BOZICH | Can Indiana, Cignetti really land a top-10 quarterback? Recruiting guru thinks so (2024)

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Curt Cignetti has delivered multiple unforgettable lines in less than nine months as the Indiana University football coach.

But nothing Cignetti has said would be as unforgettable as his latest move: having a national recruiting analyst say on the record that Indiana in position to outmaneuver Southern Cal, Auburn and sportsman of the year Deion Sanders of Colorado for one of the top-10 quarterbacks prospects in America.

(The kid's name is Julian Lewis of Carrollton, Georgia. As Cignetti might say: Google him and 247 recruiting insider Tom Loy.)

There was Cignetti's visit to the Big Ten Network set the day before the 2023 conference title game in Indianapolis when Cignetti told the hosts that he expected to have his team in Lucas Oil Stadium for the title game this season.

There were the off-color shots that Cignetti fired at Purdue, Michigan and Ohio State when he was introduced at an IU basketball game last season.

There was his trademark, "I win. Google me," line that he uttered when skeptics wondered if Cignetti would extend his streak of no losing seasons to 14 at Indiana, a job where coaching careers have long gone to die.

It's entertainment.

Cignetti needs to sell tickets. Has to. A year after Indiana bought its way out of the final two games of its three-game contract with Louisville, Cignetti needs to convince fans to invest their money to watch the Hoosiers play eight home games this season. A bit of NIL scratch would not diminish the conversation.

But the time to talk will end in 18 days when IU opens its 2024 season at home against Florida International on Aug. 31. Then, it will become the time to do.

Even before Cignetti and his staff do anything substantial on the field, they are doing something to ignite chatter that Indiana football intends to stop acting like Indiana football has acted for more than 50 years.

Earning a commitment from Lewis, a Georgia native who is ranked the No. 7 quarterback and No. 46 overall player in the prep Class of 2025, would be doing something Tom Allen, Kevin Wilson and Gerry DiNardo never did.

Flipping a quarterback from a nearly one-year long oral commitment to USC and landing him ahead of Auburn, Colorado and 33 other FBS offers would create the kind of buzz that has not crackled around Bloomington since halfback Anthony Thompson finished second in the 1989 Heisman Trophy race or John Pont directed the Hoosiers to the 1968 Rose Bowl.

The Julian Lewis from Carrollton, Georgia to Memorial Stadium picked up 93 octane juice Tuesday when 247Sports college football national recruiting analyst Tom Loy dropped that Tweet on X.

Indiana?

"So now I'm watching Indiana and Colorado," Loy said. "If I had to pick between the two, I would give the edge to Indiana."

Indiana is the program that watched a modest three-star prospect from Texas walk away from a two-month oral commitment to pick TCU on signing day in December 2021.

Indiana is the program that watched this list of in-state quarterbacks commit elsewhere since 2012:

Brady Allen (Purdue) and Tayven Jackson (Tennessee) in 2022; Hunter Johnson (Clemson) in 2017; Brandon Peters (Michigan) in 2016; Tommy Stevens (Penn State) in 2015 and Gunner Kiel (Notre Dame) in 2012.

Indiana had to figure it out with guys like Richard Lagow, Zander Diamont, Jack Tuttle or Matt LoVecchio. IU's last full-time NFL quarterback was … probably Trent Green several decades ago.

Yes, Michael Penix Jr. was the historical exception.

But even that experience had the typical IU ending. Penix left Bloomington looking like his football career was over in 2021. Then he roared back to health and prosperity while almost winning the Heisman Trophy and directing Washington to the national championship game last season.

This one seems different. IU got Penix after he de-committed from Tennessee during a coaching change. Cignetti and his staff have been slugging it out for Lewis since the first minutes after their arrival from James Madison last December.

IU quarterbacks coach Tino Sunseri, a former Nick Saban graduate assistant at Alabama, has built a reputation as a quarterback whisperer.

Sunseri has been with Cignetti since 2021 and has enough of a relationship with Lewis that the prospect has visited Bloomington. The IU staff was on Lewis before he reclassified to the 2025 class and threw for 7,212 yards and 96 touchdowns in his first two high school seasons at Carrollton High School, which is roughly 45 miles west of Atlanta.

There is talking. There is committing. There is signing. IU usually reaches step one, sometimes gets to step two and rarely reaches step three.

In other words, there is a long way to go before Julian Lewis shows up in Bloomington. But with Cignetti, the Hoosiers are already being mentioned with the players who generally would not take phone calls from the 812 area code.

Google it.

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