Indiana football sees net-positive rating swing on massive transfer portal haul

Curt Cignetti’s goal this offseason was to begin changing the narrative around Indiana football. Whether it with recruiting, internal or external expectations, Cignetti knew the first step in changing the culture was changing the way people thought about the program.

In order to do that, he needed the right players. On day one, Cignetti saw nearly half his entire Indiana football roster sitting in the transfer portal. This was both a massive uphill climb but also a great opportunity for Cignetti to build his roster the exact way he wanted to in year one.

Whether it was keeping players from the current roster or bringing in new faces, Cignetti attacked the transfer portal head on.

“I’m in it to win and winning’s not a bad word even though some people think it is … I really like the way we changed the roster here in December leading into January and excited to see what that looks like,” Cignetti said back in the winter. “When you’re in a situation like Indiana the last three years, the more new faces you can bring in – guys from programs who have been productive as players but come from winning programs as well and think a little differently, they can influence the guys who are returning and that’s a great thing.

“Now you end up with two kinda guys here — one with a chip on your shoulder and want to prove to people that they can get it done. You want to keep those guys. The guys who have sort of succumbed to defeat, failure, negativity, blame, finger pointing, given up along the way. You’re glad they’re in the portal. The portal makes it easy to change the roster, but you better thrive in it to stay in the business and be successful.”

Read: ‘Something’s got to give and it wasn’t going to be me’: Curt Cignetti has won at every stop. He doesn’t expect that to change with Indiana football

In total, Indiana brought in 31 players from the transfer portal and that includes numerous players who had a lot of production at their previous stops. That has and will always be critical for Cignetti when evaluating talent. It’s never about stars or potential. It’s about who fits best with what he wants to do in his system.

“I’ve never really looked at stars ever, honestly. It’s kind of like I get so focused in on certain things, like in this particular case, evaluation,” Cignetti said. ” … I’m more into production than potential. I’m a little old fashioned.”

So, when it was time to take a step back and look at the current transfer class for Indiana football — how did it stack up against the players who departed from the program? Well, it was a net-positive after the dust settled.

“As much attention as Washington and Michigan State received in the portal, Indiana actually led the Big Ten in departures (39) following Tom Allen’s firing,”247Sports college football writer Brandon Marcello wrote. “What they added with 31 transfers includes many projected starters, including quarterback Kurtis Rourke and receivers Myles Price and Elijah Sarratt. Thirteen players from James Madison followed head coach Curt Cignetti. Among all the rebuilds, Indiana might be the most interesting as the talent swap was massive. Cignetti is going all-in on an immediate revamp for a program that was in need of a facelift after the last two years of the Allen era.”

Below is the total amount of transfers and their overall 247Sports average ranking for the departing and incoming class.