Indiana HC Curt Cignetti Talks Brendan Sorsby & Coaching in the NIL Era

Curt Cignetti does not negotiate with players during the season, and he does not deal with agents at all. And when Rich asked the Indiana head coach how often a player walks into his office to say he isn't being paid enough, the answer came back in one word.

"Never."

That exchange captured the whole conversation. Cignetti is a national champion coach operating in a sport that has changed around him, and he's handling it the way he handles most things: plainly, briefly, and with a little bite.

Rich started with the here and now, specifically quarterback Josh Hoover. Rich loved what Cignetti said at the podium about Hoover meeting his two new best friends, a running game and a defense. Had Hoover gotten familiar with them yet?

"I had to cover his back a little bit on that one," Cignetti said. He put Hoover right where all his previous quarterbacks have been at this point. Every one he's had since 2019 has been player of the year in the league, he said, with one exception who instead led the country in QBR. They all do some good things in the spring and some bad things in the summer. "But he's having a great summer and he'll be a different guy in fall camp."

Asked what worries him, Cignetti gave the coach's answer. "Every coach in America, you never have enough. Whether it's depth, front-line guys, it's always something, trust me."

Rich asked whether having more stars knock on the door changes who Cignetti lets into the program. It doesn't. "Toughness number one, they got to have a certain amount of ability, obviously. Character is huge, and intelligence." But he acknowledged the landscape is different. "The market's always changing, and this high school market is, whoo, it's out there." You can't go all the way with everybody you'd like, he explained, because you have to keep your good players and still add a few guys in the portal at critical needs.

When Rich asked if "market" meant dollars and cents, Cignetti was direct. "Yeah, players get paid now."

"I'm aware of that, sir," Rich replied.

That led to the "never" answer. Players have agents now, so the requests don't come to Cignetti directly. Every once in a while his recruiting guy walks in and says he heard from so-and-so wondering about something. "It's pretty easy. No," Cignetti said, to laughter. The time for negotiations is when the season is over. And with high school recruits whose agents are calling, "I don't deal with agents anymore. I let our people deal with them." His bottom line: "How bad do you want it?"

Then Rich gave him a magic wand. If Cignetti could create one new rule for college football, what would it be?

"I don't think there's one rule," he said. "I just think there's got to be somebody in charge that has the power to make the rules and enforce the rules." Whether that's a commissioner or the NCAA, "let's empower them to do their job. Let them change with the times."

Rich pushed on whether that means professionalizing college athletics, something Rich said he would do 100%. Cignetti separated the two. First, the NCAA needs to be able to enforce rules, and "the courts have made it impossible for them to do that." Second, could things head in a professional direction? "It's quite possible. I think anything is possible at this point. I do think we're at a tipping point."

He added that some of what happened in the last couple of days was "a real plus for college football." Rich asked if he meant Brendan Sorsby's case. Cignetti said yes, though not Sorsby specifically so much as the gambling issue in general.

On Sorsby himself, Cignetti was generous. Sorsby was actually in the program for about a week and a half when Cignetti was hired. "I think he's an outstanding quarterback and a great kid, and I think he's going to be a great pro," he said, "with the proper support to overcome some of the issues he's had." There'll be an NFL team, he said, that will be real happy to have him.