Indiana coach Curt Cignetti has been hailed for his clever use of the transfer portal to lead the Hoosiers to the pinnacle of college football. After bringing in 13 players from the James Madison Dukes, Cignetti flipped Indiana from the losingest program in college football to unbeaten national champions in just two years.
Cignetti has been forced to aggressively dip into the transfer portal after a core group of players, headlined by quarterback Fernando Mendoza, departed for the NFL Draft.
Curt Cignetti Details Transfer Portal Mishaps
During Wednesday’s segment of the “Y-Option” podcast, Cignetti detailed the difficulty of retaining players in the current transfer portal era and how he navigates refreshing his roster every season.
“Most freshmen are not capable of playing winning football at this level, yet,” Cignetti said. “Those guys represent the foundation of the house. Most of them understand it could be a year or two. The great thing about those guys is they’re gonna be with you for four or five years, hopefully. We have made some mistakes in the portal.
“More in the spring portal than the winter portal. Generally, they don’t have much time in your program. They lose the winter, they lose spring ball. Maybe they’ve got a redshirt year left and after four games, they realize they’re not a first-round draft choice right now. We’ve lost a few guys that wanna redshirt and go in the portal and chase the bag.”
After their unprecedented national championship win, Cignetti’s Indiana recruited smartly, bringing in 17 players via the transfer portal to rank as the No. 1 portal class in college football, according to On3.
Cignetti’s Hoosiers Tabbed To Thrive After Smart Portal Addition
Cignetti recruited Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Fernando Mendoza from the California Golden Bears, via the transfer portal, to replace Kurtis Rourke, who had led the Hoosiers to the College Football Playoff in 2024.
Once again, Cignetti moved quickly to fill the QB-shaped hole in Bloomington by acquiring former TCU Horned Frogs star Josh Hoover to replace Mendoza next season.
During last week’s segment of the “See Ball Get Ball” podcast, ESPN analyst Rece Davis tabbed the Hoosiers to thrive in the Big Ten last season after acquiring Hoover to replace Mendoza.
“I mean, they’re going to have to fall off a little bit because they were darn near perfect this year,” Davis said. “They are here to stay, I think. Now, at that level? Probably not. You’ve got to hit on the quarterback again, and they’ve got a great track record of doing that.
“And I think Josh Hoover is really talented and is the right kind of guy to fit well into that system and be developed by those guys. I think they will continue to be a force in the Big Ten.”
Hoover was a three-year starter for the Horned Frogs, finishing his career with 9,629 yards on 65.2% completion, resulting in 71 touchdowns and 33 interceptions, while adding 8 rushing scores. Last season, he earned a PFSN College QB Impact score of 86.0, after tallying 3,472 passing yards, 29 touchdowns, 13 interceptions, and two rushing scores.
