on the large number of James Madison signees to set the standard for the new-look roster.
More: Why new quarterback Kurtis Rourke got reps at Indiana football’s 2024 pro day
Will James Madison transfers be able to make the leap into the power five?
Indiana signed 20 transfers and 14 of those are from group of five schools (nine are former JMU players). It’s possible as many as 10 of them could land starting roles for the fall.
While many were impact players at their previous stops, it’s reasonable to assume some will struggle adjusting to the increased level of competition.
Cignetti downplayed concerns about this very topic back when he was introduced as coach based on his past experience with the portal — “my worst transfers at James Madison were power five guys, they were my worst” — but it’s still fair to wonder if there will be some growing pains for the group given the high volume of incoming transfers without power five experience.
More: How Indiana football coach Curt Cignetti is structuring spring camp
How many roster holes does Curt Cignetti have to plug?
Indiana had an unexpected departure just days before camp opened with defensive tackle Philip Blidi entering the transfer portal. Blidi was the second-most interior defender on the roster and played a position where IU didn’t have a ton of depth to begin with.
The way the rules are set up — players can easily transfer multiple times now with the NCAA suspending the waiver process — Cignetti anticipates losing a few more players in the weeks to come as well.
He’s going to remain aggressive about building the roster once the transfer portal reopens. Spring practice will provide the new staff an opportunity to see exactly where those weaknesses are.
“You got to be light on your feet and adjust,” Cignetti said, in an interview with The Herald-Times. “You got to thrive in this market.”
More: Indiana football announces date for first spring game since 2019
Does Indiana football have enough offensive playmakers?
Donovan McCulley’s emergence in the second half of the 2023 season was a welcome development in Bloomington that’s been starved for elite playmakers.
It’s also why fans had such high hopes for former Indiana running back Jaylin Lucas. Lucas was an elite kick returner that the former staff couldn’t find a way to get consistently involved in the offense.
There have only been six Indiana skill players who have earned first-team All-Big Ten honors over the last two decades. The list includes two running backs (Tevin Coleman and Jordan Howard) and four receivers (James Hardy, Tandon Doss, Simmie Cobbs Jr. and Ty Fryfogle).
Cignetti had four skill players make the first-team All-Sun Belt team during JMU’s first two years in the conference. One of those players, receiver Elijah Sarratt, followed him to Indiana as did most of the coaches who developed that talent.
The staff made it a high priority based on their recruiting efforts — they signed nine transfers at skill positions (four running backs, four receivers and a tight end) and go into spring practice with seven running backs, 12 receivers and seven tight ends.
Those are all big numbers and evidence that Cignetti is focused on building out the talent around whoever he picks to start at quarterback.
Michael Niziolek is the Indiana beat reporter for The Bloomington Herald-Times. You can follow him on X @michaelniziolek and read all his coverage by clicking here.
This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Four questions for Indiana football going into spring practice
