The latest move signifying Curt Cignetti and Indiana's climb to become "new college football superpower" is a hire from an SEC power.
CBS Sports shares today that Cignetti and the Hoosiers have added Sales Pinckney to their staff in Bloomington as assistant director of player personnel.
On Kirby Smart's staff in Athens, Pinckney served in a player personnel assistant capacity
In that role, he worked under Will Myers who is widely regarded across college football for his skills identifying and evaluating talent for the Dawgs, helping them lock up the top recruiting class in the country in 2024, followed by a top-three finish for the 2025 class.
A former Division III defensive lineman at Rhodes (D-III - TN) who played high school ball in Georgia, Pinckney has previous stops at UTEP and Austin Peay. At both those stops, he worked under Scotty Walden.
The Hoosiers, fresh off an appearance in the inaugural 12-team playoff in Curt Cignetti's first season with the program, capitalized on the season's successful 11-2 season by bringing in the 53rd ranked class in the country.
Indiana's 11-win season last fall not only marked the best finish in school history, but it was also the first time in program history that the Hoosier's finished with double-digit wins and was just their third time finishing above .500 overall since 2000.
The Hoosiers open the season with four straight home games, starting next weekend by taking on Old Dominion at home, followed by hosting Kennesaw State, Indiana State and then a top-15 ranked Illinois squad in a game that should draw a record amount of viewers for the highly anticipated matchup.
If the Hoosiers hope to duplicate the kind of success they had last fall, it will require their best performances on the road, as after they take on the Illini, they face both Iowa and Oregon on the road before getting Michigan State and UCLA at home.
The rest of the schedule includes trips to Maryland, Penn State, and Purdue with a home game against Wisconsin.
Cignetti's second seasons at each of his head coaching stops have been a mixed bag. He went from 7-3 to 12-2 with a loss in the Division II quarterfinals at IUP, then went fromm 8-4 to 6-5 at Elon before leaving for James Madison. There he went 14-2 with a loss in the national title game, before going 7-1 in the COVID season of 2020, finishing third nationally among FCS teams.
For Indiana to continue to compete with the top tier of the Big Ten, being able to compete with the nation's best on the recruiting trail, and then developing that talent will be pivotal, and the addition of Pinckney is clearly meant to address part of that equation.
Stay tuned to The Scoop for the latest.