I could still see Cig liking Cherry quite a bit but keeping him under wraps this year to protect him a little, and incidentally save a few NIL dollars. 😀 Bell was a nice late pickup his recruiting year too. Never know. HS film I liked both, only diff, thought Cherry's improvised throws were more accurate than Bell's, no idea a couple years later.
Expecting a near full offensive line rebuild this offseason.
Could go great, good, alright, painful. Who knows.
I would expect a true dual threat running QB to be leading IU next season.
@gros-louis I like Bailey last year, haven't watched NC St this year, but he does have "the bonehead play" from Vandy hanging over his head. Also really liked the MD QB, Malik Washington, when we played them last year. Not looked at stats for either, but both are athletic with good size and tools.
Wow......the Washington kid.....is he redeemable? Cig would have to do brain surgery first to pour out all the crap in the kid's head after his time at Maryland. He's talented, no doubt.
IF Manning were to come to IU, would it be the most-watched QB experiment of all time, college or pro??
Consistency of Hoover?
Wait till Arch gets to Bloomington.
@hoosier-clarion My understanding on Arch's grades on throwing aren't as high as the hype he gets. He's athletic, he's a true threat as a pull and run guy in the RPO, which was something Fernando did quite a lot more than Hoover has (which I'm sure helped free up running back lanes), and he's a plus/elite thrower of deep balls. But the intermediates, the reads, the back shoulders, his touch, isn't elite... or he hasn't shown that stuff to consistently be elite.
I'm sure Cig and Shannahan would help make him better. But man, there's got to be better values than what he's going to be. We're going to need to rebuild our lines, I'd rather spend a couple extra million towards that, and get proven mid major dual threat guy... like a Colandrea or Chiles type. Heck, what about Chiles himself? He'll have a 5th year.
Would be pretty funny if Cig grabbed Underwood and turned him into a Heisman candidate. 😂
I like Drew Mestemaker. Assuming he doesn't go pro after this season (and, if he's smart, he won't - - more on that later), he would benefit greatly from the tutelage of Cig, Shanahan and Sunseri.
NFL scouts are already high on him. Some have compared him to Josh Allen. Kid is big, athletic, a dual threat, but raw. He didn't start at QB in high school, he was a walk-on at North Texas, had a big year in 2025, and then followed his North Texas HC (Eric Morris) to Oklahoma State. Problem is he's just 20 years-old and has only 20 career QB starts under his belt. PFF's analysis shows his grades dropping significantly when he's under pressure.
He had a monster game against Oregon earlier this season, but he needs additional development. IU would be the perfect place for that.
Mestemaker is a top five pick in NFL mock drafts. I don’t see him in college next year.
Braden Atkinson from Oregon State might be a guy to keep an eye on.
@kelly_32 I have noticed he does always lavish praise on him. Guess it comes down to decision making. But, look at what's happened with Hoover and turnovers. This staff can improve guys. I think it's too early to be talking about next year's QB, but good to have some names to try and keep an eye on for the rest of the year.
There's a high probability that Cignetti during the upcoming off weak, watches dozens of hours of player tape to zero in on next seasons top 3 portal QB candidates.
I would be curious to learn more about the process of how player agents contacting IU about their clients really works in season.
@hoosier-clarion My understanding on Arch's grades on throwing aren't as high as the hype he gets. He's athletic, he's a true threat as a pull and run guy in the RPO, which was something Fernando did quite a lot more than Hoover has (which I'm sure helped free up running back lanes), and he's a plus/elite thrower of deep balls. But the intermediates, the reads, the back shoulders, his touch, isn't elite... or he hasn't shown that stuff to consistently be elite.
I'm sure Cig and Shannahan would help make him better. But man, there's got to be better values than what he's going to be. We're going to need to rebuild our lines, I'd rather spend a couple extra million towards that, and get proven mid major dual threat guy... like a Colandrea or Chiles type. Heck, what about Chiles himself? He'll have a 5th year.
In '24 Manning played sparingly (90 attempts) but had a 184 PER with 9 TDs and 2 ints, averaging 15.4 yds per completion. The last two years he's been around 145 PER, but last year he did have 26 passing TDs v. only 7 ints. Also, in '25 he had 399 rush yards with 10 rush TDs. So there is great upside. In that regard, he's not like Underwood, who has really never been good. I wonder about his price v. someone like Mestemaker, who really should cost much more. There probably will be a premium based on his family name.
Arch is an amazing physical talent. He doesn't have the maturity of the previous Manning's but I do not remember if he is much different than Eli in college. I think he makes some bad decisions based on trying to do to much because he has a lot of confidence. Would love to see Coach Cig coach him. It would be great for his development on a team that is quite disciplined. That said unless Sark screws this up, I don't Arch would leave Texas. He should stay with Arch.
I watch all the UT games being in austin and Sark does him no favors either. The team is not all that disciplined and makes mistakes in big moments. He runs to many gimmick plays at the wrong time maybe even forcing Arch to do to much at times. Example is like on a 3rd and 1, he will try to catch the defense off guard with some crazy East West End around run and they would lose 5. That's fine for an undermanned team trying to get an upset but Texas generally has top end talent. Seems Coach Cig would for the most part run a safe play not to go in reverse and either punt or go for it depending on field position or game situation.
Little Arch is Second Team All Sunbelt good.
Somebody needs to his Passing Attempts location charts these last two seasons to verify what he really has going on.