Indiana may be idle for the next two weekends, but there won’t be any shortage of things to do.
By now you probably realize coach Curt Cignetti is not a sit back and pat himself on the back kind of guy.
And if he wants the 2024 IU football season to become the norm around Bloomington, the month of December will become one of the most important each year.
With a team headed to the postseason, there are a number of moving parts for Cignetti to manage in the weeks to come. Here’s an overview of what is on his staff’s plate.
NATIONAL SIGNING DAY THIS WEEK
The December “early” signing day has become the main day for programs to finalize their incoming high school recruiting classes.
The main day is the first day of the signing period, this Wednesday Dec. 4.
Indiana has already flipped a couple high school prospects in the last few weeks, and there may not be much in the way of theatrics before Wednesday. But you never know. The IU staff will certainly be active with ensuring their current commits stay committed, along with trying to lock up any last minute opportunities.
According to the On3 Industry Average, Indiana’s 2025 class is currently ranked No. 46 in the nation, and No. 13 in the Big Ten.
This day was moved up a week to leave room for the next wave of roster madness.
TRANSFER PORTAL OPENS NEXT WEEK
The magic of Indiana’s 2024 season started this time last year when Cignetti assembled many of the key players on the roster via the transfer portal.
The Hoosiers have several players who are out of eligibility after this season, and once again the portal will be a key tool when it comes to preparing for the 2025 campaign.
The winter window when players can enter the portal is a week away, Dec. 9-28, and the spring window is April 16-25.
Indiana will have to conduct film evaluations on dozens of players, and they will probably have transfer portal visitors on campus as recruiting guests during the week or weeks they are preparing for CFP games. They’ll want have the bulk of their roster built by the time the second semester begins in January so the new players can get on campus and beginning training with the team.
Get ready to learn a bunch of new names.
PLAYER RETENTION
One of the first things Cignetti did when he arrived at Indiana a year ago was have the former staff rank the returning players on the team. He then set out to keep guys like Carter Smith, Mike Katic, Amare Ferrell, Jamier Johnson, Omar Cooper, Jr. and others.
This time around the process of identifying who the program wants to keep will be easy since Cignetti knows the roster inside and out. But nevertheless, in this era of college football every player is in effect a free agent.
There will be a lot of meetings in the days to come, says Cignetti.
“Well, you know we’ll sit down with the assistant coaches, the players and me for one-on-one meetings and talk about the season and talk about near and stuff like that,” Cignetti said on Saturday after his team’s win over Purdue.
ASSISTANT COACH RETENTION
After an 11-1 season during which Indiana was dominant on both sides of the football, the Hoosiers have several members of Curt Cignetti’s coaching staff on the radar of other program’s with job openings.
When he signed his new contract a couple weeks ago, Cignetti ensured he had an assistant coach salary pool commensurate with the best-of-the-best in college football. But that won’t stop other programs from trying to poach some of Indiana’s in demand assistants.
Offensive coordinator Mike Shanahan and defensive coordinator Bryant Haines are both likely to candidates for a number of positions that are open now or will open up any minute.
Quarterbacks coach Tino Sunseri and defensive line coach Pat Kuntz will also attract a lot of attention for potential coordinator roles.
Of course if Indiana loses anyone, Cignetti has to turn around and find a replacement. And that means he is probably proactively identifying potential replacements ahead of time.
FINAL CFP BRACKET, GAME PREPARATION
While the players will no doubt be given some down time to refresh their bodies, the Hoosiers will still be planning practices and workouts this week and beyond.
Indiana won’t know for sure if they are in the College Football Playoff until this Sunday, Dec. 8 at noon ET. But at this point it would come as a massive surprise if the 11-1 Hoosiers were left out. First round CFP games will be played Dec. 20-21, and as things stand IU is likely to open on the road.
It will be next to impossible for Indiana to commence serious game preparation this week. Perhaps they can do a light survey of the possible candidates like Georgia, Notre Dame, Penn State, Tennessee and others, but there are currently too many potential opponents in the CFP right now to begin that work in earnest.
That will have to wait until next week.
But there’s plenty to do in the meantime, as the 2025 season begins even as the 2024 campaign is just reaching its climax.
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