What Indiana's Offense is Getting with Hiring of Curt Cignetti

Written by T.J. Inman

Curt Cignetti has an offensive background and his teams consistently produce on the scoreboard. Analyzing the past five seasons seems like a very good starting point with a decent sample size that encompasses his tenure at James Madison, with three seasons in the FCS and two in the FBS. One trend you see right away is that he prefers to have a quarterback that can utilize his legs, particularly in the red zone.

In 2019, quarterback Ben DiNucci had 569 yards rushing with seven touchdowns. In 2020, the Dukes only played eight games so the numbers are a bit wonky and quarterback Cole Johnson did not run much. That changed in 2021 as he gained 236 yards and had six touchdowns. In the school’s first FBS season (2022), Todd Centeio ran for 393 yards with seven touchdowns and this past season, Jordan McCloud ran for 311 yards with eight rushing touchdowns. Cignetti’s offenses tend to be balanced with a slight lean towards more of an aerial attack. The Dukes threw for nearly 3,000 yards in 2019 (7.65 yards per attempt), 1719 (9.39 yards per attempt) in 2020, 3868 in 2021 with 8.75 yards per attempt and 43 passing touchdowns, 2,923 yards in 2022 with 8.91 yards per attempt and 3,445 passing yards with 33 passing touchdowns in 2023. Stretching the field is something that is clearly an emphasis and the passing game is used to setup the running game. 

Curt Cignetti’s success with quarterbacks is extremely encouraging. Just at James Madison, he turned QBs Ben DiNucci, Cole Johnson and now Jordan McCloud into conference player of the year winners. Tommy Centeio won Offensive Player of the Year honors. Nearly every quarterback he’s had at James Madison has been an unheralded player that has turned into a smashing success under Cignetti’s tutelage. His work with Alabama and friendship with Nick Saban ensured that he would follow the Crimson Tide from afar. While watching the Alabama passing game, he and offensive coordinator Mike Shanahan went after Tino Sunseri, then an offensive analyst for the Crimson Tide. Sunseri was the right-hand man for Steve Sarkisian’s offense and JMU hired Sunseri to coach quarterbacks and be the Pass Game Coordinator. That combo is still in place and has been highly successful. Time will tell if both coordinator Mike Shanahan and quarterbacks coach Tino Sunseri are brought to Bloomington. 

What position benefits from an uptempo offense with good quarterback play? The wide receivers. That is a position group that should be thrilled by the hire of Curt Cignetti. James Madison has had back-to-back seasons with 1,000 yard receivers including a pair of wideouts that went over 1,000 yards in 2023. Sophomore Elijah Sarratt has 1076 yards on 74 catches while senior Reggie Brown had 51 receptions for 1,010 yards. Kris Thornton went over 1,000 yards for the Dukes in 2022. Current offensive coordinator Mike Shanahan also coaches the wideouts for JMU. Shanahan was promoted to that position prior to the 2021 season after being the program’s recruiting coordinator. Shanahan was also with Cignetti at IUP and Elon. Shanahan will be a candidate for the JMU head coaching position but if he is not chosen, he will likely be the new offensive coordinator for the Hoosiers.

One of the coaches that has been with Cignetti since his days at Elon is the offensive line coach, Damian Wroblewski. JMU has had five different linemen earn all-conference honors under Wroblewski. He also coached FCS All-Americans at Elon. Prior to working at Elon, Wroblewski was the offensive line coach at Rutgers for two seasons (2012 and 2013). This was end of the program’s Big East run and they shared a Big East title in 2012 before joining the AAC in 2013. In 2012, his line allowed only eight sacks all season. This season, James Madison allowed sacks on only 4.87% of dropbacks. That is 40th best in the country. For context, IU allowed sacks on 6.52% of pass attempts. Does Wroblewski come with Cignetti to Bloomington or does Cignetti retain Bob Bostad? 

Finally, what about the running backs? Cignetti’s teams typically run the ball well although not at a dominant level. They averaged 3.8 yards per rush in 2023 and 4.2 in 2022. The Dukes were 89th in the country in rushing play percentage (the percentage of called plays that are rushes versus passes) at 49.74%. For context, IU ran it on nearly 53% of plays last season. This past season, JMU had a split backfield with Kaelon Black getting 131 carries and Ty Son Lawton getting 126. They both averaged more than 4.5 yards per carry and ten carries a game. The running backs coach is John Miller, a former JMU player that has spent time on the staff at Texas as an offensive graduate assistant before heading back to James Madison in 2021. 

All of these different pieces make a puzzle and the point of the offensive puzzle is to score points. In each of Curt Cignetti’s five seasons at James Madison, the Dukes have scored at least 33 points per game. They have led the conference in scoring four of those five seasons. In the past three seasons, JMU has had three different starting quarterbacks and they have combined for a remarkable 10,816 yards with 119 touchdowns and only 18 interceptions. A few key statistics from this season:

-JMU is 9th in average passing completion percentage at 69%

-JMU is 8th in average passer rating

-Averaging 34.9 points per game, James Madison is 15th in the country in scoring offense

-James Madison is 15th in average time of possession (32:20 per game)

The numbers are very similar in 2022. Everyway you slice it, Curt Cignetti’s teams produce on offense. The offenses base formation is shotgun with several variations out of that base. There are a lot of zone read concepts for the quarterback and one area that clearly needs upgraded for IU to execute this attack is overall team speed. JMU occasionally used an H-Back as part of the shotgun, utilizing two-back sets. This is an exciting hire and Hoosier fans desperate for a fun offense will get their wish.