2025-2026 College Football Playoff

HuskerNation1

HuskerNation1

All-American
I did not see an active thread for this year's CFP so here it is. My initial thought when looking at the CFP teams is seeing the influence of Nick Saban. Love him or hate him, the following coaches learned under him:

1. Dan Lanning (Oregon)
2. Kirby Smart (Georgia)
3. Lane Kiffin (Ole Miss Traitor)
4. Curt Cignetti (Indiana)
5. Mario Cristobal (Miami)

There may be more I am missing. I personally would like to see Oregon or Indiana win it all.
 
Cornfed said:
Can’t hide my jealousy of Indiana. What an incredible coach. Don’t want anyone to say it can’t be done at Nebraska.. cause it was done at the historically worst p4 program..
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Extremely rare and lucky.
If Nebraska had hired Curt Cignetti instead of Matt Rhule, people hereabouts would’ve lost their minds.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing. Too bad time travel has not been invented yet.

I am so sick of people acting like Indiana planned it this way. The stars aligned and they got lucky. Period. The data point of their turnaround is so far off the chart.
 
JJ Husker said:
Extremely rare and lucky.
If Nebraska had hired Curt Cignetti instead of Matt Rhule, people hereabouts would’ve lost their minds.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing. Too bad time travel has not been invented yet.

I am so sick of people acting like Indiana planned it this way. The stars aligned and they got lucky. Period. The data point of their turnaround is so far off the chart.
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I don't think anyone expected the Cignetti miracle, but now that it's happened, it's set the bar for what a new head coach is capable of doing, and every coach will now be compared to that standard, whether you think it's fair or not fair.

It also eliminates the argument that new coaches need more than a few years to show results. With NIL and the portal, it's possible for a program to have an immediate turnaround and Indiana has proven that.
 
Does Indiana run a 3-3-5 with rotating down to a 4 man or do they run a 4-3 and rotate to a 3-3-5. I thought they ran 3-3-5 but looks more like 4-3 / 4-2.
 
HuskerNation1 said:
I don't think anyone expected the Cignetti miracle, but now that it's happened, it's set the bar for what a new head coach is capable of doing, and every coach will now be compared to that standard, whether you think it's fair or not fair.

It also eliminates the argument that new coaches need more than a few years to show results. With NIL and the portal, it's possible for a program to have an immediate turnaround and Indiana has proven that.
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It’s not a matter of if I think it’s fair or not. It’s simple math. Indiana’s deal is not the norm. To expect that to happen and let it reset the bar is ridiculous.

Obviously with NIL and the portal an almost immediate turnaround is possible. POSSIBLE…..not guaranteed. Most programs will have to give it a few years to know if they got it right. The Cignetti deal doesn’t change shyt. It’s like saying somebody won the Powerball so we should expect it to happen for us.
 
IMNSHO the "lesson" of Cignetti isn't everyone can have a generational coach.
The lesson is that in coaching, as in prep recruiting, there are diamonds in the rough.
Frost looked like a Diamond, he wasn't.
Rhule looked like a recycled safe choice. He was. And playing it safe isn't how 007 saved the world.
Indiana didn't have the sexy chick interested in being their coach. So they said (fine), we'll put on our playboy photo-scout shirt and invite the girl-next-door to audition. Hoping that Marianne Gravatte was working as a hat-check girl and looking for a promotion.
They found Janet Lupo in their search and hoped those were naturals under her shirt. It turned out they were.
 
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