THE IUP Football Thread

[Ship69]

While we're talking about compensation...here are the public schools in order of head coach salary.

Kutztown

Slippery Rock

Indiana

California

West Chester

East Stroudsburg

Shippensburg

Millersville

Clarion

Shepherd

Bloomsburg

Lock Haven

Edinboro

West Virginia is a year behind in reporting, so that Shepherd salary is from the 2023 calendar year.

Seton Hill and Gannon are private, so their employee salaries are private except for what is required by their annual tax filing. The most current filings available are from 2022 and 2023, and neither list any coaches.

No real surprises on that list other than Shepherd being on the low side, probably due to the West Virginia factor.

[Fightingscot82]

Since 1982, IUP has always hired very high profile Head Coaches. When they revived the program, they hired George Chaump to be HC. He successfully put the program on a skyrocketing trajectory before he left for Marshall (and later Navy). Then Frank took the reins and went on his legendary run. After the full effects of the IUP Rule were realized, Lou Tepper came riding in on his white horse to uplift the program. And make no mistake, despite all the criticism, Tepper had his own highly visible rep among college football coaches. And then came Curt Cignetti.

When Curt left, I was one of the people who favored going out and hiring another in the line of big time names. IUP chose to go with the insider Tort.

Nothing against Tort but when they made that decision it represented a change in direction for the program. They were no longer chasing elite status. They just wanted to be a strong program. That period between 1982 - 2016 is gone. The coaching decisions will dictate the future of IUP's program.

I agree. Tepper had been the head coach at Illinois and DC at Colorado, Illinois, and LSU. He was considered an expert on linebacker play (wrote a book on the subject) and was the reigning PSAC West Coach of the Year. A smaller scale but still a splash hire.

[iupgroundhog]

Since 1982, IUP has always hired very high profile Head Coaches. When they revived the program, they hired George Chaump to be HC. He successfully put the program on a skyrocketing trajectory before he left for Marshall (and later Navy). Then Frank took the reins and went on his legendary run. After the full effects of the IUP Rule were realized, Lou Tepper came riding in on his white horse to uplift the program. And make no mistake, despite all the criticism, Tepper had his own highly visible rep among college football coaches. And then came Curt Cignetti.

When Curt left, I was one of the people who favored going out and hiring another in the line of big time names. IUP chose to go with the insider Tort.

Nothing against Tort but when they made that decision it represented a change in direction for the program. They were no longer chasing elite status. They just wanted to be a strong program. That period between 1982 - 2016 is gone. The coaching decisions will dictate the future of IUP's program.

[Fightingscot82]

In fairness, however, Curt inherited a dumpster fire. Tort inherited a Mercedes.

Eh. Tepper wasn't doing any worse than Cig Sr. was doing those years. Other than 2009. That year IUP went 1-6 in the PSAC West LOLOLOLOLMAO

[Chuck Norris]

Curt inherited the trash Bo Napoleon squad. Curt has moved up the chain extremely fast.

Joel Klatt called him the next Kalen Daboer on Colin Cowherd.’s show.

[IUPalum]

In fairness, however, Curt inherited a dumpster fire. Tort inherited a Mercedes.

Curt inherited the trash Bo Napoleon squad. Curt has moved up the chain extremely fast.

[EyeoftheHawk]

Excellent article on Curt Cignetti in The Athletic: Indiana’s Curt Cignetti has ignited a fire: ‘This guy is just different’

There is a lot about his decision to go to IUP in the article. Interesting stuff. The article requires you to be a subscriber but I think I only pay $1/month and it’s well worth it.

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/584...iers-nebraska/

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Just throwing this out here and it might surprise some people. These are records at IUP at similar stages of their tenure.

Curt Cignetti: 53-17 (.757)
Paul Tortorella: 57-18 (.760)

If you want to take out this season Tort would be 53-16 (.768)

In fairness, however, Curt inherited a dumpster fire. Tort inherited a Mercedes.

[EyeoftheHawk]

Just throwing this out here and it might surprise some people. These are records at IUP at similar stages of their tenure.

Curt Cignetti: 53-17 (.757)
Paul Tortorella: 57-18 (.760)

If you want to take out this season Tort would be 53-16 (.768)

[Fightingscot82]

While we're talking about compensation...here are the public schools in order of head coach salary.

Kutztown

Slippery Rock

Indiana

California

West Chester

East Stroudsburg

Shippensburg

Millersville

Clarion

Shepherd

Bloomsburg

Lock Haven

Edinboro

West Virginia is a year behind in reporting, so that Shepherd salary is from the 2023 calendar year.

Seton Hill and Gannon are private, so their employee salaries are private except for what is required by their annual tax filing. The most current filings available are from 2022 and 2023, and neither list any coaches.

[IUPNation]

This is what happens when you don't have an SID.

...and that happens when you have people who went to Slimey Pebble in charge of our athletics.

It's like they were sent to IUP to sabotage everything.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

This is what happens when you don't have an SID.

They promoted a young lady to the 'interim' spot. She looks to be college-aged.

That whole thing went down pretty strange. They didn't announce the departure of the previous guy. It became obvious when their social media posts were almost non-existent and they weren't even publishing previews. The guy who left was very young also -- and likely came very inexpensive.

The SID position in itself is overwhelming, time-wise. Add to it (due to a lack of staffing) they are also essentially in charge of the social media accounts -- content, etc. D1 schools have a position(s) solely in charge of social media content/creation. That doesn't sound all that important to the older crowd but it's REAL important to the younger crowd. Recruits want to see fancy posts, images, etc.

This is a current generation which grew up solely in the 'tech' era. IUP's social media of late is looking like it's from 1999. Hopefully this gets fixed here quickly. The only sport on campus doing a good job in social media is women's volleyball -- and I'm fairly certain they handle it themselves. Their stuff is way different than the other sports -- i.e. it's creative, eye-catching, current.

I was the first to mock Lock Haven a bit but without question they've done a tremendous job on social media. Of course, that's a younger coach, younger staff, etc. Some of their stuff is a bit cheesy (to me) but that doesn't mean it's cheesy to the more-important recruiting-aged players. It's working.

[ironmaniup]

There's better odds of Elvis being at Miller Stadium this Saturday than Tort being terminated.

Him retiring is a different subject.

I would guess we'll have another 4-5 years of Tort Ball. He doesn't make Lombardi money but he's doing pretty good.

Elvis has been around Indiana, I saw him singing outside the Trump rally, and he's was at Bob's Pizza the other day.

But yes, it changes when Tort retires. Now, its possible to strongly encourage someone to retire. But Driscol doesn't do that much, and I can't see anyone in student affairs wanting to shake things up right now. Keep in mind a new hire would probably demand more resources that Tort is happy with. So, barring some kind of scandal, like the football team fighting a fraternity and all getting arrested, I think you are correct.

[IUPalum]

And to add to this bad year…

…the band is back in flux with an interim director.

​​​​​​…we have Valley Girls calling the online broadcasts.

​​​​​​…and the social media presence for IUP Athletics has vanished. I rarely see anything come across on Facebook. I don’t do Instagram and I’d rather eat Yinzer Cheesesteaks than reinstate my Twitter account now that Lizard Face owns it.

This is what happens when you don't have an SID.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

And to add to this bad year…

…the band is back in flux with an interim director.

​​​​​​…we have Valley Girls calling the online broadcasts.

​​​​​​…and the social media presence for IUP Athletics has vanished. I rarely see anything come across on Facebook. I don’t do Instagram and I’d rather eat Yinzer Cheesesteaks than reinstate my Twitter account now that Lizard Face owns it.

And if only they stopped two 4th-and-7's ... None of this would be being discussed.

Amazing