@dht FWIW I dont expect JKS to enter the portal at all, he already made a public statement saying he was staying. I was just using him as an example of the kind of guy I would be fine with IU splurging on if available
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@dht FWIW I dont expect JKS to enter the portal at all, he already made a public statement saying he was staying. I was just using him as an example of the kind of guy I would be fine with IU splurging on if available
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The most fluid and the least black and white aspect of anything in sports right now is the portal.
Say a B1G Red Cola exec contacts his agent with a robust 8 figure NIL opportunity, but with the stipulation he has to play in the B1G market and for The Emerging Superpower in that market, Indiana.
I believe the good soldier/teammate statements from the past would be thrown out the door as his inner circle persuades him to sign on the dotted line.
Dillingham has been asking for more NIL for a while now, including very recently. Tough situation.
@lncolnpk Why? He just suffered a major foot injury. Why would IU want to get into a bidding war for him?
IU has more needs than just QB next year. The staff is seemingly comfortable with Alberto taking over. While they need a QB in the portal why would they over pay for a guy with a Lis Franc injury when they think they have a starter in house.
Go spend that money on OL, DL and some other positions.
@lncolnpk Why? He just suffered a major foot injury. Why would IU want to get into a bidding war for him?
IU has more needs than just QB next year. The staff is seemingly comfortable with Alberto taking over. While they need a QB in the portal why would they over pay for a guy with a Lis Franc injury when they think they have a starter in house.
Go spend that money on OL, DL and some other positions.
well, i think the argument is that you'd be wasting the heisman finalist capital you built up to have a game manager as the qb.
i don't think they need sam leavitt, but i don't like the idea of handing a kid with questionable arm strength the job without good competition.
and with no spring portal, kids are stuck...which means iu is stuck with alberto, a g5 qb and a whole lot of flotsam that isn't ready to contribute in '26 when you're at michigan, at nebraska, at washington and home to osu and usc.
@iureactionary - Good points. I'm in the "Trust Coach Cig", as he knows what QB qualities he's looking for.
@dht I think the reason Cal has struggled is due to the conference they're in. The ACC and Big 12 will find it harder to retain talent.
I can't disagree. Cal is facing an existential crisis if we want to stay relevant enough to be included in some future Super League / Big Boy League. We were literally the "last team in" trying to find a P4 conference home after the Pac12 imploded and even accepted a half share of ACC Tier 1 media rights just to get into a P4 conference.
I do think coming that close to being Oregon State and Washington State finally caught the attention key decision makers, and stuff like hiring Cal Alum Ron Rivera as Football GM who answers directly to the Chancellor only (bypassing our dysfunctional AD and Athletic Department) has allowed Cal to make a lot of changes behind the scenes in a short period of time.
But the product on the field has to improve if we want to survive whatever realignment looks like in the next 3-5 years.
IU hit a grand slam with Cignetti, and then showed how serious it is by not only immediately extending him and increasing his coaching pool at the end of last season, but then finding the money (I assume some combination of big donors and perhaps corporate fundraising) to lock down Cignetti as soon as Penn State appeared on the horizon.
Anyone watching stuff like the Lane Kiffin dance between Florida, LSU and Ole Miss has to give IU props for acting swiftly and decisively.
I can't lie and say anyone in Blue and Gold liked the way Fernando left, but I think most level-headed fans can understand why. He's smart enough and self-aware enough to know he hadn't "arrived" after his 2024 season and still had a ways to go to elevate from "nice college QB" to "NFL draft pick". He found the right combination of elite level coaching and development as well as family support at IU, busted his butt every single day, and has earned every accolade, potential award, and likely big pay day coming his way.
sammy and i have gone back and forth on this quite a bit in texts...i'm going to preface this by saying if the staff thinks alberto is ready, then i trust the staff.
that out of the way, i don't think we can extrapolate a ton from garbage time minutes this year. i think he's a twitchier athlete than fernando but i also think the arm talent is lacking. now could they build that up more? sure, but, from what i've seen, i think he's closer to peyton ramsey than fernando.
i'm not saying they need to break the bank but it would be frustrating to me to just add a grant wilson type and not a guy who's actually going to really push alberto.
As a new guy here, how was Alberto viewed when he signed out of HS - and is his game very similar to Fernando's?
I know Fernando was ready to go to Yale before Cal's 11th hour offer, so its safe to say he was, uh, lightly recruited at best. Just wondering if Alberto was more highly regarded than Fernando coming out of HS?
I would imagine a coach who can point to turning a G5 starting QB into a lower round NFL pick and following that up with turning a P4 starting QB into a likely Top-5 pick after 1 season each would give Cignetti a lot of credibility with any highly rated QB considering the portal as long as the NIL package was in the ball park.
@iureactionary Alberto not have an arm?
i think he has a fine arm...i'm just not sure he has an nfl arm like his brother or even kurtis rourke.
i think sammy's argument is that you don't need fernando's arm if you upgrade a lot of other spots.
my point is that no one really knows what alberto really is except the staff. if they believe he is the guy, i'm good.
i also think that if it was me, knowing the little amount i know, i'd be looking to capitalize on the fernando success for another year and then hopefully turn it over to alberto...but i'm also not in practice.
the difference between the brothers is size. fernando is a legit 6'5, 225. when you see them on the sidelines talking to each other, fernando looks like he has 3+ inches on his brother (listed at 6'2, 203).
alberto was a g5 commit to james madison with this staff out of high school and came to iu with them. i like his moxie as a prospect and he put up better numbers at an elite high school in miami than fernando did.
fernando's arm really took steps from year to year so hopefully that's the case with alberto...and it very well could be. but fernando has QB1 in the draft strength and he's needed that this year for iu to be undefeated.
i think my argument isn't that i don't like alberto or don't think he can't lead iu next season...it's that getting a qb like fernando and him being a (likely) heisman finalist and potential 1st overall pick in the draft, is something that rarely happens at a school like indiana and, with the portal, you could use that to get someone awesome looking to be the next "fernando".
but i get sammy's point that you can have it be alberto and then spend that extra money on the OL and the skill positions where you're going to have to add a ton anyway because of what's leaving.
as i said, it's a debate sammy and i have been having for weeks via text.
Dolson needs to work the phones so Cignetti has the money to get a good QB in the portal and address other areas of the roster.
@iureactionary Alberto not have an arm?
i think he has a fine arm...i'm just not sure he has an nfl arm like his brother or even kurtis rourke.
i think sammy's argument is that you don't need fernando's arm if you upgrade a lot of other spots.
my point is that no one really knows what alberto really is except the staff. if they believe he is the guy, i'm good.
i also think that if it was me, knowing the little amount i know, i'd be looking to capitalize on the fernando success for another year and then hopefully turn it over to alberto...but i'm also not in practice.
Ahem, Kurtis Rourke absolutely does have an NFL arm because, well, you know.
Alberto was Cig's QB of choice when he recruited him to JMU.. Cig also recruited him to IU when he took the job.
Now Alberto has been in Cig's system 2 years. Don't forget, Fernando has spoken about how much Alberto's knowledge of the game increased in his first year at IU as one of the reasons he chose IU.
I'm all in on Alberto as QB1 in 2026. Who am I to question Cig and this coaching/recruiting staff?
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