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Indiana secret?

chrisRMNU said:
Idk man. They had something like 6 first drive INT's last season. When you put that in probability terms, it was about 3 standard deviations higher than what you would normally see. Them more you look at what they did, the more it makes you say, "huh."
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It’d aid your suspicion if your claim was actually true. That happened three times in sixteen games; not 6 in 16.

sports.yahoo.com

Indiana’s unlikely winning formula: one early interception at a time

A pattern of opening interceptions has led to huge wins for the Hoosiers, can they replicate that in the National Championship game against Miami
sports.yahoo.com sports.yahoo.com

Indiana had 19 interceptions over 16 games. 44 teams — or about a third of FBS — averaged 1 interception per game or better in 2025. 12 teams had better averages than Indiana. Miami returned 3 for touchdowns compared to IU returning 2 for touchdowns.

Moreover, one of the games that they did have a first drive interception came against Iowa which was a dogfight of a game with IU winning 20-15.

One of them happened against Purdue. Purdue was tied with eight other teams, for 114th worst outta 136 teams, averaging 1.1 INT thrown per game.

The last of them happened against Oregon—an opponent they were facing for the second time in the same year; and whose OC was juggling his own job with becoming a first-time HC at Kentucky. Dante Moore threw ten interceptions last year and three of them were against IU. They had his number.

Deangelo Ponds had one less INT (2) this year than last year (3) as well—despite being in the second year of the system and playing three more games the second year.
 
colperm said:
It certainly does. But to cite "worked for Saban" as a negative data point in a discussion... shows a little lack of self-awareness as a Miami fan.
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I agree with you. I didn't make those claims (not saying you're accusing me of that). I'm not trying to ultra analyze this. I don't need to. I FEEL like he is a cheater based on the commentary I've made - he took a garbage program to elite literally overnight while ALSO working half the hours (or less) than the traditional elites. That's it. When that can be acceptably explained to me, I'll drop the accusation. Until then, I stand on my hill.
 
BigDikDaddyFromCincinnati said:
I agree with you. I didn't make those claims (not saying you're accusing me of that). I'm not trying to ultra analyze this. I don't need to. I FEEL like he is a cheater based on the commentary I've made - he took a garbage program to elite literally overnight while ALSO working half the hours (or less) than the traditional elites. That's it. When that can be acceptably explained to me, I'll drop the accusation. Until then, I stand on my hill.
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Anyone from the trickle down Belichick tree, can chose or not to pursue Bill’s knowledge of cheating. Can’t turn a blind eye to his sign stealing ball inflating ways, among others. Some guys will and others won’t. Cignetti strikes me as scummy enough to do so. No proof, just going with my innate ability to read people, guys a f**king d**k. Just sayin’, I’m on your hill my man.🙌🏽
 
IU was no juggernaut and Cignetti is no genius.

He coaches smart and limits mistakes. That will get you far if you play the cupcake schedule they played the last two years. Then have the easiest bracket in the playoffs.
UM played 3 teams in the playoffs on IU’s level. IU played none on the level of ATM, Miss or OSU in the playoffs.
That takes a toll on a team. It’s hard to play perfect 4 games in a row against the 4 of the best 6 teams in CFB.

Let’s be honest, the NC was a perfect storm for them. Neutral stadium due to how tickets were distributed and they didn’t have to deal with the heat, when we were dominating them in the second half.

That was probably the coldest game played by UM at home in a half century. Didn’t effect us, but it also didn’t effect them as it would have, if it was 80* and 70% humidity.

They won by 6, we gifted them 7.
14 if you take into account giving up a 4th and 9, QB sneak that would have likely decided the game.

It’s a repeat of the 1987 Fiesta. Sometimes it’s not the best team that wins, it’s a couple lucky breaks.
 
RF-4CCane said:
IU was no juggernaut and Cignetti is no genius.

He coaches smart and limits mistakes. That will get you far if you play the cupcake schedule they played the last two years. Then have the easiest bracket in the playoffs.
UM played 3 teams in the playoffs on IU’s level. IU played none on the level of ATM, Miss or OSU in the playoffs.
That takes a toll on a team. It’s hard to play perfect 4 games in a row against the 4 of the best 6 teams in CFB.

Let’s be honest, the NC was a perfect storm for them. Neutral stadium due to how tickets were distributed and they didn’t have to deal with the heat, when we were dominating them in the second half.

That was probably the coldest game played by UM at home in a half century. Didn’t effect us, but it also didn’t effect them as it would have, if it was 80* and 70% humidity.

They won by 6, we gifted them 7.
14 if you take into account giving up a 4th and 9, QB sneak that would have likely decided the game.

It’s a repeat of the 1987 Fiesta. Sometimes it’s not the best team that wins, it’s a couple lucky breaks.
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They’re a flash in the pan. The bigger NIL becomes, the harder it will be for Indiana. Last time I looked, they had a high school class well outside the top 25 nationally. Just relying on the portal every year isn’t sustainable. There’s a reason why teams that annually rank top 10-15 nationally every year are typically in the playoff almost every year. They recruit and develop. Indiana caught lightening in a bottle and had a bunch of 25-27 year olds playing 18-22 year olds. That gave them a big advantage. But with the implementation of the 5 and done rule, they won’t have that luxury anymore. We will see how it goes for them after that.
 
I think he
- has a very good eye for talent. He has a strong background in recruiting and has been HC a long time, he learned on the job a long time ago…. And I’m pretty sure he also favors age on roster construction as well, which is beneficial.

- likely cheats regarding film/playbook ****. But he also has had very good coach/assistant retention. Everyone is on the same page and works well together.

- spends significantly more time going over film by cutting out wasted time on the field. You have more talent that plays fast and confident and your coaches always give them excellent gameplans? Well itlll work far more than it doesn’t.

- allows a lot more recovery and specific post practice extra work by the players themselves. I think this is very good by him. First you want hard practices like Mario runs to prep guys. But too much volume would be bad. And if you have wasteful high volume long time consuming practices, you’re actually doing the worst of all worlds regarding player health. Working them too hard, not getting high effort realistic simulations, and giving no recovery time. **** if you could snap your finger and guarantee every player got 9hrs of sleep nightly, that alone may take a team from like 8 wins to maybe 10. Recovery is that important imo.

- has very detailed PREPARATION for practices that the players are briefed on and prepared for.. This is what allows the super efficient timing.

I think 3hr practices are obviously unnecessary. But whether a 90min practice is better than a 120min practice that you re-do bigger mistakes on field immediately? Eh I’m not sure his way is necessarily better. But getting a lot of high quality reps in quickly and then going over most of the stuff to make corrections in the film room makes sense for the most part.

Treating the practices like games is likely one of the more important aspects of this method. If you treat warmups and early practice just like you would pre-game, and then try to give as many realistic game scenarios to players during practice in high-effort drills/scrimmage, well that I’m sure works well.
 
RF-4CCane said:
IU was no juggernaut and Cignetti is no genius.

He coaches smart and limits mistakes. That will get you far if you play the cupcake schedule they played the last two years. Then have the easiest bracket in the playoffs.
UM played 3 teams in the playoffs on IU’s level. IU played none on the level of ATM, Miss or OSU in the playoffs.
That takes a toll on a team. It’s hard to play perfect 4 games in a row against the 4 of the best 6 teams in CFB.

Let’s be honest, the NC was a perfect storm for them. Neutral stadium due to how tickets were distributed and they didn’t have to deal with the heat, when we were dominating them in the second half.

That was probably the coldest game played by UM at home in a half century. Didn’t effect us, but it also didn’t effect them as it would have, if it was 80* and 70% humidity.

They won by 6, we gifted them 7.
14 if you take into account giving up a 4th and 9, QB sneak that would have likely decided the game.

It’s a repeat of the 1987 Fiesta. Sometimes it’s not the best team that wins, it’s a couple lucky breaks.
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Bingo!....no magic sauce...have the perfect storm....bully for them....will not be duplicated (by them) or anyone else...let's start the season...
 
BigDikDaddyFromCincinnati said:
colperm said:
It certainly does. But to cite "worked for Saban" as a negative data point in a discussion... shows a little lack of self-awareness as a Miami fan.
Click to expand...

I agree with you. I didn't make those claims (not saying you're accusing me of that). I'm not trying to ultra analyze this. I don't need to. I FEEL like he is a cheater based on the commentary I've made - he took a garbage program to elite literally overnight while ALSO working half the hours (or less) than the traditional elites. That's it. When that can be acceptably explained to me, I'll drop the accusation. Until then, I stand on my hill.
Click to expand...
I wasn’t accusing you, just adding context to my original statement.

Does Cignetti cheat? Probably. Will we ever have proof? Probably not.

We all KNOW Saban cheated by paying players in order to resurrect Bama. And as satisfying as it was to watch him squirm when Shane Gillis hinted that the SEC paid players, that’s really the only time he’s ever had to answer for it.

Either way, I’m just glad we are the bullies again and can’t wait for the season to start.
 
colperm said:
BigDikDaddyFromCincinnati said:
colperm said:
It certainly does. But to cite "worked for Saban" as a negative data point in a discussion... shows a little lack of self-awareness as a Miami fan.
Click to expand...

I agree with you. I didn't make those claims (not saying you're accusing me of that). I'm not trying to ultra analyze this. I don't need to. I FEEL like he is a cheater based on the commentary I've made - he took a garbage program to elite literally overnight while ALSO working half the hours (or less) than the traditional elites. That's it. When that can be acceptably explained to me, I'll drop the accusation. Until then, I stand on my hill.
Click to expand...
I wasn’t accusing you, just adding context to my original statement.

Does Cignetti cheat? Probably. Will we ever have proof? Probably not.

We all KNOW Saban cheated by paying players in order to resurrect Bama. And as satisfying as it was to watch him squirm when Shane Gillis hinted that the SEC paid players, that’s really the only time he’s ever had to answer for it.

Either way, I’m just glad we are the bullies again and can’t wait for the season to start.
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If @JHallCanes would hurry up and post his Thoughts from the Bench Press, I wouldn’t have to be over here picking fights with people about some goober coach at a goober school.

GD, Friday can’t get here soon enough.
 
BigDikDaddyFromCincinnati said:
If @JHallCanes would hurry up and post his Thoughts from the Bench Press, I wouldn’t have to be over here picking fights with people about some goober coach at a goober school.

GD, Friday can’t get here soon enough.
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Soon. Just enjoying a nice walk tonight thinking about Friday

IMG_8450.jpeg
 
cookies said:
One of the ways he gets efficiency is by the constant motion from drill to drill and player to player taking turns with their reps, and awaiting position group members using the waiting periods to hydrate.

Without a doubt he has systemized and aligned the practice to game application loops to his playbooks to perfection; however, neutral on-lookers of our practices have characterized similar attributes of our own practices—which notably do not cut off early.

That’s all to say—this still doesn’t nail down why & how he has done the unthinkable. . . .

I guess it’s counterintuitive because not stopping to correct players’ mistakes during practices sounds like forfeiting coaching itself. However, if the coaches are telling players what to correct from practice in the film—then it might be able to compensate for the lack of actual instruction going on during drill work. . . . That actually does seem to make sense and not something i read about these short practices beforehand. That appears to be the novel innovation right there.

In doing so, the lack of repetitions then take on a new dimension each practice, and why he was able to substitute second string guys who rarely played into injured starters’ slots without a drop-off so seamlessly.
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"Yeah keep on making the same mistake on this drill for the next ten minutes, we'll pick it up in film study".

That or they're cheating.
 
I can’t speak for the details of Cigs practices, but have spent a lot of time around ose of the best you basketball coaches/trainers.

And for my money a lot of coaches waste a lot of time over coaching or doing things like running sprints when they could be implementing the cardio into the drills/practices.
 
cookies said:
Lmao. Not going to go back n forth so ill just respond once my writing out what I’d have to ignore in order to believe…..

Did he just get AI / his cheating scheme at IU? if not, i guess Mario hired the wrong cheater in Corey Hetherman, who just brought along his cheating co-conspirator in Matt Birkett as nickels coach, because they decided not to tell anybody about how to handle and utilize all this secret information from their three years with Cignetti at JMU.

If he did just learn how to cheat at IU, it’s odd that his record follows a pattern (virtually all close games or losses have been away from home: Iowa, Notre Dame, Miami, both OSU games although the 2nd one was virtually a home game, 1st Oregon matchup, and Penn State). . . & if he can’t cheat as well away from home, it’s odd how little that helped him avoid looking like an assclown against Notre Dame by proclaiming they were going to kick their *** before getting their *** kicked.

So i guess I’ll just have to ignore IU’s co-OC and QB coach, in ‘24 and ‘26, getting DISMISSED from UCLA last season after going 0-4 there; immediately afterwards the team starts scoring more points and wins 3 in a row. He must’ve decided to not take these tactics to UCLA because it’d look too fishy for him to succeed elsewhere.

And I guess I’ll have to presume that Cignetti only got this started when he got to IU, and whatever help he had was specific to IU who for some reason had a breakthrough in 2024 and never decided to help out their football program beforehand.

Or…..maybe Tom Allen went 14-7 in ‘19 & ‘20 because he had the support of Alabama’s current staff who would go on to win/compete at ‘Bama in the same manner as IU did then, and with the same **** quarterback — Michael Penix Jr — who went 10-2 at IU when the DeBoer brass was still there — at Washington. And Tom Allen noticeably was a lot worse without DeBoer, Pennix, and Womack.

Not like there’s evidence of CC & his staff @ JMU moving from FCS (33-5) to FBS (19-4) and still winning a lot of games. Or of Cignetti never having a losing record as a HC. Or how he can elevate NFL talent at QB (Phillip Rivers) or evaluate it (Russell Wilson).

Elon had no winning seasons for 7 years before he got there. IUP, less trash, yet still mediocre for a couple of years beforehand. JMU won before him, with him, and after him.



The cheating advantage Cignetti had was boring and simple: he played QB at the college level, his dad was a coach so he grew up with a stronger eye, he has spent the past few decades talking to his brother, who coached Aaron rodgers & Eli Manning, as well as was OC for college teams, all the time about football along with other coaches like Nick Saban who decided to hire him when he returned from the NFL. Experience accumulated.
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All that and he's a ******* creep. No idea how a man with zero personality recruits players, but fair play to him.
 
OldhamA said:
All that and he's a ******* creep. No idea how a man with zero personality recruits players, but fair play to him.
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Don’t disagree whatsoever. Also so much talk about attention to detail yet he gets upset a transfer WR wore gold cleats as if that’s important to winning or losing games.

As far as building relationships with players, he doesn’t lol. Position coaches mos definitely handling that.

The article also mentions that even current players barely hear him talk because of how he runs things. So no way he’s texting or FaceTiming with a kid who might not even choose his team.

First program to ever win a natty and not get a bump in talent they’re bringing in.

Their top 3 recruits are all from in-state, including a five star WR, and yet their ‘27 class is 29th on the composite & 31st on 247 right now compared to their ‘26 class which was 29th on the composite & 37th on 247.

Besides that five star WR, he isn’t going pay HS recruits a lot or spend a lot of time persuading them.
 
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