Cignetti and the Hoosier Staff Wrap Up 20 Days of Fourth-and-One

Written by Sammy Jacobs (@Hoosier_Huddle)

It has been a whirlwind of a December for new Indiana football head coach Curt Cignetti and his staff as they attempt to change the culture and flip a roster over that had just nine wins over the last three seasons.

“I would call this 20 days of fourth and one. I'm living in a university house a couple blocks from town. I have not seen town during the daylight yet. I leave in the dark. I get home in the dark. It's been a lot of 4:30, 5:00 a.m. mornings till 10:30, 11:30 at night. Was even in the office 12:30 one night. Haven't done that since 1986.” Cignetti said of the work he is putting in early at IU.

With the condensed recruiting calendar and the timing of Cignetti’s hiring, things needed to move fast in Bloomington.

“It was crunch time. It had to be done. Caught flack from my wife for working too late, made her kind of understand the importance of this time period, which I think is a hugely important time period for determining what kind of team we have in the fall because you've got players in the portal.” Cignetti explained. “You've got to get some of those guys back, and then you've got to bring players in from the portal. And that was the priority because of the timing of when you were hired.”

The Hoosiers signed 24 players out high school or the transfer portal and the head coach stated that the number will grow to 31 once more players wrap up their bowl games.

“This roster is going to look a lot different in January when the players come back. We signed 31 players. We're going to announce all but seven. Seven are playing in bowl games. They're all transfers. We'll announce them after their bowl game.” Cignetti said. “We've got, I think, the right guys off the bus, right guys on the bus, adding to the bus, and it's going to change the complexion of this football team.”

With winter conditioning coming up in January and spring practice just a couple months away , Cignetti and his staff may be done with fourth-and-ones, but there are still yards to gain. Cignetti added a long snapper late on Wednesday and is still looking for an offensive lineman, a deep threat at receiver and some safety help.