1 00:00:08,280 --> 00:00:10,280 Scott, we're going to wait for some people to get in here 2 00:00:10,280 --> 00:00:12,160 first. There's no point in going nuts 3 00:00:12,600 --> 00:00:15,400 starting a live stream unless people are there. 4 00:00:15,440 --> 00:00:16,640 So we're just going to want to do the. 5 00:00:16,760 --> 00:00:18,520 The try and do the intro music acapella. 6 00:00:19,080 --> 00:00:21,000 Actually I might have it. Let's see if this works. 7 00:00:26,640 --> 00:00:29,720 You're listening to the Back Home Network presented by Home 8 00:00:29,720 --> 00:00:32,000 Field Apparel. This is where Scott does his 9 00:00:32,080 --> 00:00:34,080 acapella impression of the Crimson cast. 10 00:00:34,920 --> 00:00:36,080 Did you just do that on your end? 11 00:00:36,400 --> 00:00:37,120 No. No. 12 00:00:37,200 --> 00:00:38,640 OK, Sorry. It ran twice. 13 00:00:38,720 --> 00:00:47,040 All right, we're going to. Go ahead and get started. 14 00:00:47,320 --> 00:00:48,920 Not what that sounds like at all, anyway. 15 00:00:48,920 --> 00:00:51,520 All right, guys, let's get going. 16 00:00:51,520 --> 00:00:54,800 I'm not on Straight No Chaser. That's exactly right. 17 00:00:55,280 --> 00:00:57,600 No. Welcome to an emergency live 18 00:00:57,600 --> 00:01:02,160 podcast, Galen Clavio Scott Caulfield joining you here as 19 00:01:02,320 --> 00:01:06,160 we've got Candy Stripe Smoke coming out of Memorial Stadium. 20 00:01:06,440 --> 00:01:11,520 After one of the most rapidly paced coaching searches I can 21 00:01:11,520 --> 00:01:15,160 ever remember Indiana University doing, I use apparently got 22 00:01:15,160 --> 00:01:21,200 their man the news coming out earlier today from Pete Thamel, 23 00:01:21,200 --> 00:01:25,440 actually about maybe what, 40 minutes ago, that Indiana is 24 00:01:25,440 --> 00:01:29,040 finalizing an agreement to hire James Madison head coach Kurt 25 00:01:29,040 --> 00:01:31,120 Cignetti. No terms yet. 26 00:01:31,200 --> 00:01:32,600 We don't have any of those things. 27 00:01:32,600 --> 00:01:35,880 But one thing you learn about the media business after a 28 00:01:35,880 --> 00:01:38,240 while. When that starts to break, it 29 00:01:38,240 --> 00:01:41,280 all goes immediately afterwards. You can pretty much bank on it. 30 00:01:41,280 --> 00:01:44,600 And in fact, we've got Zach Osterman of the Indy Star 31 00:01:44,600 --> 00:01:46,120 confirming it. We've got some other folks 32 00:01:46,120 --> 00:01:47,880 confirming it. So we're going to talk about it 33 00:01:48,080 --> 00:01:51,840 as much as we can. First of all, thanks to all you 34 00:01:51,840 --> 00:01:54,960 folks for joining us either live or afterwards. 35 00:01:54,960 --> 00:01:58,560 And if you've got comments, please go ahead and include them 36 00:01:59,040 --> 00:02:02,600 in the You can send us to us on Twitter, you can send it on 37 00:02:02,600 --> 00:02:04,640 YouTube, or we're on Twitch as well. 38 00:02:04,800 --> 00:02:09,400 So Scott, let's get going here. When we got the news that Tom 39 00:02:09,400 --> 00:02:13,040 Allen was being let go, you know one of the things that we talked 40 00:02:13,040 --> 00:02:16,200 about was the things that Indiana needed to be thinking 41 00:02:16,200 --> 00:02:20,960 about as far as their next hire. And what you see here with this 42 00:02:20,960 --> 00:02:23,560 hire is a different direction that I think both of us 43 00:02:23,560 --> 00:02:25,680 initially thought Indiana was going to go. 44 00:02:26,080 --> 00:02:28,800 But this is a really, really fascinating direction for 45 00:02:28,800 --> 00:02:33,280 Indiana and one that I have got a lot of of interest in. 46 00:02:33,280 --> 00:02:36,840 Scott, can you hear me at all? I know we're this is, this is 47 00:02:36,840 --> 00:02:39,560 the perils of live radio folks. Oh, we just lost Scott 48 00:02:39,560 --> 00:02:40,760 altogether. He's going to come back in a 49 00:02:40,760 --> 00:02:43,160 second. Anyway, I'll continue to intro. 50 00:02:43,880 --> 00:02:47,680 What we talked about before was this idea of are you needing 51 00:02:47,680 --> 00:02:51,520 some Power 5 experience? Are you needing somebody who 52 00:02:51,720 --> 00:02:54,560 could really get people excited and build the program? 53 00:02:54,840 --> 00:02:57,600 We didn't have Kurt Signetti on that initial list of people. 54 00:02:58,320 --> 00:03:01,280 But This is why coaching searches sometimes take a 55 00:03:01,280 --> 00:03:04,560 different direction than you think that they will, because 56 00:03:04,560 --> 00:03:07,040 you never know exactly who's out there in the mix. 57 00:03:07,040 --> 00:03:08,680 We're going to try to get Scott in here again. 58 00:03:08,680 --> 00:03:11,840 Scott, can you hear me now? We can't hear you. 59 00:03:11,880 --> 00:03:13,440 So Scott's going to continue to. Oh, no. 60 00:03:13,440 --> 00:03:13,760 What? No. 61 00:03:13,760 --> 00:03:14,600 There you are. There you are. 62 00:03:15,640 --> 00:03:18,000 OK, we're back. So let's talk about Kurt 63 00:03:18,000 --> 00:03:20,360 Signetti. First and foremost Kurt 64 00:03:20,360 --> 00:03:21,600 Signetti. For those of you who aren't 65 00:03:21,600 --> 00:03:26,920 aware, a a lifetime record overall as a head coach of 119 66 00:03:26,920 --> 00:03:29,400 and 35, which is pretty darn impressive. 67 00:03:30,080 --> 00:03:34,200 Now that's spread over a bunch of different levels, starting at 68 00:03:34,200 --> 00:03:37,400 IUP, The other Indiana University, Indiana, UC of 69 00:03:37,400 --> 00:03:42,280 Pennsylvania Division Two. He was 53 and 17 there and 70 00:03:42,280 --> 00:03:45,280 really was kind of continuing on the family business there as a 71 00:03:45,280 --> 00:03:49,680 head coach. Decided in 2017 to move to Elon 72 00:03:50,160 --> 00:03:54,240 and coach the Phoenix that is a a smaller school in the realm of 73 00:03:54,240 --> 00:03:58,560 Division One FCS and did some amazing things in very short 74 00:03:58,560 --> 00:04:01,880 order. Got Elon to two NCAA tournaments 75 00:04:02,080 --> 00:04:05,120 then moved to James Madison. A much more established program 76 00:04:05,280 --> 00:04:10,720 and an established program that was looking to make a move up to 77 00:04:10,720 --> 00:04:13,120 the FBS level. And that's what they did. 78 00:04:13,560 --> 00:04:19,320 And with Kurt Cignetti as their head coach, they went fourteen 79 00:04:19,320 --> 00:04:22,880 and two 7:00 and 1:00 and 12:00 and 2:00 from 2019 to 2021. 80 00:04:22,880 --> 00:04:26,160 And then the last two years, 8:00 and 3:00 and then 11:00 and 81 00:04:26,160 --> 00:04:28,040 1:00. We just lost Scott again. 82 00:04:28,480 --> 00:04:31,240 Hopefully we'll be able to get him back here shortly as he's 83 00:04:31,240 --> 00:04:34,920 having some technical issues. Cignetti with a fascinating 84 00:04:34,920 --> 00:04:38,360 background. Prior to becoming a head coach 85 00:04:38,400 --> 00:04:43,160 at IUP, he was Nick Saban's recruiting coordinator as his 86 00:04:43,160 --> 00:04:46,840 first what, the first staff. Basically that he hired at 87 00:04:46,840 --> 00:04:51,280 Alabama and recruited a ton of really fascinating and and high 88 00:04:51,280 --> 00:04:54,080 level players. Mark Ingram recruited down to 89 00:04:54,080 --> 00:04:56,440 Hightower. Before that he was at North 90 00:04:56,440 --> 00:04:59,720 Carolina State where he infamously coached Phillip 91 00:04:59,720 --> 00:05:01,680 Rivers. During that stretch of time when 92 00:05:01,920 --> 00:05:03,600 they beat Indiana a couple of times. 93 00:05:03,600 --> 00:05:07,800 Many of us remember those games quite well, Scott, I was not. 94 00:05:08,320 --> 00:05:10,640 This guy was not really on my radar that much. 95 00:05:11,400 --> 00:05:14,080 Frankly, the more I've read about them, the more juiced I am 96 00:05:14,080 --> 00:05:16,080 about this hire. What's your overall take on 97 00:05:16,080 --> 00:05:17,560 things? Can you hear me? 98 00:05:17,560 --> 00:05:18,120 All right? Sorry. 99 00:05:18,120 --> 00:05:21,880 I've had weird, weird technical. It's it's going over the ocean 100 00:05:21,880 --> 00:05:24,560 from Hawaii. I like you, man. 101 00:05:24,560 --> 00:05:26,640 Well, I don't. I didn't have a radar. 102 00:05:26,640 --> 00:05:29,280 I kind of waited to see where the the hot, the hot boards came 103 00:05:29,280 --> 00:05:32,640 up with, You know, I just got to say, you know his time at 104 00:05:32,640 --> 00:05:36,960 Indiana University in, you know, before where he went 53 and 17. 105 00:05:37,400 --> 00:05:40,320 And 33 and 11 in the Pennsylvania State Athletic 106 00:05:40,320 --> 00:05:41,400 Conference. I forgot about that. 107 00:05:41,400 --> 00:05:42,480 But those are great records. I'll. 108 00:05:42,560 --> 00:05:45,040 I'll take that all day long. I joke he was at IU 109 00:05:45,200 --> 00:05:48,120 Pennsylvania. No I'm. 110 00:05:48,120 --> 00:05:50,440 I'm with you. You know the more I read about 111 00:05:50,440 --> 00:05:52,800 it the more he does kind of fit the profile. 112 00:05:52,800 --> 00:05:55,440 You know you go in these searches and you kind of 113 00:05:55,840 --> 00:05:58,320 everybody kind of ends up kind of finding their one target 114 00:05:58,320 --> 00:06:00,400 where it's like oh that's you know on the hop board. 115 00:06:00,400 --> 00:06:02,240 Like that's the guy I think would be perfect and he he 116 00:06:02,240 --> 00:06:06,080 checks all of, you know my boxes This this was not. 117 00:06:06,640 --> 00:06:09,080 Up there. But the more I read about him, 118 00:06:09,080 --> 00:06:13,280 the more I look at it. You know, he, he has a system. 119 00:06:13,520 --> 00:06:17,840 He has a program. He has a history of winning. 120 00:06:17,960 --> 00:06:19,880 You know what, Elon and then James Madison. 121 00:06:19,880 --> 00:06:23,240 You know, he went from division two to Division One or whatever 122 00:06:23,240 --> 00:06:25,400 they're called the the playoff, the Football Playoff. 123 00:06:25,400 --> 00:06:27,400 But you know, most teams struggle. 124 00:06:27,960 --> 00:06:31,640 You know that team went nineteen and four in its first two years 125 00:06:31,640 --> 00:06:33,720 in Division One. I'll be it in the Sunbelt. 126 00:06:33,720 --> 00:06:35,800 But you're still moving up a level. 127 00:06:37,080 --> 00:06:40,480 I, you know the only thing that would be the concern at the top 128 00:06:40,480 --> 00:06:44,280 front would be maybe his age, you know 6263. 129 00:06:44,640 --> 00:06:48,520 But you know I I I do maybe I'm just trying to be positive. 130 00:06:48,520 --> 00:06:49,880 I do couch that with like, you know. 131 00:06:50,720 --> 00:06:53,200 Everything at IU football is kind of a four or five year 132 00:06:53,200 --> 00:06:54,960 window anyway. I know I joked earlier about you 133 00:06:54,960 --> 00:06:56,680 know if you hire a young coach they're good, they're going to 134 00:06:56,680 --> 00:06:57,840 leave and it's like that doesn't happen. 135 00:06:57,840 --> 00:07:01,040 But it's like you know we we haven't had a lot of people like 136 00:07:01,040 --> 00:07:04,400 well this is our next guy for 30 years, like that hasn't happened 137 00:07:04,400 --> 00:07:07,440 a lot. So you know if this if he can 138 00:07:07,440 --> 00:07:10,360 come in and and get this the ship going in the right 139 00:07:10,360 --> 00:07:13,320 direction. In good at five or six years. 140 00:07:13,320 --> 00:07:15,480 That's fantastic. So I'm. 141 00:07:15,640 --> 00:07:18,840 I'm pretty fired up and what I like too is the early results. 142 00:07:18,840 --> 00:07:21,840 I've been poking around on you know still fresh on college 143 00:07:21,840 --> 00:07:24,560 football Reddit. A lot of the James Madison fans 144 00:07:24,560 --> 00:07:27,640 are like, damn it, like, damn it, Which to me, like that's 145 00:07:27,640 --> 00:07:31,120 always a good sign versus it's very concerning when you know. 146 00:07:31,760 --> 00:07:34,760 You, you hire someone of the other team is like have fun with 147 00:07:34,760 --> 00:07:38,080 that. Like, yeah, well, you brought up 148 00:07:38,080 --> 00:07:41,040 a lot of good points. I mean the things, Look, I'll 149 00:07:41,040 --> 00:07:43,400 caveat by saying this, no one knows anything. 150 00:07:43,400 --> 00:07:46,840 Indiana's won press conferences before in terms of who they've 151 00:07:46,880 --> 00:07:48,560 hired. Everybody loved Archie Miller. 152 00:07:48,840 --> 00:07:51,840 Everybody thought that was a surefire hire on the basketball 153 00:07:51,840 --> 00:07:55,880 side that didn't work out. So look, what What's fascinating 154 00:07:55,880 --> 00:07:59,200 to me is yes, everybody loves this hire that I've seen. 155 00:07:59,200 --> 00:08:01,320 There's there's been a couple of IU fans who are like, who is 156 00:08:01,320 --> 00:08:03,080 this guy? But the vast majority of people, 157 00:08:03,080 --> 00:08:05,960 particularly people that really pay attention to football, have 158 00:08:05,960 --> 00:08:09,480 been fired up. National media seems to be like, 159 00:08:09,560 --> 00:08:12,640 wow, that's not something that we expected Indiana to do. 160 00:08:13,240 --> 00:08:16,800 You know, people from fan bases of other schools are like, wow, 161 00:08:16,920 --> 00:08:19,960 that's an impressive hire. So to to be there. 162 00:08:20,040 --> 00:08:22,120 National media with Indiana football is like we weren't 163 00:08:22,120 --> 00:08:24,120 expecting them to have a team next year anyway. 164 00:08:24,200 --> 00:08:24,760 That's right. Yeah. 165 00:08:24,760 --> 00:08:26,400 No, no, there's something to be said for that. 166 00:08:26,680 --> 00:08:29,960 But you know a lot of the idea of why would you fire Tom Allen? 167 00:08:30,120 --> 00:08:32,559 You couldn't possibly get anybody better to come coach at 168 00:08:32,559 --> 00:08:34,960 Indiana. This is a guy who, at least on 169 00:08:34,960 --> 00:08:39,960 paper, while he doesn't have, you know, perhaps the the bona 170 00:08:39,960 --> 00:08:43,159 fide FBS level, long time experience. 171 00:08:43,159 --> 00:08:46,320 This is a guy who is a winner. He's a program builder. 172 00:08:46,560 --> 00:08:50,000 He's a guy who has helped to successfully pilot a program 173 00:08:50,000 --> 00:08:53,160 transitioning from FCS to FBS and not just that. 174 00:08:53,520 --> 00:08:59,240 Like did it at a level that had national media chiding the NCAA 175 00:08:59,240 --> 00:09:03,160 for not breaking their rules to allow James Madison to go play 176 00:09:03,160 --> 00:09:05,720 in a bowl this year because there's a two year probation on 177 00:09:05,720 --> 00:09:08,480 on you know programs rising up a level. 178 00:09:08,720 --> 00:09:12,080 Like when you look at the the success that he's had at all 179 00:09:12,080 --> 00:09:14,440 these different stops. It you know it. 180 00:09:14,600 --> 00:09:19,480 It my thought has always been you're when you look at the 181 00:09:19,480 --> 00:09:24,680 people who can coach IU football and and the specific issues that 182 00:09:24,680 --> 00:09:27,680 IU football has that we've talked about so many times. 183 00:09:28,040 --> 00:09:33,400 The the idea that it's felt like since Mallory left Indiana has 184 00:09:34,040 --> 00:09:38,520 lacked an idea of what it is as an identity to be a good 185 00:09:38,520 --> 00:09:41,360 football program to win. You know, they've gone through a 186 00:09:41,400 --> 00:09:44,280 series of coaches that have either not built that or have 187 00:09:44,280 --> 00:09:47,680 struggled to build it or have allowed it to dissipate on them. 188 00:09:48,440 --> 00:09:52,480 This guy seems like the type of guy who has done that in every 189 00:09:52,480 --> 00:09:56,400 place he's been. And you know, will it work at 190 00:09:56,400 --> 00:09:59,120 the Big 10 level? Only time will tell. 191 00:09:59,440 --> 00:10:01,680 But I'd like to remind everybody, and I tried to do 192 00:10:01,680 --> 00:10:03,240 this a little bit on Twitter last night. 193 00:10:03,880 --> 00:10:07,360 You just don't get a lot of, like considerably experienced 194 00:10:07,360 --> 00:10:10,760 Power Five coaches coming in and coaching Big 10 schools. 195 00:10:10,760 --> 00:10:13,320 Regardless, I mean, go through and look at the coaching hires. 196 00:10:13,320 --> 00:10:18,640 I mean, outside of Matt Rule, Brett Bielema and Greg Schiano, 197 00:10:18,640 --> 00:10:20,960 who was a special case because he just, he had nowhere else to 198 00:10:20,960 --> 00:10:23,400 go. But back to Rutgers, It's all, 199 00:10:23,560 --> 00:10:26,600 you know, coordinators at that level or it's group of five 200 00:10:26,600 --> 00:10:29,400 coaches. You know, it's promotions from 201 00:10:29,400 --> 00:10:31,480 within. It's not a situation where 202 00:10:31,480 --> 00:10:34,720 you've got a bunch of people jumping that you know that I've 203 00:10:34,720 --> 00:10:36,720 had a huge amount of success at the Power Five level. 204 00:10:36,720 --> 00:10:39,960 Even Jonathan Smith, who everybody has uniformly praised, 205 00:10:39,960 --> 00:10:42,240 is like a great hire. That's a guy that's got a losing 206 00:10:42,240 --> 00:10:46,160 record career wise at Oregon State and you know it's Oregon 207 00:10:46,160 --> 00:10:48,280 State, so you give him a a little bit of an asterisk there. 208 00:10:48,280 --> 00:10:51,920 But my point is this feels like a very different type of hire 209 00:10:52,080 --> 00:10:54,720 from what Indiana would normally have been able to pull off. 210 00:10:54,720 --> 00:10:57,960 They didn't go the Mac route. They didn't go the coordinator 211 00:10:57,960 --> 00:10:59,720 route. They went with a guy who's been 212 00:10:59,720 --> 00:11:01,880 a program builder in a bunch of different places. 213 00:11:02,440 --> 00:11:05,920 And that is going to be really fascinating to see how it plays 214 00:11:05,920 --> 00:11:06,720 out. And I think that's why I'm 215 00:11:06,720 --> 00:11:09,240 excited about it. You know, he's an older coach, 216 00:11:09,240 --> 00:11:13,440 62 years old, as you said. I'm not worried about that. 217 00:11:13,440 --> 00:11:16,040 Indiana, as we've talked about for many years, needs someone to 218 00:11:16,040 --> 00:11:20,080 come in, reestablish what Mallory had established here, 219 00:11:20,320 --> 00:11:22,920 which, my God, that was 35 years ago at this point. 220 00:11:23,160 --> 00:11:25,840 You know, a culture of here's how you win games, here's how 221 00:11:25,840 --> 00:11:32,280 you, you know, act as a team. And from my perspective, like 222 00:11:32,280 --> 00:11:35,520 he's probably looking at this and saying this is maybe the 223 00:11:35,520 --> 00:11:37,920 destination that I am aiming for. 224 00:11:38,280 --> 00:11:40,800 You know, I maybe they're, you know, I'm not probably at the 225 00:11:40,800 --> 00:11:45,160 age where a, a Power 5 school that's higher up in the Echelon 226 00:11:45,160 --> 00:11:47,680 is going to take a shot on me. But I could build something here 227 00:11:48,440 --> 00:11:51,240 that could be my legacy and that's a really interesting 228 00:11:51,240 --> 00:11:53,440 thing. And look, the performance just 229 00:11:53,440 --> 00:11:57,360 in general has been fascinating out of his teams, especially at 230 00:11:57,360 --> 00:12:00,000 James Madison. He's got a tremendously young 231 00:12:00,000 --> 00:12:02,080 coaching staff. I mean his his offensive 232 00:12:02,080 --> 00:12:03,840 coordinators, like in his early 30s. 233 00:12:04,160 --> 00:12:06,720 He's defensive coordinator, I believe is a younger guy as 234 00:12:06,720 --> 00:12:09,960 well, seems to be recruiting really well and understands how 235 00:12:09,960 --> 00:12:12,240 football recruiting at that level has to operate. 236 00:12:12,240 --> 00:12:15,560 I mean, you don't serve as Nick Saban's recruiting coordinator 237 00:12:15,800 --> 00:12:19,000 unless you know what you're doing, you know, and he's been 238 00:12:19,000 --> 00:12:24,760 around college football royalty, not just Saban, who he knew from 239 00:12:24,760 --> 00:12:28,960 when Saban coached with his dad at West Virginia, but he also 240 00:12:28,960 --> 00:12:32,280 knows Bobby Bowden. Bobby Bowden, like that was the 241 00:12:32,280 --> 00:12:34,880 guy, his dad who was the West Virginia head coach in the late 242 00:12:34,880 --> 00:12:36,400 70s. That's the guy that he took over 243 00:12:36,400 --> 00:12:39,280 for because Bowden left West Virginia in the mid 70s and went 244 00:12:39,280 --> 00:12:42,760 to Florida State. His Kurt Cignetti's dad, Frank 245 00:12:42,760 --> 00:12:46,240 Cignetti, senior, I think was was the guy that took over that 246 00:12:46,240 --> 00:12:48,600 program. The reason why Signetti was an 247 00:12:48,600 --> 00:12:51,840 assistant at North Carolina State was because Chaka Motto, 248 00:12:52,080 --> 00:12:54,640 who was one of Bowden's most trusted assistants, was the head 249 00:12:54,640 --> 00:12:58,440 coach at North Carolina State. So this is a guy steeped in 250 00:12:58,440 --> 00:13:03,360 college football tradition. And as Patrick points out, the 251 00:13:03,360 --> 00:13:07,080 Sunbelt is not the Big 10, FCS is not the Big 10. 252 00:13:07,640 --> 00:13:10,360 And I think those are all really legitimate concerns. 253 00:13:11,160 --> 00:13:13,920 I think though every coach that Indiana was looking at that was 254 00:13:13,920 --> 00:13:18,720 in this particular echelon was going to have some question 255 00:13:18,720 --> 00:13:21,760 marks around them. You know, we talked about guys 256 00:13:21,760 --> 00:13:23,680 like Tom Herman. I mean, nobody knew if Tom 257 00:13:23,680 --> 00:13:27,320 Herman had just flamed out and wasn't going to be somebody that 258 00:13:27,320 --> 00:13:29,680 could continue to do it at this level or could win at a place 259 00:13:29,680 --> 00:13:32,320 like Indiana. We talked about, you know, Paul 260 00:13:32,320 --> 00:13:35,520 Crist, who a lot of people weren't excited about the way 261 00:13:35,720 --> 00:13:38,280 that his tenure at Wisconsin and a lot of people thought he'd 262 00:13:38,280 --> 00:13:42,280 lost whatever fastball he had. So I think whoever the head 263 00:13:42,280 --> 00:13:46,000 coach hire was going to be here was going to be somebody that 264 00:13:46,000 --> 00:13:49,760 people could say, well, that's not really a home run hire. 265 00:13:49,760 --> 00:13:50,920 You know, there's there's questions about it. 266 00:13:50,920 --> 00:13:54,120 There's going to be questions about everybody of all of those 267 00:13:54,120 --> 00:13:55,880 options. As I've read through all of them 268 00:13:55,880 --> 00:14:00,160 and really considered them. This feels like as sure of a bet 269 00:14:01,040 --> 00:14:04,160 as you're going to get, knowing that there are no sure bets. 270 00:14:04,600 --> 00:14:07,560 A lot of it's going to come down to what Indiana is going to do 271 00:14:08,280 --> 00:14:12,080 to make Kurt Cignetti's time in Bloomington successful. 272 00:14:12,400 --> 00:14:14,520 And we've already seen a little bit of that. 273 00:14:14,680 --> 00:14:16,800 You know, we saw that announcement that came out. 274 00:14:16,800 --> 00:14:20,160 It was an announcement, but the Indy Star had it about the nil 275 00:14:20,160 --> 00:14:23,520 fund, like 3 million additional dollars of nil money coming in 276 00:14:24,120 --> 00:14:26,160 for football specifically. That's huge. 277 00:14:26,560 --> 00:14:29,960 We've seen some additional investment in football. 278 00:14:29,960 --> 00:14:32,600 We saw, you know, the Wilkinson family investing in the new 279 00:14:32,600 --> 00:14:34,720 weight room. You know what we're It's going 280 00:14:34,720 --> 00:14:37,880 to be fascinating to see what Cignetti's contract details are, 281 00:14:37,880 --> 00:14:40,360 not just for him, but for his assistant coaches. 282 00:14:40,600 --> 00:14:44,080 This is it a part of an investment in Indiana football, 283 00:14:44,440 --> 00:14:47,560 and that's going to be just as important as the hire. 284 00:14:47,680 --> 00:14:50,040 It feels like if you can put those pieces around Kurt 285 00:14:50,040 --> 00:14:52,440 Cignetti, he's going to know what to do with them because 286 00:14:52,440 --> 00:14:55,920 he's clearly done more with less at lower levels. 287 00:14:56,400 --> 00:14:58,600 And that's the kind of person that ultimately you're going to 288 00:14:58,600 --> 00:15:02,280 need to coach at Indiana. Agree with all that. 289 00:15:02,280 --> 00:15:05,720 The two things that I like is that, you know, he kind of 290 00:15:05,720 --> 00:15:08,840 brings a little bit of the best of both worlds and that when we 291 00:15:08,840 --> 00:15:11,360 hired Kevin Wilson there was a lot of video. 292 00:15:11,360 --> 00:15:14,040 This is a guy who's been around greatness like you mentioned 293 00:15:14,040 --> 00:15:16,160 with Signetti this, but you know with Wilson was you. 294 00:15:16,160 --> 00:15:18,440 He had coached Sam Darnold and had all his connections. 295 00:15:18,960 --> 00:15:22,160 You know, Sigdenit could go into anybody's, anybody, any 296 00:15:22,160 --> 00:15:24,600 recruitment and say, look, I've, I've worked with Phillip Rivers, 297 00:15:24,600 --> 00:15:26,760 Russell Wilson. You know, I've also got, you 298 00:15:26,760 --> 00:15:28,560 know, Julio Jones and Mark Ingram. 299 00:15:28,600 --> 00:15:31,280 You know, there's a lot of people under his purvey that he 300 00:15:31,280 --> 00:15:33,760 could say. But what he has that Wilson 301 00:15:33,760 --> 00:15:37,120 didn't is that, you know, he's also had the ability to build a 302 00:15:37,120 --> 00:15:40,000 program, like to be at that top level, as you and I have talked 303 00:15:40,000 --> 00:15:41,560 about. You know, that's something you 304 00:15:41,560 --> 00:15:43,440 saw with Wilson. A lot of coordinators have a 305 00:15:43,440 --> 00:15:45,760 tough time. You know, how do I have a go 306 00:15:45,760 --> 00:15:47,560 from a coordinator to a head coach? 307 00:15:47,960 --> 00:15:49,240 And that's something that Signetti has done. 308 00:15:49,240 --> 00:15:51,080 So I love those two things together. 309 00:15:51,320 --> 00:15:53,440 The other thing that I was just poking around on, and obviously 310 00:15:53,440 --> 00:15:56,360 I can't say I've, you know, watched a ton of film with James 311 00:15:56,360 --> 00:16:00,000 Madison the last couple years, but just looking at their stats 312 00:16:00,000 --> 00:16:03,520 and I fully get Sunbelt is not the Big 10. 313 00:16:03,520 --> 00:16:07,360 So these stats don't quite, you know, apples to apples, but you 314 00:16:07,360 --> 00:16:09,000 know this is also where you need to. 315 00:16:09,480 --> 00:16:12,040 You need to have a little bit of fun and also a little bit of 316 00:16:12,040 --> 00:16:14,840 understanding that like you're just, you know, we didn't hire a 317 00:16:14,840 --> 00:16:16,880 coach, the Big 10, so there's not going to be an apples to 318 00:16:16,880 --> 00:16:19,400 apples comparison. But you look at, you know, James 319 00:16:19,400 --> 00:16:22,320 Madison's quarterback this year, Jordan McLeod. 320 00:16:23,200 --> 00:16:27,120 If you took his numbers and just plug them into the Big 10 this 321 00:16:27,120 --> 00:16:30,120 season, understanding some belts, different In the Big 10 322 00:16:30,320 --> 00:16:33,760 he would be second in attempts, first in yards, first in 323 00:16:33,760 --> 00:16:36,720 touchdowns, and have a better passing percentage than the 324 00:16:36,760 --> 00:16:40,200 Taglia Tagliavoa who led the Big 10 in passing. 325 00:16:40,280 --> 00:16:45,200 So tag, if I low tag, if I low hands, well, he'll be gone. 326 00:16:45,240 --> 00:16:48,840 He's of senior, he'll be gone soon enough to his brother. 327 00:16:48,840 --> 00:16:49,920 We'll call him. There you go. 328 00:16:50,880 --> 00:16:54,880 You know, but what that tells me is, you know, it, it does feel 329 00:16:54,880 --> 00:16:58,240 like we're going to get a much more dynamic offense in 330 00:16:58,240 --> 00:17:00,360 Bloomington. This is a team that threw the 331 00:17:00,360 --> 00:17:04,079 ball a lot through a lot of yards, had, you know, 32 332 00:17:04,079 --> 00:17:07,520 touchdowns last year, but did it at a very high percentage 333 00:17:07,880 --> 00:17:11,760 understanding it's the Sunbelt. But you know, Kochu, 62, has 334 00:17:12,280 --> 00:17:14,400 this kind of pedigree. You feel like that he has a 335 00:17:14,400 --> 00:17:15,920 system and he's going to come in. 336 00:17:16,560 --> 00:17:19,480 And work that system. And I think also as fans, you 337 00:17:19,480 --> 00:17:22,280 know, like you and I have talked about, obviously we want to win 338 00:17:22,280 --> 00:17:24,480 games, but there is a point where I just, I like to be 339 00:17:24,480 --> 00:17:27,800 competitive and I like for the football to be enjoyable to 340 00:17:27,800 --> 00:17:30,240 watch. And at least going off of what 341 00:17:30,240 --> 00:17:34,160 you've seen him build at James Madison, it looks like we're not 342 00:17:34,160 --> 00:17:37,120 going to get a team that's going to just do a, you know, run up 343 00:17:37,120 --> 00:17:39,480 the middle for three times, go three and out and punt the ball 344 00:17:39,480 --> 00:17:42,880 like it feels like we might be getting a more dynamic offense 345 00:17:42,880 --> 00:17:44,080 as well, which I'm excited about. 346 00:17:45,000 --> 00:17:47,520 It's in a you know from what I've seen and again I'm also not 347 00:17:47,520 --> 00:17:52,920 an expert on James Madison. I would, I would actually, I 348 00:17:52,920 --> 00:17:55,920 know Taylor bite sized bison is going to have a nice write up. 349 00:17:55,920 --> 00:17:59,240 He's done a little bit already on Twitter about about James 350 00:17:59,240 --> 00:18:02,000 Madison and Signetti and so I would go check that out as soon 351 00:18:02,000 --> 00:18:05,280 as possible. But look, what I do know is that 352 00:18:05,280 --> 00:18:07,080 it it is a more aggressive style. 353 00:18:07,360 --> 00:18:12,800 It is a more like you look at what he's done at James Madison 354 00:18:12,920 --> 00:18:16,440 as far as the S&P plus, which you know we love. 355 00:18:16,440 --> 00:18:20,920 If you follow the podcast, you know what he has done in terms 356 00:18:20,920 --> 00:18:26,040 of the respective levels of where the program is at in 357 00:18:26,040 --> 00:18:28,520 relation to the rest of the division that they're in. 358 00:18:28,520 --> 00:18:30,440 So you can do an apples to apples comparison. 359 00:18:30,440 --> 00:18:33,400 I mean, this is a guy whose teams haven't been lower than 360 00:18:33,720 --> 00:18:38,160 essentially the top third of the entire division that they're in, 361 00:18:38,160 --> 00:18:41,000 whether he's at IU, Pennsylvania, Elon, James 362 00:18:41,000 --> 00:18:42,880 Madison. I mean, this was, this is a 363 00:18:42,880 --> 00:18:46,120 really good James Madison team he's got this year just based 364 00:18:46,120 --> 00:18:50,120 upon the statistics. And again, we don't know if that 365 00:18:50,120 --> 00:18:53,040 will translate to the Big 10, but I think it's got a good 366 00:18:53,040 --> 00:18:56,160 chance to. And I think what I love the most 367 00:18:56,160 --> 00:19:01,080 about Cignetti, from the little that I've read so far, he places 368 00:19:01,080 --> 00:19:03,520 emphasis on the right things. There was a quote that I read 369 00:19:03,520 --> 00:19:05,680 about him. You know, say I'd like you know 370 00:19:05,680 --> 00:19:08,720 the the, the key to all of the defensive stuff is like having a 371 00:19:08,720 --> 00:19:11,600 strong defensive line, which seems like a small thing. 372 00:19:11,840 --> 00:19:15,800 But coming off of multiple years of, you know, I I wouldn't 373 00:19:15,800 --> 00:19:18,600 necessarily call the three 35A gimmick defense per SE. 374 00:19:18,600 --> 00:19:21,320 But this idea of like, you know, you got all these extra 375 00:19:21,320 --> 00:19:24,440 positions, which I know you were making fun of, which I agreed 376 00:19:24,720 --> 00:19:26,960 with a great deal in our last podcast. 377 00:19:27,320 --> 00:19:32,200 Everything seemed to be focused on these extras as opposed to 378 00:19:32,200 --> 00:19:34,800 the the core fundamentals. And he seems to know how to do 379 00:19:34,800 --> 00:19:36,160 that. I'm really encouraged by the 380 00:19:36,160 --> 00:19:37,680 fact he's got such a young staff. 381 00:19:37,680 --> 00:19:41,680 I mean, one of the things you see with older coaches a lot of 382 00:19:41,680 --> 00:19:45,200 times is that they really do get locked into either family 383 00:19:45,200 --> 00:19:47,960 members being on their staff or people that they've coached with 384 00:19:47,960 --> 00:19:51,280 for years. And this seems like a guy who 385 00:19:51,280 --> 00:19:55,200 has put together a young, vibrant staff of people who 386 00:19:55,200 --> 00:19:57,840 understand football. It's funny, like you you, his 387 00:19:57,840 --> 00:20:00,040 offensive coordinator's name is Mike Shanahan. 388 00:20:00,040 --> 00:20:02,800 It's not that it's not the same Mike Shanahan, they're not 389 00:20:02,800 --> 00:20:06,920 related, but this is a guy who played with them at IUP who's 390 00:20:06,920 --> 00:20:09,400 followed along with him and seems to have grown into a 391 00:20:09,400 --> 00:20:11,720 pretty dynamic and interesting offensive coordinator. 392 00:20:11,720 --> 00:20:15,440 I mean people like that that that this particular head coach 393 00:20:15,440 --> 00:20:18,280 seems to bring with him. I like that. 394 00:20:18,280 --> 00:20:21,680 I mean, it seems like he's still, you know, to some degree, 395 00:20:21,680 --> 00:20:26,040 in love with the nuances of the game and figuring out, you know, 396 00:20:26,040 --> 00:20:27,600 we'll see what happens, Patrick notes. 397 00:20:27,600 --> 00:20:30,040 Don't get too far ahead of yourself with family on staff. 398 00:20:30,040 --> 00:20:31,120 And I know what he's talking about. 399 00:20:31,120 --> 00:20:34,520 His brother just got fired as the OC at Pitt. 400 00:20:35,000 --> 00:20:38,400 We'll we'll see what happens with all of that, but by and 401 00:20:38,400 --> 00:20:40,320 large, what he's done up to this point. 402 00:20:40,480 --> 00:20:45,080 I like the fact that he has not just stuck to his old standbys, 403 00:20:45,080 --> 00:20:47,920 he's tried to modernize what he's done to some degree. 404 00:20:47,920 --> 00:20:51,000 So well and also that you know and we're I mean all we can do 405 00:20:51,000 --> 00:20:53,360 is pull off of little bits and pieces that we've seen. 406 00:20:53,360 --> 00:20:55,920 But you know, I I was watching the interview this morning when 407 00:20:55,920 --> 00:20:59,040 he was on Pat McAfee and. You know, it's like it kind of 408 00:20:59,040 --> 00:21:01,960 struck me that, you know, that that's something that Tom Allen 409 00:21:02,000 --> 00:21:05,080 wouldn't do or just if he did, would do, would do it 410 00:21:05,080 --> 00:21:08,040 incorrectly somehow. And it was nice to see Signetti, 411 00:21:08,240 --> 00:21:10,320 you know, hold his own on McAfee, kind of have a little 412 00:21:10,320 --> 00:21:13,120 bit of teeth toward the NCAA, like have a little bit of, you 413 00:21:13,120 --> 00:21:16,200 know, bite and then, you know, talk about his philosophy and 414 00:21:16,200 --> 00:21:18,960 what he's been doing there. And you you saw like the the 415 00:21:19,000 --> 00:21:21,320 spirit there. And again, going back to some of 416 00:21:21,440 --> 00:21:23,920 our other hires, you know that was something that very early 417 00:21:23,920 --> 00:21:25,880 on. You know, with Wilson it was 418 00:21:25,880 --> 00:21:28,600 like man, this guy's not, he's not an enthusiasm builder. 419 00:21:28,720 --> 00:21:31,920 It's like he's he's doing it his way and he's kind of off on his 420 00:21:31,920 --> 00:21:34,000 own and you just got to be along for the ride. 421 00:21:34,000 --> 00:21:37,160 And then you know, TomTom Allen had a had his Elio thing, which, 422 00:21:37,760 --> 00:21:40,160 you know, it was that kind of approach. 423 00:21:40,520 --> 00:21:43,040 It always works. If you're winning the minute 424 00:21:43,040 --> 00:21:47,640 you're not winning, it becomes a very kind of grading system that 425 00:21:47,640 --> 00:21:51,200 you get kind of tired of. And so I just look at this as 426 00:21:51,200 --> 00:21:53,720 like I do think that for a program that is you and I have 427 00:21:53,720 --> 00:21:57,040 mentioned many times had really hit an apathy wall and it 428 00:21:57,040 --> 00:22:00,520 somehow burned through it and gone even farther into an apathy 429 00:22:00,520 --> 00:22:03,440 black hole. I think somebody like Cignetti, 430 00:22:03,440 --> 00:22:06,800 from what I've seen, you know that the guy who was on McAfee, 431 00:22:07,120 --> 00:22:08,920 it's like that. That's the kind of guy who could 432 00:22:08,920 --> 00:22:13,000 help build some interest and maybe, you know, make IU an 433 00:22:13,000 --> 00:22:15,480 interesting place again and be able to do. 434 00:22:16,000 --> 00:22:18,720 I don't want to say a lot with a little because he did a lot at 435 00:22:18,720 --> 00:22:22,600 James Madison, but you know to get McAfee there and and all 436 00:22:22,600 --> 00:22:25,040 those things, that's a lot to do at a university like James 437 00:22:25,040 --> 00:22:26,760 Madison. It makes me feel like he can 438 00:22:26,760 --> 00:22:30,360 help build some of that enthusiasm here and maybe take 439 00:22:30,360 --> 00:22:32,560 little wins and turn them into something a little bit bigger, 440 00:22:32,560 --> 00:22:36,360 which is it's all IU needs. Yeah, it is. 441 00:22:36,440 --> 00:22:42,680 And and look, I mean, I think I feel like to some degree the 442 00:22:42,680 --> 00:22:47,720 Allen era has caused a lot of people to forget that there's a 443 00:22:47,720 --> 00:22:50,080 bunch of different ways that you can win football games. 444 00:22:50,080 --> 00:22:54,240 And then it is possible to win football games in a consistent 445 00:22:54,240 --> 00:22:58,080 manner, being aggressive on both sides of the ball, having, 446 00:22:58,080 --> 00:23:01,400 having a more holistic understanding of of what you 447 00:23:01,400 --> 00:23:03,680 need to do to win. I mean, it felt like to a large 448 00:23:03,680 --> 00:23:07,800 degree IU was. So success at IU under Alan was 449 00:23:07,800 --> 00:23:11,880 so predicated on the specific things that Alan wanted to do on 450 00:23:11,880 --> 00:23:13,680 a game by game basis going right. 451 00:23:13,680 --> 00:23:17,600 And if they didn't go right there wasn't really a Plan B and 452 00:23:18,160 --> 00:23:21,800 you know whether that's fair or unfair, that was the perception. 453 00:23:22,120 --> 00:23:26,880 And Allen really only seemed to recruit in one particular area 454 00:23:26,880 --> 00:23:29,880 which was Florida. You know he he really seemed to 455 00:23:30,200 --> 00:23:32,400 you know and and he struggled to develop players. 456 00:23:32,400 --> 00:23:33,840 All those things are open questions. 457 00:23:34,160 --> 00:23:37,480 The one thing I am kind of curious about with Cignetti is 458 00:23:37,760 --> 00:23:42,560 you know how does his recruiting work at A at Indiana BI mean 459 00:23:42,680 --> 00:23:44,720 he's he's not a Florida guy. He's not. 460 00:23:44,720 --> 00:23:47,360 I mean, while he's from Pennsylvania and coached at IUP, 461 00:23:47,360 --> 00:23:50,520 he's been in the in the Carolinas or Virginia here in 462 00:23:50,520 --> 00:23:54,520 that, in that Piedmont area for the last, what, 8-9, ten years. 463 00:23:54,880 --> 00:23:57,400 It'll be interesting to see how that transitions. 464 00:23:57,400 --> 00:24:02,800 But I do think given what Cignetti knows, that we know, he 465 00:24:02,800 --> 00:24:07,400 knows about how programs run, given his pedigree, given his 466 00:24:07,400 --> 00:24:09,760 understanding of having been in a place like Alabama, having 467 00:24:09,800 --> 00:24:13,840 been in a place like NC State. You know, I I right now would 468 00:24:13,840 --> 00:24:18,280 feel like this is a guy who is equipped to figure out how to 469 00:24:18,280 --> 00:24:21,960 maximize what is at his disposal at a place like Indiana. 470 00:24:22,200 --> 00:24:25,040 Now again, a lot of it comes back to NIL. 471 00:24:25,200 --> 00:24:29,000 You know how is Indiana going to be able to to fare in the in the 472 00:24:29,000 --> 00:24:31,360 portal? But this feels like the kind of 473 00:24:31,360 --> 00:24:34,360 guy who's going to really engender a lot of excitement 474 00:24:34,600 --> 00:24:37,400 from recruits, which was I'm sorry, it just wasn't there 475 00:24:37,640 --> 00:24:40,520 under Tom Allen. As much as people want to blame 476 00:24:40,520 --> 00:24:45,520 a lack of NIL dollars or this or that, the reality was like by 477 00:24:45,520 --> 00:24:49,640 the end people outside didn't want to come and play for Tom 478 00:24:49,640 --> 00:24:50,760 Allen. By and large. 479 00:24:50,760 --> 00:24:52,880 I mean there were there. You certainly had some people 480 00:24:52,880 --> 00:24:56,120 and some of those people were were good, but you you know 481 00:24:56,560 --> 00:24:58,080 Indiana didn't get a quarterback. 482 00:24:58,160 --> 00:25:01,360 They had experience in the portal last year, not because of 483 00:25:01,360 --> 00:25:04,000 nil money, but because nobody wanted to go play in a system 484 00:25:04,000 --> 00:25:06,080 where you would already run through multiple starting 485 00:25:06,080 --> 00:25:08,120 quarterbacks and none of them could get the job done. 486 00:25:08,960 --> 00:25:14,400 You know that really does make a difference and that this feels. 487 00:25:14,440 --> 00:25:17,520 There was a quote from Mitchell Page, former IU player. 488 00:25:17,880 --> 00:25:19,680 The IU football hire feels crazy. 489 00:25:19,680 --> 00:25:22,560 Typically a guy like that goes to a place like Texas or 490 00:25:22,560 --> 00:25:25,360 Florida. That's, that's what I'm talking 491 00:25:25,360 --> 00:25:27,120 about. I mean, this is a guy with some 492 00:25:27,120 --> 00:25:28,680 buzz around him within the community. 493 00:25:28,680 --> 00:25:32,720 This is a guy that clearly, you know, I think vibes with players 494 00:25:32,720 --> 00:25:36,880 on a level that Allen's Leo culture only kind of partially 495 00:25:36,880 --> 00:25:39,880 got there on. And and certainly, you know, I'm 496 00:25:39,880 --> 00:25:42,440 not trying to denigrate Allen, per SE, but I'm saying this 497 00:25:42,440 --> 00:25:44,880 feels like the type of guy who can engender a lot more 498 00:25:44,880 --> 00:25:47,360 excitement among the people that need to come in and play the 499 00:25:47,360 --> 00:25:49,680 game. Because all you have to do is 500 00:25:49,680 --> 00:25:53,360 look at his track record of success up to this point, You 501 00:25:53,360 --> 00:25:56,040 know, at, I mean everybody heard about James Madison this year. 502 00:25:56,400 --> 00:25:59,680 You know that you can walk into a living room or or walk into a 503 00:25:59,680 --> 00:26:02,400 conference room with a potential player and say look what we did 504 00:26:02,680 --> 00:26:06,320 in a very short period of time at a place that was fighting as 505 00:26:06,320 --> 00:26:09,520 much of an uphill battle as Indiana is fighting, that's 506 00:26:09,560 --> 00:26:12,280 that's going to be exciting. And I think if he can marry that 507 00:26:12,640 --> 00:26:16,880 to a system that maximizes people's talents, you know, 508 00:26:16,880 --> 00:26:18,680 that's that's something that I'm really intrigued. 509 00:26:18,680 --> 00:26:21,160 To see what happens. Well, I also. 510 00:26:21,920 --> 00:26:25,920 I I go back to you know it's it's somebody who has head 511 00:26:25,920 --> 00:26:28,960 coaching experience who has experience building programs and 512 00:26:28,960 --> 00:26:34,120 it you know it it feels like he's unlike some of the other 513 00:26:34,160 --> 00:26:38,200 names that were on that list you know where they were either 514 00:26:38,200 --> 00:26:40,840 assistants or would have been a first time head coach or you 515 00:26:40,840 --> 00:26:45,000 know I I feel like this is really it goes back to something 516 00:26:45,000 --> 00:26:48,000 we talked about the end of our season pod that you know for as 517 00:26:48,000 --> 00:26:51,280 bad as the season has been as as unhappy as we've been. 518 00:26:51,800 --> 00:26:54,400 There are pieces there, like Soresby has looked good, 519 00:26:54,560 --> 00:26:56,320 McCauley looks like a good wide receiver. 520 00:26:56,320 --> 00:27:00,400 Like there is a world where I'm, I'm immediately as a fan already 521 00:27:00,400 --> 00:27:02,240 excited for next year. Because it's like man, if if 522 00:27:02,240 --> 00:27:04,840 Cignetti comes in and he knows what he's doing and he can come 523 00:27:04,840 --> 00:27:07,640 in like and he he just has that feel of a guy, he's like, all 524 00:27:07,640 --> 00:27:10,800 right, I'm going to come in on Friday and here's my plan, like 525 00:27:10,800 --> 00:27:12,880 here's what we got to do, like we're going to start doing this. 526 00:27:13,320 --> 00:27:15,760 And it does feel like you have a quarterback who might be able to 527 00:27:15,760 --> 00:27:17,200 do what you need to do already there. 528 00:27:17,200 --> 00:27:19,520 And you might have a quarterback wide receiver combo that's 529 00:27:19,520 --> 00:27:21,600 there. It's like some of the pieces are 530 00:27:21,600 --> 00:27:23,560 already there. And then, you know, if you can 531 00:27:23,560 --> 00:27:25,840 maybe bring a couple of the guys from James Madison, you know, 532 00:27:25,840 --> 00:27:29,000 maybe you have a couple guys like I know Dion's kid and 533 00:27:29,000 --> 00:27:30,720 there's other things there. But, you know, you bring some 534 00:27:30,720 --> 00:27:33,160 people from a different level. It's like maybe they have what 535 00:27:33,160 --> 00:27:35,880 it takes at the at the Big 10 level that they weren't getting, 536 00:27:36,040 --> 00:27:38,680 you know, correctly looked at. You get a little buzz in 537 00:27:38,680 --> 00:27:42,560 recruiting and you know they're. It it feels like maybe we're not 538 00:27:42,560 --> 00:27:45,440 so far away from where we needed to be. 539 00:27:45,440 --> 00:27:48,440 So I'm excited about that. I have a question for you. 540 00:27:48,440 --> 00:27:52,360 There's a little bit back back to the process a little bit and 541 00:27:52,360 --> 00:27:54,440 this is stuff you kind of talked about on Twitter or some of the 542 00:27:54,440 --> 00:27:57,000 discords we've you've been a part of with other people. 543 00:27:58,000 --> 00:28:00,920 You were saying how you know that there was some smoke and 544 00:28:00,920 --> 00:28:04,200 like don't don't buy into the smoke but yet and and you know 545 00:28:04,200 --> 00:28:06,880 IE was trying to keep it tight lipped but it did feel like 546 00:28:06,880 --> 00:28:09,160 Cignetti was out there early and it felt like. 547 00:28:09,720 --> 00:28:12,520 Like this was the way it was going as of last night and this 548 00:28:12,520 --> 00:28:14,480 morning. Are you surprised that it it was 549 00:28:14,760 --> 00:28:17,840 not as tight lipped as maybe you were expecting or is it just 550 00:28:17,840 --> 00:28:20,240 there was there was already a Nate, you know there's already a 551 00:28:20,240 --> 00:28:21,840 list and it's like that's that's who it was. 552 00:28:21,840 --> 00:28:24,040 You know you can only keep so much tight lipped. 553 00:28:25,040 --> 00:28:29,040 Well, I think actually I think most of the details were done 554 00:28:29,040 --> 00:28:31,280 when stuff started to leak out yesterday. 555 00:28:31,440 --> 00:28:33,600 But I think it's important to note, like go back and look at 556 00:28:33,600 --> 00:28:36,520 those job boards, go back and look at the names that were 557 00:28:36,520 --> 00:28:38,520 getting mentioned. I don't remember Kurt Cignetti 558 00:28:38,520 --> 00:28:42,040 being on most of them. If if any of them, it was Jason 559 00:28:42,040 --> 00:28:44,760 Candle from Toledo. It was Mike Heart. 560 00:28:44,840 --> 00:28:47,520 It was Justin Fry. It was. 561 00:28:47,600 --> 00:28:49,240 Yeah, yeah, Crist, I think it is. 562 00:28:50,200 --> 00:28:52,200 Yeah, no, it's fine. But I mean, Christ would be an 563 00:28:52,200 --> 00:28:57,360 interesting choice. He, you know, not but but no, 564 00:28:58,200 --> 00:29:01,000 you know, Cignetti's name didn't really fully pop up and 565 00:29:01,000 --> 00:29:03,040 certainly didn't pop up as a central candidate until 566 00:29:03,040 --> 00:29:06,320 yesterday. I mean, I again, I think Scott 567 00:29:06,320 --> 00:29:10,080 Dolson did a really good job as he did with the Woodson hire of 568 00:29:10,080 --> 00:29:12,280 keeping this under wraps and using some really good 569 00:29:12,280 --> 00:29:14,880 misdirection so that really people didn't know. 570 00:29:14,880 --> 00:29:17,160 I mean we heard more about Cignetti and tied with the Duke 571 00:29:17,160 --> 00:29:21,240 job than we heard about him being tied with the Indiana job. 572 00:29:21,240 --> 00:29:27,040 And so I look at it and I say this was a good job by Dolson of 573 00:29:27,040 --> 00:29:30,720 keeping this under wraps. And as as Erock says on Monday, 574 00:29:30,720 --> 00:29:35,400 I didn't think Cignetti, you know, was was even a 575 00:29:35,400 --> 00:29:36,800 possibility, thought it was too good. 576 00:29:37,080 --> 00:29:39,160 You know, you'll, you'll get people who will put names out. 577 00:29:39,160 --> 00:29:41,960 And I'm talking about reporters, you know, people who so, you 578 00:29:41,960 --> 00:29:47,600 know, supposedly have sources that that didn't really have 579 00:29:47,600 --> 00:29:51,520 this as a a notion. And so again, I think Indiana, 580 00:29:52,200 --> 00:29:55,400 often times people think they know what's going on. 581 00:29:55,400 --> 00:29:58,320 Indiana does a really good job of keeping things under wraps 582 00:29:58,680 --> 00:30:02,600 and they do a really good job of misdirecting people. 583 00:30:03,000 --> 00:30:06,760 And this is the type of coach, you know, and I think, you know, 584 00:30:06,760 --> 00:30:08,800 people have talked about Willie Fritz as a possibility. 585 00:30:08,800 --> 00:30:10,480 People have talked about a couple of others. 586 00:30:10,920 --> 00:30:14,120 This was a more realistic option in terms of culture because I 587 00:30:14,120 --> 00:30:16,560 don't know how many coaches that are in the South were really 588 00:30:16,560 --> 00:30:19,000 planning on coming up to to the North. 589 00:30:19,840 --> 00:30:22,280 But people, I think, looked at this and said that's the profile 590 00:30:22,280 --> 00:30:25,120 of the coach, if he's going to go anywhere, Was going to go 591 00:30:25,120 --> 00:30:28,640 somewhere else, Was going to go to a bigger program, a program 592 00:30:28,640 --> 00:30:32,040 that had more, more bona fides from a football perspective, 593 00:30:33,040 --> 00:30:34,440 obviously. Still some interesting things to 594 00:30:34,440 --> 00:30:37,760 keep in mind. I was asked by Mark Katie to 595 00:30:37,760 --> 00:30:40,880 address whether he'll come here quickly for Portal editions or 596 00:30:40,880 --> 00:30:42,800 stay at James Madison for the bowl game. 597 00:30:42,800 --> 00:30:47,720 I mean, clearly it's important for Indiana to get somebody in 598 00:30:47,720 --> 00:30:50,200 place. I do think that it is possible 599 00:30:50,200 --> 00:30:55,480 theoretically to come handle portal business, get things 600 00:30:55,480 --> 00:30:57,880 going and still potentially coaching a bowl game, but it's 601 00:30:57,880 --> 00:30:59,800 not ideal. I mean, people forget Akalin 602 00:30:59,800 --> 00:31:04,040 Devore stuck around through that cycle, coached in the Gator Bowl 603 00:31:04,040 --> 00:31:06,640 and then went to Fresno State. It wasn't like he jumped ship 604 00:31:06,640 --> 00:31:08,440 immediately. I don't know what's going to 605 00:31:08,440 --> 00:31:10,880 happen with this. I would prefer to see him in in 606 00:31:10,880 --> 00:31:12,720 town and doing. I use business. 607 00:31:13,680 --> 00:31:17,160 But you know as as much as I would prefer to see that I don't 608 00:31:17,160 --> 00:31:20,880 think it's 100% deal breaker. You know for in my mind like I 609 00:31:20,880 --> 00:31:23,320 don't think it's I I don't think I don't think Indiana's going to 610 00:31:23,320 --> 00:31:27,360 be that far behind the 8 ball moving forward if if if he 611 00:31:27,360 --> 00:31:29,280 doesn't leave James Madison immediately but it'll be 612 00:31:29,280 --> 00:31:33,920 interesting to see how it goes. But now look I think overall 613 00:31:33,920 --> 00:31:37,000 Indiana did a good job of keeping the coaching search 614 00:31:37,000 --> 00:31:38,840 under wraps. I think they deserve a lot of 615 00:31:38,840 --> 00:31:40,560 credit for wrapping this up so quickly. 616 00:31:40,560 --> 00:31:42,600 I mean, you know, what is it, fucking four days. 617 00:31:43,600 --> 00:31:46,560 You know, the the news broke through, you know, through agent 618 00:31:46,560 --> 00:31:53,400 sources at 1:00 on Thursday and that's quite a a short time 619 00:31:53,400 --> 00:31:57,200 period given that we didn't get news about Tom Allen being fired 620 00:31:57,200 --> 00:32:00,800 until 9:00 on Sunday. I mean you're talking about less 621 00:32:00,800 --> 00:32:05,240 than four full days or less than five full that my math is bad. 622 00:32:06,920 --> 00:32:10,920 So, you know, look, obviously, I think it's funny, I remember 623 00:32:10,920 --> 00:32:13,840 when the announcement came out either Sunday night or Monday, 624 00:32:14,040 --> 00:32:16,120 that IU has engaged a search firm. 625 00:32:16,360 --> 00:32:20,560 There were legitimately people that thought that IU, IU had 626 00:32:20,560 --> 00:32:23,080 just hired the search firm. And it's like we got to be 627 00:32:23,080 --> 00:32:25,680 smarter than this. People like the, the idea that 628 00:32:25,680 --> 00:32:29,440 IU hadn't a, the idea that IU woke, you know, Scott Dolson 629 00:32:29,440 --> 00:32:31,840 woke up on Saturday or Sunday. It was like, you know what, I'm 630 00:32:31,840 --> 00:32:35,040 going to fire Tom Allen. We're going to start from 631 00:32:35,040 --> 00:32:36,520 scratch. Like that's not how this stuff 632 00:32:36,560 --> 00:32:37,760 works. IU IU. 633 00:32:37,840 --> 00:32:41,040 Put a, put a, PUT A to do on my list for Monday to hire a search 634 00:32:41,040 --> 00:32:43,160 firm, but after lunch, we'll we'll get to that later. 635 00:32:43,160 --> 00:32:47,800 Yeah. You know the idea, the idea that 636 00:32:47,800 --> 00:32:49,920 IU hadn't done a lot of due diligence ahead of time, 637 00:32:49,920 --> 00:32:52,200 identified the two or three candidates they really thought 638 00:32:52,200 --> 00:32:55,160 were going to be worthwhile. And you know, what we heard in 639 00:32:55,160 --> 00:32:58,040 the reporting that I trust on this is that IU would really put 640 00:32:58,040 --> 00:33:01,120 a premium on head coach experience and this guy. 641 00:33:01,120 --> 00:33:04,920 Absolutely checked that box in a slightly different way than we 642 00:33:04,920 --> 00:33:08,200 thought but he but he clearly checked that box. 643 00:33:08,200 --> 00:33:11,040 I wanted to get to a question from Chad Schwarzkopf. 644 00:33:11,040 --> 00:33:13,440 I don't claim to be an expert in college football but I'm good at 645 00:33:13,440 --> 00:33:17,240 digging beyond his age. Not much negative defined not to 646 00:33:17,240 --> 00:33:19,680 harsh the vibe but what are some negatives you guys see. 647 00:33:19,800 --> 00:33:23,600 So I mean, look, I think the obvious ones we talked about a 648 00:33:23,600 --> 00:33:29,040 little bit earlier, A, you just don't know if a guy at the lower 649 00:33:29,040 --> 00:33:33,000 reaches of FBS or the FCS level is going to translate up to this 650 00:33:33,000 --> 00:33:35,400 level. I actually think many times they 651 00:33:35,400 --> 00:33:36,600 do. I I mentioned I was talking 652 00:33:36,600 --> 00:33:39,840 about this with with Jared over at Assembly call on text 653 00:33:39,840 --> 00:33:44,280 yesterday, I get a lot of Kailyn de Boer vibes off of this type 654 00:33:44,280 --> 00:33:46,640 of a higher. Keep in mind, like De Boer was a 655 00:33:46,640 --> 00:33:50,640 head coach at the D3 level, you know, had been a, you know, kind 656 00:33:50,640 --> 00:33:53,680 of rattled around in the lower reaches of college football for 657 00:33:53,680 --> 00:33:58,080 most of his 30s and early 40s. He gets the job at Fresno State 658 00:33:58,200 --> 00:34:01,160 as an offensive coordinator. Then he goes to Indiana, which, 659 00:34:01,240 --> 00:34:04,200 you know, is not exactly a destination spot within college 660 00:34:04,200 --> 00:34:07,200 football historically, then goes back to Fresno State. 661 00:34:07,200 --> 00:34:09,600 Then he gets the shot at Washington after two years. 662 00:34:10,280 --> 00:34:12,120 But that wasn't a guy. If you looked at his pedigree 663 00:34:12,120 --> 00:34:14,040 initially that you would have been like, wow, that's a great 664 00:34:14,040 --> 00:34:15,880 head coach who stuff is going to translate. 665 00:34:16,360 --> 00:34:18,960 There's always the possibility that that could be an issue. 666 00:34:19,080 --> 00:34:21,840 You know, we talked earlier due to his background in college 667 00:34:21,840 --> 00:34:25,040 football and his, the lineage between the Bowden and Saban 668 00:34:25,040 --> 00:34:26,760 trees. I'm not too worried about him 669 00:34:26,760 --> 00:34:28,880 because I think he knows what it looks like. 670 00:34:28,880 --> 00:34:32,840 But you never know. You know, I, I, I, we still 671 00:34:32,840 --> 00:34:36,159 don't know what Indiana's structure is going to be around 672 00:34:36,159 --> 00:34:39,760 Signetti from a contract perspective, from an assistant 673 00:34:39,760 --> 00:34:41,960 pool perspective. We've heard a little bit on the 674 00:34:41,960 --> 00:34:44,080 nil front and that is certainly positive. 675 00:34:44,880 --> 00:34:48,800 That could be a real obstacle, you know, and look, ultimately a 676 00:34:48,800 --> 00:34:54,040 lot of it comes down to how does he adapt to a place where there 677 00:34:54,040 --> 00:34:57,000 isn't a real focus on football culture. 678 00:34:57,280 --> 00:34:59,800 And yeah, I think one of the things, if you, if you look at 679 00:34:59,800 --> 00:35:02,800 his time that Elon does not have a great historical football 680 00:35:02,800 --> 00:35:05,280 culture. I think you can mitigate some of 681 00:35:05,280 --> 00:35:07,560 those concerns through looking at that kind of thing. 682 00:35:08,280 --> 00:35:12,040 But again, I think the biggest, the biggest concerns on the part 683 00:35:12,040 --> 00:35:16,200 of the person that you hire is how well do they translate and 684 00:35:16,200 --> 00:35:20,800 how do they handle now being in a position where you're near or 685 00:35:20,800 --> 00:35:23,480 at the bottom of the pecking order, You're in a state that 686 00:35:23,480 --> 00:35:27,480 doesn't have a lot of innate football talent and the stuff 687 00:35:27,480 --> 00:35:30,160 that it, the people that it does have always go elsewhere. 688 00:35:30,600 --> 00:35:32,440 But I think you would have that question with any of the 689 00:35:32,440 --> 00:35:34,880 candidates. And as far as track record stuff 690 00:35:34,880 --> 00:35:39,280 is concerned, I I feel really good about the track record 691 00:35:39,280 --> 00:35:41,000 here. And again, as we heard earlier, 692 00:35:41,400 --> 00:35:44,920 this just seems like the type of person who generally has just 693 00:35:44,920 --> 00:35:48,640 never considered IU because IU hasn't been in like they haven't 694 00:35:48,640 --> 00:35:51,360 either haven't considered them or they haven't been in the 695 00:35:51,360 --> 00:35:54,560 running for them. Yeah, I mean the The thing is 696 00:35:54,560 --> 00:35:57,200 when you're when you're Indiana football, you're never going to 697 00:35:57,200 --> 00:35:59,800 have just the perfect hottest candidate out there. 698 00:35:59,960 --> 00:36:01,480 There's always going to be issues and my. 699 00:36:02,240 --> 00:36:05,920 I I hear that and it's like that is I've always been fascinated 700 00:36:05,920 --> 00:36:08,360 with you know coaches. I always use Archie as an 701 00:36:08,360 --> 00:36:10,800 example like it should have worked like he should have been 702 00:36:10,800 --> 00:36:13,080 able to make the leap up. It didn't totally different 703 00:36:13,080 --> 00:36:16,080 discussion but it's like you know coaches who go from one 704 00:36:16,080 --> 00:36:19,720 level to the next level it it really seems to be there's 705 00:36:19,720 --> 00:36:22,240 really not a lot like it's hard to figure out what makes that 706 00:36:22,240 --> 00:36:25,560 work and what makes it doesn't. But you know to to that to to 707 00:36:25,560 --> 00:36:28,600 the comment. You know about like he has no, 708 00:36:28,640 --> 00:36:30,640 you know, higher level experience like well look at the 709 00:36:30,640 --> 00:36:33,120 coaching board, like a lot of the guys, it's not like we had 710 00:36:33,120 --> 00:36:36,320 12, you know, 12 options on there with guys who had 711 00:36:36,320 --> 00:36:39,240 experience. There was, you know, not Christ 712 00:36:39,480 --> 00:36:41,440 but Christ. You know, Paul Christ has some 713 00:36:41,440 --> 00:36:43,480 experience at Wisconsin. I'm going through the list and 714 00:36:43,480 --> 00:36:46,640 you had Dan Mullen who was quickly off the list or didn't 715 00:36:46,640 --> 00:36:49,000 seem to get any traction, but he had some experience, Mississippi 716 00:36:49,000 --> 00:36:52,480 State and Florida, but everyone else was and I guess Jack, you 717 00:36:52,480 --> 00:36:54,400 know, Dicker to Washington State. 718 00:36:55,240 --> 00:36:57,480 You know everyone else was either an assistant or had kind 719 00:36:57,480 --> 00:37:00,280 of lower you know whether it's Tulane or Toledo you're kind of 720 00:37:00,280 --> 00:37:03,400 at that next level. You know it's it's not like you 721 00:37:03,400 --> 00:37:08,000 know guys who are at you know you know Mississippi State are 722 00:37:08,000 --> 00:37:11,120 looking to come here you know leave SEC schools to come to the 723 00:37:11,120 --> 00:37:13,080 Big 10. So you you're going to have to 724 00:37:13,080 --> 00:37:15,760 give somewhere you mentioned the contract. 725 00:37:15,760 --> 00:37:19,320 I am curious to see what they do with the contract, what the 726 00:37:19,320 --> 00:37:22,480 buyout looks like, you know and I think at this point you're. 727 00:37:23,440 --> 00:37:24,720 You're kind of beholden to agents. 728 00:37:24,720 --> 00:37:27,080 You're kind of beholden to what the market will bear. 729 00:37:27,080 --> 00:37:30,880 And I would just urge people, you know, I think people are 730 00:37:30,880 --> 00:37:33,520 obviously a little bit, you know, burned by the last buy up. 731 00:37:33,520 --> 00:37:36,320 But all I would say is 2 things. First off, as I've said many 732 00:37:36,320 --> 00:37:38,920 times, they have a nice TV contract. 733 00:37:38,920 --> 00:37:41,600 IU will be just fine. Like they have donors, like 734 00:37:41,600 --> 00:37:44,360 everyone's going to be fine and for the most part, it's not your 735 00:37:44,360 --> 00:37:46,760 money. The second thing is if you see a 736 00:37:46,760 --> 00:37:50,080 contract with a. Sizable buyout for a three to 737 00:37:50,080 --> 00:37:54,520 four year period. I I know it might suck in three 738 00:37:54,520 --> 00:37:56,960 to four years if things don't workout, but it's like you have 739 00:37:56,960 --> 00:38:00,480 to remember at this moment. That is the price of playing 740 00:38:00,480 --> 00:38:04,040 ball with the big boys and that is what all the other big boy 741 00:38:04,040 --> 00:38:08,640 teams do and not trying to you know talk it away or justify it. 742 00:38:08,640 --> 00:38:11,040 But it's just like if you want to suddenly be, hey we don't 743 00:38:11,040 --> 00:38:13,360 want to get burned with our buyout, well guess what you're 744 00:38:13,360 --> 00:38:15,200 not going to get a high level coach. 745 00:38:15,240 --> 00:38:18,680 You're just not look at Texas A and MI guarantee they just pay 746 00:38:18,680 --> 00:38:21,160 the Jimbo buyout. I guarantee their their new 747 00:38:21,160 --> 00:38:23,880 coaches contract is going to have a huge effing buyout for 748 00:38:23,880 --> 00:38:25,240 the first three to four years also. 749 00:38:25,920 --> 00:38:29,480 I mean, look, as I was talking about the other day, you know, 750 00:38:29,480 --> 00:38:32,760 Frank Wright just got fired by Carolina after 11 games. 751 00:38:32,960 --> 00:38:35,400 Nobody talked about his buyout. And you could say, well, that's 752 00:38:35,400 --> 00:38:38,800 not college, that's pro. I I keep telling you, folks, 753 00:38:38,920 --> 00:38:40,640 college football is Pro Football. 754 00:38:40,640 --> 00:38:42,520 It's just a different level of Pro Football. 755 00:38:42,520 --> 00:38:46,040 This is where things are AT. And look, they signed a long or 756 00:38:46,040 --> 00:38:48,600 a big buyout with Allen. We've talked about the 757 00:38:48,600 --> 00:38:51,680 circumstances of that, a big buyout. 758 00:38:51,920 --> 00:38:54,800 Look, I just, I just love the fact that IU has shown that 759 00:38:54,800 --> 00:38:57,120 they're going to financially invest in a football program. 760 00:38:57,120 --> 00:38:59,280 Think about the amount of money that Indiana will have spent 761 00:38:59,280 --> 00:39:03,240 here on football specifically over the last six months. 762 00:39:03,680 --> 00:39:06,240 And that includes the 15 and a half million dollars that 763 00:39:06,240 --> 00:39:08,720 they're going to give Tom Allen to walk away. 764 00:39:09,360 --> 00:39:11,840 So look, I'm, I'm really fascinated by how all of this 765 00:39:11,840 --> 00:39:14,920 role's moving forward. A couple other things I wanted 766 00:39:14,920 --> 00:39:17,240 to mention before. I think Rod Carey at some point 767 00:39:17,240 --> 00:39:20,160 goes to the office is like so that that two year deal that I 768 00:39:20,160 --> 00:39:22,680 got like we're just that's I know Scott I know you're busy I 769 00:39:22,680 --> 00:39:25,560 know you got a lot of stuff going on that that that was 770 00:39:25,560 --> 00:39:27,240 guaranteed right. Just making sure like, I know 771 00:39:27,280 --> 00:39:29,720 you haven't paid out everybody yet, but Carrie might be the 772 00:39:29,720 --> 00:39:32,200 biggest winner here. Yeah, I know. 773 00:39:32,200 --> 00:39:33,120 Well, you know that. Yeah. 774 00:39:33,160 --> 00:39:35,400 Well, it's funny. I it will be interesting. 775 00:39:35,400 --> 00:39:38,520 You know, you look at it. I'm curious who Cignetti brings 776 00:39:38,520 --> 00:39:41,880 with him as opposed to who he brings in from elsewhere as far 777 00:39:41,880 --> 00:39:43,320 as his staff. And we don't know. 778 00:39:43,600 --> 00:39:46,520 I think all these things, it's almost pointless to speculate. 779 00:39:47,120 --> 00:39:49,120 I again, I'll go back to what I said at the beginning of the 780 00:39:49,120 --> 00:39:51,640 podcast. I'm impressed at how young his 781 00:39:51,640 --> 00:39:53,960 staff is. You look at his his coaching 782 00:39:53,960 --> 00:39:57,880 staff, There's only one person on his coaching staff that 783 00:39:57,880 --> 00:40:01,600 graduated from college earlier than than 2000 and that person 784 00:40:01,600 --> 00:40:05,200 graduated in 1999. And you know he's got some some 785 00:40:05,200 --> 00:40:07,600 people from the state of Indiana currently on his staff. 786 00:40:07,600 --> 00:40:11,000 Pat Koontz, who was Notre Dame guy, played for the Colts for a 787 00:40:11,000 --> 00:40:14,760 little bit, is the D line coach. Bryant Haynes is the linebackers 788 00:40:14,760 --> 00:40:17,120 coach and the D coordinator. He's a Ball State guy. 789 00:40:18,280 --> 00:40:21,480 So look, all that I'm sure will be revealed. 790 00:40:21,840 --> 00:40:25,040 I I feel like I trust this guy to know who to put in positions 791 00:40:25,080 --> 00:40:29,160 and we'll see what he says in the initial press conference and 792 00:40:29,160 --> 00:40:32,960 what comes up afterwards. But it's just it's really, it's 793 00:40:32,960 --> 00:40:38,280 a fascinating change of pace for IU to be grabbing this type of a 794 00:40:38,280 --> 00:40:43,160 coach and you know someone who has chosen to go to Indiana. 795 00:40:43,160 --> 00:40:45,760 Because look again this is a guy who he could have probably had 796 00:40:45,760 --> 00:40:49,360 the Duke job without a whole lot of problem would have made a 797 00:40:49,360 --> 00:40:51,280 natural fit. He coached at Elon, which is 798 00:40:51,280 --> 00:40:53,840 just down the road from Durham knows the area well. 799 00:40:54,040 --> 00:40:58,000 Duke's a lower pressure job that you obviously you can win at, 800 00:40:58,000 --> 00:41:01,120 whether it's Mike Elko or or David Cutcliffe. 801 00:41:01,600 --> 00:41:05,400 So to to choose to go to Indiana, to me is really 802 00:41:05,400 --> 00:41:10,080 fascinating because AI think it it it represents that Indiana 803 00:41:10,080 --> 00:41:14,600 has decided to make a sizable investment in football and that 804 00:41:15,120 --> 00:41:18,400 that has impressed this guy enough that he wants to come to 805 00:41:18,400 --> 00:41:20,360 IU. But it also I think is 806 00:41:20,360 --> 00:41:23,920 impressive that Indiana, looking at their football program when 807 00:41:23,920 --> 00:41:27,200 it would have been a lot more financially expedient to say 808 00:41:27,600 --> 00:41:29,440 this sucks. We don't like the direction that 809 00:41:29,440 --> 00:41:31,920 it's going, but we're going to, we're going to eat it for 810 00:41:31,920 --> 00:41:35,120 another year, we'll pay less next year and then we'll figure 811 00:41:35,120 --> 00:41:37,000 it out. Not only did they say no, that's 812 00:41:37,000 --> 00:41:39,680 not good enough. Then they went out and got an 813 00:41:40,320 --> 00:41:43,200 incredibly hot coaching commodity, A guy who's been a 814 00:41:43,200 --> 00:41:47,200 head coach, albeit not at the top levels, but has one 815 00:41:47,200 --> 00:41:51,320 Everywhere he's been, has built programs at places that are not 816 00:41:51,320 --> 00:41:53,560 easy to build, programs where he's been. 817 00:41:54,440 --> 00:41:58,480 That feels like the type of guy that Indiana would want to have 818 00:41:58,480 --> 00:42:02,760 as their head football coach. And to me, that's where right 819 00:42:02,760 --> 00:42:04,600 now I'm excited. And again, I'll say what I said 820 00:42:04,600 --> 00:42:09,920 at the beginning of the show, we don't know how this will go. 821 00:42:09,920 --> 00:42:13,080 Indiana winning the press conference at Indiana is not the 822 00:42:13,080 --> 00:42:15,480 same as winning football games at Indiana. 823 00:42:15,800 --> 00:42:17,920 And we all have seen that in other sports. 824 00:42:18,440 --> 00:42:21,600 But if you're going to go off of what we can react to right now, 825 00:42:21,600 --> 00:42:24,160 which is who the person is that they hired, what they've done 826 00:42:24,440 --> 00:42:26,400 and how well we think that will mesh here. 827 00:42:26,720 --> 00:42:31,040 Having followed IU football for as long as I have, Scott, I 828 00:42:31,040 --> 00:42:33,200 think you feel the same way. This feels like the type of 829 00:42:33,200 --> 00:42:36,480 profile that can work here and it's very different from the 830 00:42:36,480 --> 00:42:39,640 profiles that we've seen among some of the more recent people 831 00:42:39,640 --> 00:42:41,200 that have been hired here. I agree. 832 00:42:41,240 --> 00:42:43,640 I mean, I think you and I are similar with the search 833 00:42:43,640 --> 00:42:45,000 committee. I wanted somebody who had some 834 00:42:45,000 --> 00:42:47,400 head coaching experience because that's been the profile that has 835 00:42:47,400 --> 00:42:50,040 worked at Indiana. It's a little lower level than 836 00:42:50,040 --> 00:42:54,040 what I was expecting. But you know, you're right and 837 00:42:54,040 --> 00:42:56,480 I'm always taking a step back and it's like, you know, in the 838 00:42:56,480 --> 00:42:58,560 end none of this matter. I'll know in three years. 839 00:42:58,560 --> 00:43:00,560 Like we'll all know in three to four years if this worked. 840 00:43:00,560 --> 00:43:04,440 And it's kind of the dumb answer, but I will say that you 841 00:43:04,440 --> 00:43:08,720 know, unlike. Any other time, except for maybe 842 00:43:08,720 --> 00:43:13,400 out of the Dinaro Dinardo era. You know the apathy thing had 843 00:43:13,400 --> 00:43:16,680 gotten so low that we're at a point where winning the press 844 00:43:16,680 --> 00:43:19,480 conference actually I does think matter a little bit here just to 845 00:43:19,480 --> 00:43:22,240 get enthusiasm up. So you know the fact that. 846 00:43:23,000 --> 00:43:25,960 The fact that he comes in, he has a little bit of St. credit. 847 00:43:25,960 --> 00:43:28,560 You know, the fact that most of the national media is like, 848 00:43:28,560 --> 00:43:31,200 whoa, that's a that's a nice hire, like good job by India, 849 00:43:31,200 --> 00:43:33,600 like you're getting a little bit of a pat in the back from the 850 00:43:33,600 --> 00:43:34,840 way that he seems. We'll see. 851 00:43:35,160 --> 00:43:36,720 It seems like the press conference is going to have a 852 00:43:36,720 --> 00:43:38,400 little bit of juice, a little bit energy like. 853 00:43:39,000 --> 00:43:41,560 I think all those things are actually important at this point 854 00:43:41,560 --> 00:43:45,160 in time because apathy had gotten so bad that you need 855 00:43:45,160 --> 00:43:48,680 someone to come in, you know, like like again, Wilson was was 856 00:43:48,680 --> 00:43:51,320 an interesting hire, but he wasn't really a rah, rah guy. 857 00:43:51,320 --> 00:43:53,480 So it's like I think some of that is is needed now. 858 00:43:54,520 --> 00:43:57,360 First of all, thanks to Xander Diamond, who just retweeted our 859 00:43:57,360 --> 00:43:59,160 live stream here. Xander, we miss you. 860 00:43:59,240 --> 00:44:02,640 Thank you so much. Man, I just, I just got AI. 861 00:44:02,680 --> 00:44:05,920 Just got AI was just making a clip art for my phone of him 862 00:44:05,920 --> 00:44:08,400 smoking the cigar. So, Xander, if you're listening, 863 00:44:08,400 --> 00:44:10,520 like that's going to be my new sticker for the next couple of 864 00:44:10,520 --> 00:44:12,240 weeks. Tremendous. 865 00:44:12,240 --> 00:44:14,640 Jack Siegel had a great comment earlier that fits right in with 866 00:44:14,640 --> 00:44:16,640 what you just said. There needs to be a full rebrand 867 00:44:16,640 --> 00:44:19,400 for 2024 with Cignetti. This should figuratively and 868 00:44:19,400 --> 00:44:22,000 literally feel like a new era. And I think you're right. 869 00:44:22,000 --> 00:44:25,240 I mean, obviously we're going to hedge our bets a little because 870 00:44:25,240 --> 00:44:27,080 you don't know until the rubber hits the road. 871 00:44:27,080 --> 00:44:29,720 But it is important not just that Indiana win the press 872 00:44:29,720 --> 00:44:34,120 conference nationally, but that Indiana gets people excited 873 00:44:34,320 --> 00:44:36,920 about Indiana football. I mean, you and I have followed 874 00:44:36,920 --> 00:44:41,080 this program for so long. It was so gratifying to watch 875 00:44:41,360 --> 00:44:46,160 the excitement around Indiana football in 2019-2020, the lead 876 00:44:46,160 --> 00:44:50,080 up to 2021. And it was so disappointing and 877 00:44:50,080 --> 00:44:53,400 gutting and frustrating to watch it go away so quickly. 878 00:44:53,400 --> 00:44:55,640 It just was like, wait what? Come back where? 879 00:44:55,640 --> 00:44:57,160 Where are you going? Like what happened? 880 00:44:57,160 --> 00:45:00,440 It just it felt like I want to live in the Iowa tailgate the 881 00:45:00,480 --> 00:45:02,160 rest of my life. Like the tailgate before the 882 00:45:02,280 --> 00:45:03,680 Iowa game. Like that moment was great. 883 00:45:03,720 --> 00:45:05,440 Go ahead. I know it. 884 00:45:05,440 --> 00:45:07,800 It was, it was absolutely gutting. 885 00:45:08,120 --> 00:45:11,840 If you really cared about IU football, to watch IU football 886 00:45:11,840 --> 00:45:14,840 go from a spot where it was the feel good story of the college 887 00:45:14,840 --> 00:45:17,240 football world. Everybody loved what was 888 00:45:17,240 --> 00:45:22,280 happening in Bloomington to winning three Big 10 games total 889 00:45:22,440 --> 00:45:28,960 over a three-year span and to watch IU fans just essentially 890 00:45:28,960 --> 00:45:33,040 give up again and say, oh, well, back to the old way of doing 891 00:45:33,040 --> 00:45:33,960 business. And you're right. 892 00:45:33,960 --> 00:45:37,960 I mean, like Kevin Wilson was, you know, he was, he was almost 893 00:45:37,960 --> 00:45:41,080 like a technocrat in a way. He, Kevin Wilson did a lot of 894 00:45:41,080 --> 00:45:44,480 really good things to build the pieces that made IU football 895 00:45:44,480 --> 00:45:48,520 relevant in the Big 10. But he was just not the type of 896 00:45:48,520 --> 00:45:51,120 guy that was going to go get people fired up. 897 00:45:51,120 --> 00:45:56,400 Now, you know, we'll see how Cignetti handles being in the 898 00:45:56,400 --> 00:45:59,040 press conference and how he handles working with fans. 899 00:45:59,040 --> 00:46:01,240 I think it was it was one of the big concerns people had with 900 00:46:01,280 --> 00:46:04,200 Paul Crist. Crist's track record looked 901 00:46:04,200 --> 00:46:06,200 good, but everybody was like, that's boring. 902 00:46:06,200 --> 00:46:09,280 I mean, Wisconsin's fan's nickname for him is Coach Dad, 903 00:46:09,280 --> 00:46:12,160 which isn't really the vibe I think Indiana wanted to get. 904 00:46:12,520 --> 00:46:15,640 And while you know, Tom Allen, as you mentioned, certainly 905 00:46:15,640 --> 00:46:19,360 could get people fired up about the idea of IU football, he 906 00:46:19,360 --> 00:46:23,160 could not deliver the results. And eventually the rah, rah 907 00:46:23,160 --> 00:46:26,920 stuff just felt really hollow and it almost felt like it was 908 00:46:26,920 --> 00:46:29,560 almost a slap in the face to some degree for fans who were 909 00:46:29,560 --> 00:46:33,480 like Coach, we get it, Leo, please show us something that 910 00:46:33,480 --> 00:46:35,960 would allow us to believe. And it just was never 911 00:46:35,960 --> 00:46:38,480 forthcoming. And so it is. 912 00:46:38,480 --> 00:46:43,080 All of this stuff is important. Indiana has to be a program that 913 00:46:43,080 --> 00:46:46,080 attracts donor interest and and that's where Scott Dolson has to 914 00:46:46,080 --> 00:46:49,360 come in and really fundraise off the back of this and and help to 915 00:46:49,360 --> 00:46:52,840 elevate what Indiana's doing. But fans have to get excited 916 00:46:52,840 --> 00:46:54,000 again. People will do this. 917 00:46:54,000 --> 00:46:55,640 I mean you know the the thing that drives me nuts. 918 00:46:55,640 --> 00:46:59,760 I remember that Cincinnati game in 2021 when you know the the 919 00:46:59,960 --> 00:47:04,640 the the infamous McFadden targeting game the the the 920 00:47:04,640 --> 00:47:07,520 stands were packed, students were there and students kept 921 00:47:07,520 --> 00:47:11,400 showing up that that year, the next year just waiting for 922 00:47:11,400 --> 00:47:14,440 something to get excited about and it never materialized. 923 00:47:14,440 --> 00:47:17,080 And by the middle of this year everybody was gone. 924 00:47:17,160 --> 00:47:19,040 It's going to take some time to build that back up. 925 00:47:19,040 --> 00:47:22,840 It's going to take some results, but it feels like the the 926 00:47:22,840 --> 00:47:27,720 pedigree, the the the the overall, like the the profile 927 00:47:27,720 --> 00:47:32,640 that this coach hire brings in could help to energize things. 928 00:47:33,120 --> 00:47:36,720 And I think in this new era of college football, it becomes 929 00:47:36,720 --> 00:47:38,600 more and more important than Indiana to do that. 930 00:47:38,600 --> 00:47:41,840 Indiana just can't afford anymore to treat football like 931 00:47:41,840 --> 00:47:44,600 an afterthought, and I don't think that they have in terms of 932 00:47:44,800 --> 00:47:46,680 trying to put some of the structures in place. 933 00:47:46,680 --> 00:47:49,400 I think that a lot of what's happened over the last three 934 00:47:49,400 --> 00:47:54,400 years has been an erosion of trust between IU and the donor 935 00:47:54,400 --> 00:47:58,320 base and Allen and a lot of reasons for that for occurring, 936 00:47:58,320 --> 00:48:00,920 which really are outside the purview of this particular 937 00:48:00,920 --> 00:48:03,040 episode of the podcast. Maybe we'll talk about it in the 938 00:48:03,040 --> 00:48:07,360 future, but as as Chad mentioned, you know, watch the 939 00:48:07,360 --> 00:48:10,440 video of of Chad Cignetti on college game day. 940 00:48:10,680 --> 00:48:12,320 He'll do great in the press conference. 941 00:48:12,640 --> 00:48:15,000 I I think you're right. And I'm really excited to see 942 00:48:15,000 --> 00:48:18,320 how that goes. Indiana fans deserve something 943 00:48:18,320 --> 00:48:21,080 to get excited about. This is a great example of 944 00:48:21,080 --> 00:48:24,880 something to get excited about. And I for 1:00 AM, excited, I 945 00:48:24,880 --> 00:48:26,280 didn't think I was going to be excited. 946 00:48:26,280 --> 00:48:29,000 I was expecting to kind of have to hold my powder on this and be 947 00:48:29,000 --> 00:48:31,960 like, well, you know, we'll see. We're going to support the new 948 00:48:31,960 --> 00:48:35,120 coach. We'll give them time, but at the 949 00:48:35,120 --> 00:48:38,480 end of the day, a lot of work's got to be done to rebuild this 950 00:48:38,480 --> 00:48:40,080 roster. You got to make decisions on who 951 00:48:40,080 --> 00:48:42,280 you're going to try to get back out of the portal. 952 00:48:42,480 --> 00:48:44,280 You got to make decisions about who you're going to bring in 953 00:48:44,280 --> 00:48:47,080 from outside. You know, obviously, like we had 954 00:48:47,080 --> 00:48:49,560 a question from Ethan McCartney about, you know, you you want D 955 00:48:49,560 --> 00:48:52,520 Mac or Soresby returning. You know, It's one of those 956 00:48:52,520 --> 00:48:57,600 things where at the end of it all, I'm there needs to be a 957 00:48:57,600 --> 00:49:02,120 complete reconfiguration in how IU football thinks about its 958 00:49:02,120 --> 00:49:04,240 roster. And I think having a fresh 959 00:49:04,280 --> 00:49:06,280 perspective come in and look at all these players and make 960 00:49:06,280 --> 00:49:09,440 decisions about how we want to play and where this is going, 961 00:49:09,640 --> 00:49:11,360 that's the really important thing right now. 962 00:49:11,960 --> 00:49:16,240 Well, if we talk about no, his Sigdetti's, you know, his time 963 00:49:16,240 --> 00:49:19,960 on on game day, his time on McAfee, it's like, I'm not sure 964 00:49:19,960 --> 00:49:21,960 any other coach that we've had could have done that. 965 00:49:21,960 --> 00:49:24,640 And again, it's a it's one point of reference, but I think back 966 00:49:24,640 --> 00:49:27,120 to like the very, very weird reference. 967 00:49:27,120 --> 00:49:29,600 But the movie Private parts about Howard Stern, like he gets 968 00:49:29,600 --> 00:49:32,680 on to WWNBC in New York and like it's a. 969 00:49:33,080 --> 00:49:36,240 Like this stuffy old, you know news guy that's like that guy, 970 00:49:36,240 --> 00:49:37,440 that guy can't handle on this set. 971 00:49:37,440 --> 00:49:39,760 Like Signetti was able to do it. Like that's where it's like his 972 00:49:39,760 --> 00:49:41,600 age. He doesn't act like his age. 973 00:49:41,600 --> 00:49:43,560 He didn't look like a 62 year old guy out there. 974 00:49:44,080 --> 00:49:46,760 When you talk about enthusiasm, just the other thing that I will 975 00:49:46,760 --> 00:49:49,240 hit something you've mentioned before, but I will kind of re 976 00:49:49,240 --> 00:49:53,280 mention here, the schedule is very advantageous next year. 977 00:49:53,280 --> 00:49:56,680 You look at our schedule, you know, you know, getting into it, 978 00:49:56,800 --> 00:49:59,440 you're going to start the season with, you know, FIU in Western 979 00:49:59,440 --> 00:50:01,720 Illinois at home. Assuming we're going to be 980 00:50:01,720 --> 00:50:05,120 better than last year, which I hope so, with a new coach, you 981 00:50:05,120 --> 00:50:07,960 could be two and O going into the UCLA game, which is a road 982 00:50:07,960 --> 00:50:09,520 game. Fine, You're two and one. 983 00:50:09,680 --> 00:50:11,640 You come back for Charlotte and Maryland. 984 00:50:11,800 --> 00:50:14,760 You could, you know Maryland has the quarterback that I can't 985 00:50:14,760 --> 00:50:17,000 mention, but we'll have a new quarter belt and somebody new, 986 00:50:17,160 --> 00:50:19,760 you know, no longer to his younger brother will be there. 987 00:50:20,440 --> 00:50:21,680 Who knows what's going to happen with them. 988 00:50:21,680 --> 00:50:25,160 You could be four and one going into that game at Northwestern. 989 00:50:25,160 --> 00:50:27,440 Northwestern is going to have a new coach who knows what's going 990 00:50:27,440 --> 00:50:29,360 to happen with them. You could be. 991 00:50:29,360 --> 00:50:31,560 I mean I'm just I'm I'm very rosy colored glass here. 992 00:50:31,560 --> 00:50:34,280 But I don't think it's out of the realm if you you know you 993 00:50:34,280 --> 00:50:37,240 get a little bit better. You beat Maryland, who fell off 994 00:50:37,240 --> 00:50:38,880 a Cliff this year after they beat us. 995 00:50:39,080 --> 00:50:42,520 You beat Northwestern. You could be 5 and one coming 996 00:50:42,520 --> 00:50:45,600 home to host Norton, Nebraska and Washington back-to-back. 997 00:50:46,520 --> 00:50:48,280 That's gonna with a new coach and A5. 998 00:50:48,320 --> 00:50:50,160 I mean that's some excitement where it's like, hey man, it's 999 00:50:50,160 --> 00:50:53,600 October 19th against Nebraska. We're playing to go to a bowl 1000 00:50:53,760 --> 00:50:56,160 again. I'm, I'm taking the glasses half 1001 00:50:56,160 --> 00:50:59,280 full side of all this. But I don't think looking at, 1002 00:50:59,440 --> 00:51:02,720 you know, FIU, Western Illinois, Charlotte, Maryland and 1003 00:51:02,720 --> 00:51:05,760 Northwestern, I don't think winning all of those is out of 1004 00:51:05,760 --> 00:51:08,240 the realm of possibility. Even if you're four and two. 1005 00:51:10,280 --> 00:51:11,680 Yeah, yeah. No, I was. 1006 00:51:11,680 --> 00:51:13,920 No, I was gonna say it's a great runway. 1007 00:51:14,080 --> 00:51:18,280 It's a great runway for a new coach, which I, I have to think 1008 00:51:18,280 --> 00:51:20,760 played into the idea of if you're going to make a change, 1009 00:51:20,760 --> 00:51:22,440 do it now. You got eight home games. 1010 00:51:22,680 --> 00:51:25,560 You got a winnable Rd. game at UCLA. 1011 00:51:25,880 --> 00:51:29,960 This is really, you know obviously you got to rebuild 1012 00:51:29,960 --> 00:51:34,000 both lines a bit more. I mean Taylor did a great job on 1013 00:51:34,000 --> 00:51:36,920 bite sized bison and laying out the most important people in the 1014 00:51:36,920 --> 00:51:38,480 portal and most of them are lineman. 1015 00:51:38,760 --> 00:51:42,280 You know, I mean they're they're that's where Indiana this is 1016 00:51:42,280 --> 00:51:44,560 where nil comes in. But it's also where a vision 1017 00:51:45,240 --> 00:51:47,800 from the head coach is going to be really important and that's 1018 00:51:47,800 --> 00:51:50,000 got to happen right away. And and Scott, they just 1019 00:51:50,000 --> 00:51:52,520 officially announced it, the graphic is up. 1020 00:51:53,160 --> 00:51:56,720 IU just announced Cignetti officially as the head coach. 1021 00:51:56,720 --> 00:51:58,480 Like all we had was the unofficial stuff did. 1022 00:51:59,480 --> 00:52:01,560 They go with sources. Did they go with sources? 1023 00:52:01,640 --> 00:52:05,120 Say IU, they did. They did not go with sources 1024 00:52:05,120 --> 00:52:07,800 though. Anyway, we've gone almost an 1025 00:52:07,800 --> 00:52:09,840 hour here, so I think we're going to wrap up any let's get 1026 00:52:09,840 --> 00:52:12,120 final thoughts from you before we wrap things up here. 1027 00:52:12,560 --> 00:52:15,280 No, I mean everything. It would all be a recap of what 1028 00:52:15,280 --> 00:52:17,040 we said. I think this is, you know, I 1029 00:52:17,040 --> 00:52:19,560 think it's a really good hire. It feels like we've won the 1030 00:52:19,560 --> 00:52:22,080 press conference, even the press conference hasn't happened yet. 1031 00:52:23,240 --> 00:52:26,920 You know, you're always going to be excited with a new coach just 1032 00:52:26,920 --> 00:52:29,760 because you know that they, at this point, everything is 1033 00:52:29,760 --> 00:52:32,520 perfect and everything could be the best possible outcome. 1034 00:52:33,120 --> 00:52:34,600 It's probably not going to turn out this way. 1035 00:52:34,600 --> 00:52:38,480 This is still a roster that you know, won one Big 10 game this 1036 00:52:38,600 --> 00:52:40,360 this year and really struggled to beat. 1037 00:52:40,360 --> 00:52:41,960 Akron, you know, had some issues. 1038 00:52:42,480 --> 00:52:47,320 But as you and I both saw, it's not one of the most talent, you 1039 00:52:47,320 --> 00:52:52,000 know, direct rosters I've seen in my in my lifetime watching IU 1040 00:52:52,000 --> 00:52:53,560 football, like I watch this team, it's like there's some, 1041 00:52:53,800 --> 00:52:56,680 there's some pieces there. It did feel like it was a little 1042 00:52:56,680 --> 00:53:00,880 bit mismanaged. And so I I'm excited, I'm happy. 1043 00:53:00,880 --> 00:53:05,200 I I like everything I've heard. But you know now as you said 1044 00:53:05,200 --> 00:53:07,400 before, now the rubber hits the road, you know, how is it? 1045 00:53:07,400 --> 00:53:08,640 How is it going to engage the portal? 1046 00:53:08,640 --> 00:53:10,000 How are we going to do a transfers? 1047 00:53:11,480 --> 00:53:14,400 I would you know, I don't think you have to tell IU fans to have 1048 00:53:14,400 --> 00:53:16,520 some patience because normally there's a little bit of patience 1049 00:53:16,520 --> 00:53:17,920 there. But I would say just, you know 1050 00:53:17,920 --> 00:53:19,960 let's wait and see see how it goes. 1051 00:53:20,000 --> 00:53:23,240 And you know, I think a great first step I'll all I'll say to 1052 00:53:23,240 --> 00:53:25,600 Signetti is a great first step is let's name a starting 1053 00:53:25,600 --> 00:53:27,400 quarterback going into that FIU game. 1054 00:53:27,400 --> 00:53:30,640 That would be a great way to start this off season is just be 1055 00:53:30,640 --> 00:53:34,560 like hey I have a vision of one quarterback who's going to lead 1056 00:53:34,560 --> 00:53:36,200 our team. Yes. 1057 00:53:36,200 --> 00:53:41,240 No it's it's I'm excited. Yeah, it's it's a good, good. 1058 00:53:41,400 --> 00:53:45,120 It's a good day for IU and I'm I'm thrilled. 1059 00:53:45,840 --> 00:53:50,000 I I think overall you you look at all of the the factors, all 1060 00:53:50,000 --> 00:53:54,680 the variables, this feels like as good as Indiana was going to 1061 00:53:54,680 --> 00:53:58,600 do in this cycle and I think any team that hired this guy was 1062 00:53:58,600 --> 00:54:02,600 going to probably feel the same way and that's exciting for 1063 00:54:02,600 --> 00:54:04,120 Indiana to be in that spot. Sorry. 1064 00:54:04,480 --> 00:54:07,440 And the last thing I'll say is it does feel like for the first 1065 00:54:07,440 --> 00:54:10,240 time in, you know, continuing this process, it does feel like 1066 00:54:10,320 --> 00:54:14,120 IU is treating football like a like like one of the big boys. 1067 00:54:14,120 --> 00:54:15,680 Like they went and they they fired the coach. 1068 00:54:15,680 --> 00:54:18,480 They paid their buyout and then they went out and they got one 1069 00:54:18,480 --> 00:54:22,560 of the the hotter coaches. In the realm that IU was able to 1070 00:54:22,560 --> 00:54:24,640 get, we're obviously not going to, you know, steal Jimbo Fisher 1071 00:54:24,640 --> 00:54:26,600 or somebody away. But it's like we we got, you 1072 00:54:26,600 --> 00:54:29,360 know, for for our level, we got probably the best, hottest coach 1073 00:54:29,360 --> 00:54:32,040 we're going to be able to get. And so it felt like we really 1074 00:54:32,040 --> 00:54:34,680 didn't take the cheap route or the simple route or like, hey, 1075 00:54:34,680 --> 00:54:37,040 you know, no, no knock on like a Mike Hart or something. 1076 00:54:37,040 --> 00:54:39,200 We're just going to take the guy with connections and kind of 1077 00:54:39,200 --> 00:54:40,320 sneak out. It's like it felt like we 1078 00:54:40,320 --> 00:54:42,560 treated this like, hey, what's a real national search? 1079 00:54:42,720 --> 00:54:45,640 Let's get the best guy we can possibly get, spend the most and 1080 00:54:45,640 --> 00:54:47,000 do it right. So it feels like we're 1081 00:54:47,000 --> 00:54:49,160 continuing to take football seriously, which I like. 1082 00:54:49,720 --> 00:54:53,280 And look, we've said it before, Indiana is not like other 1083 00:54:53,280 --> 00:54:55,840 programs. There's a real foundation that 1084 00:54:55,840 --> 00:55:00,400 has to be rebuilt at IU that hasn't been there for a while 1085 00:55:00,400 --> 00:55:02,560 now. And you want somebody who's 1086 00:55:02,560 --> 00:55:05,440 capable of doing that. And This is why, no disrespect 1087 00:55:05,440 --> 00:55:08,520 to a Mike Hart or a Justin Fry or or some of those kind of up 1088 00:55:08,520 --> 00:55:11,320 and coming assistance, I just don't think Indiana was in the 1089 00:55:11,320 --> 00:55:13,000 position to hire somebody like that. 1090 00:55:13,120 --> 00:55:14,840 They need someone who's been a head coach. 1091 00:55:14,840 --> 00:55:16,360 They need someone who's run a program. 1092 00:55:16,360 --> 00:55:19,600 They need someone who's been connected to successful programs 1093 00:55:19,720 --> 00:55:23,160 at other places in the country who can bring that perspective 1094 00:55:23,560 --> 00:55:27,640 and bring that focus on winning. This is a crucial time for IU 1095 00:55:27,640 --> 00:55:32,040 football and I'm excited that this is the direction they're 1096 00:55:32,040 --> 00:55:32,880 going. I wasn't. 1097 00:55:32,920 --> 00:55:35,600 I'm not going to claim that this was the guy I wanted from the 1098 00:55:35,600 --> 00:55:38,520 beginning, but the more I've looked into it, the more I'm 1099 00:55:38,520 --> 00:55:41,720 excited about what we're seeing and I'm looking forward to 1100 00:55:41,720 --> 00:55:43,800 seeing him in the first press conference and seeing what he 1101 00:55:43,800 --> 00:55:46,400 does the rest of the day. Anyway, we'll go ahead and wrap 1102 00:55:46,400 --> 00:55:48,720 up. Scott, I appreciate you hopping 1103 00:55:48,720 --> 00:55:50,000 on. I appreciate you. 1104 00:55:50,160 --> 00:55:51,920 Man go enjoy. Go enjoy Hawaii, man. 1105 00:55:52,120 --> 00:55:52,640 Go. We're gonna go. 1106 00:55:52,640 --> 00:55:54,160 We're gonna go. We're on vacation. 1107 00:55:54,160 --> 00:55:55,640 We're gonna go ahead and do that for a little bit. 1108 00:55:55,640 --> 00:55:57,520 Anyway, thanks to all you folks for watching. 1109 00:55:57,800 --> 00:56:00,400 Really appreciate it. We'll be back next week. 1110 00:56:00,520 --> 00:56:04,160 We'll have some more content as we recap what's going on with 1111 00:56:04,160 --> 00:56:06,120 this hire. We we'll have plenty to talk 1112 00:56:06,120 --> 00:56:10,120 about, I'm sure by that point. So anyway, for Scott, I'm Galen. 1113 00:56:10,120 --> 00:56:12,560 Thanks to Home Field Apparel, our presenting sponsor. 1114 00:56:12,760 --> 00:56:15,360 Be sure to tune in to the rest of the shows on the back home 1115 00:56:15,360 --> 00:56:17,760 network as we cover IU basketball, both men's and 1116 00:56:17,760 --> 00:56:20,080 women's. And we continue to cover the new 1117 00:56:20,080 --> 00:56:22,640 era of IU football. And congratulations to head 1118 00:56:22,640 --> 00:56:26,840 coach Kurt Cignetti, the next coach of Indiana University 1119 00:56:26,840 --> 00:56:28,000 football. We'll catch you folks. 1120 00:56:28,000 --> 00:56:30,880 On the flip side, bring back the Bison, So everybody.