Curt Cignetti Took A Brutal Shot At The Big 12

In this video, I break down the war of words between Indiana head coach Curt Cignetti and TCU head coach Sonny Dykes after Dykes took a public shot at former quarterback Josh Hoover. Cignetti quickly fired back, defended his new quarterback, and in the process made a Big 12 coach look bad.

I go through what Sonny Dykes said about Hoover’s turnover issues, why Curt Cignetti’s response landed so hard, who actually won this back-and-forth, and what it says about both coaches. I also get into the bigger question of whether Sonny Dykes was out of line, whether Cignetti exposed a real problem at TCU, and why this whole exchange is such a bad look for the Big 12.

If you follow Big 12 football, TCU football, Curt Cignetti, Sonny Dykes, Josh Hoover, Indiana football, or college football coaching drama, this is a story you need to watch.

Chapters:
0:00 Curt Cignetti dunks on a Big 12 coach
1:00 Why Cignetti is not someone you want to beef with
1:14 How Sonny Dykes started this
2:05 Why Dykes’ comments came off like sour grapes
2:56 Sonny Dykes’ Josh Hoover comments
3:17 Why that clip blew up
4:09 Curt Cignetti fires back
4:56 Cignetti’s brutal response
5:30 Why Cignetti clearly won this exchange
6:18 The bigger criticism of TCU
7:13 Why this kind of coach drama is actually fun
8:07 Sonny Dykes still got paid
9:00 What to make of Dykes’ contract extension
9:45 Does Sonny Dykes really scare anyone in the Big 12?
10:36 What Josh Hoover under Cignetti could reveal

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Reigning national champion Kurt Signetti just dunked all over a Big 12 head coach. And after trading barbs back and forth, we do need to ask the question which which coach won this battle? Who won the battle? And uh was this Big 12 coach out of line? Those are the questions I want to answer here for you in this video. Kurt Signetti, man, national champion. He's pretty untouchable right now. Like he's already forced us just a couple of years after taking over the Indiana Hoosers to put him in the conversation for greatest college football coach of all time. Winning the national championship with Indiana and doing it in as dominant a fashion, unbeaten as he did, is one of, if not the most astounding thing I have seen in my life in college football. It's an unbelievable accomplishment. And oh, by the way, Signetti went ahead and signed the number one portal class in the country, according to on three at least, after that, for a nice little uh sign that he's probably not going anywhere. He's certainly not somebody that right now I would want to go at if I were another coach. Not just because of how damn good he is, but the guy can cut a promo, right? You know, we're I'm not a huge wrestling fan, but I I've been around enough throughout my days, particularly in radio, to know what it means to cut a promo. Kurt Signetti can cut a promo. He did it right away when he came in and said, I win everywhere. Google me. The guy can do that. He's not somebody I would want to get into like a war of words with through the media or otherwise. He's he's got some bars, man. He's got some bars. And I'm not saying that this Big 12 coach was like trying to go directly at Sonny Dykes, or well, okay, I just blew who it was. Sonny Dykes was not trying to directly go to Kurt Signetti with this, he was digging at his former quarterback who now happens to play for Kurt Signetti. But this did come across like a little bit of sour grapes, which are fair. I mean, I think you should that way. And I will extend some latitude to Sonny Dykes because of the fact that in this day and age, when your player can just up and leave you after saying, Why would I ever want to leave TCU? And he can just up and leave and go play for the national champs and get a bunch of money. Like, I'm gonna extend you some grace and like, yeah, you're probably gonna be a bit frustrated. I I do understand and I do get it. But boy, Sonny Dykes. Sonny Dykes got himself into uh some hot water with what it is that he had to say about his former quarterback Josh Hoover. Uh let's let's get to this. All right, so he's doing an interview and decided to drop this on everybody. Uh boy, if I could ever get these figured out. Sorry.

SPEAKER_02 2:56

Stats are stats, and I think you know, you look for us, and I think Josh started 31 games here as a quarterback, and we turned the ball over 40. He turned the ball over 42 times in those 30. Stats are stats. And I think you know, you look for us, and I think Josh started 31 games here as a quarterback, and we turned the ball over 40. He turned the ball over 42 times in those 30.

SPEAKER_01 3:17

So, okay. The the funniest part of that clip, by the way, is him saying he starts to say we turned it over 42 times in the 31 games that Josh Hoover played, and instead has to stop and correct himself and say, no, no, no, he did. Not we, he did. Josh Hoover turned it over 42 times in 31 games. And I mean, look, like Josh Hoover had a turnover problem. I'm a K-State fan. Go back and watch the games that Josh Hoover played against K-State in his career. I think he turned it over more in those games than he did in any other games in his college career. I I am as aware as anybody of the turnover problems that Hoover has. But the the way that comes across and the stopping and saying we and then changing it to he, I mean, it's it's hard not for that to come across like a little bit of sour grapes, which again, I understand. I will grant some latitude there on that, but that's of course going to get clipped. It's of course going to make the rounds on social media, and it did. Oh, it did. And Kurt Signeti made sure to stick up for his guy. All right. Please subscribe to the channel, pushing toward 35k subs, getting close. Many of you watch, don't subscribe. It helps a lot if you do. You knew Kurt Signetti would have something to say. Mr. Google me, he was not going to be afraid to uh fire back a little bit here. Stick up for his guy, which you know, I can appreciate that, but sticking up for his guy, this is what it looked like. Okay, we're gonna hear from Kurt Signet. There's now Kurt Signetti at the podium, all right. So he's getting asked about this, and he has a pretty long response here. You can see I'm starting this like 52 seconds in. He has a pretty long response detailing Josh Uber, what he profiles at, what he needs to do, what he needs to work on, and this is where he gets to the uh turnover part of the equation.

SPEAKER_00 5:08

Uh got to clean up some of the turnovers, obviously, which uh Coach Dykes made light of. Uh, but you know, when Josh got here, he met his two new best friends. Uh great defense and a really good run game. And he was never the same after that.

SPEAKER_01 5:30

I mean, complete with the little you know what eating grin at the end of that, you do have to laugh. Like, I you can tell by my answer here, who I thought got the best of this little sparring match. I mean, that's funny. That's funny. And much like we would say, hey, Josh Hoover has turnover problems, that wasn't really an inaccurate statement by Sonny Dykes. And it's pretty fair point by Kurt Signetti, too, while also turning it into a funny way of saying that, right? Meets his two best friends, and then he's he's never the same. I mean, the whole conversation that I was having about TCU last year was like, well, they don't run the ball enough. Like, they don't, they they couldn't figure out an actual running game and too much got put on Hoover's shoulders. And some of that is Sonny's fault for not like literally calling the run plays more in the game. Remember the Arizona State game where they jump way out in front and then they ran the ball like four times the rest of the game and just would refuse to try and actually grind some clock there. So that's fair and legitimate criticism. We know that the defense at TCU has generally been behind the offense as well. Uh, so I gotta just tip my cap there. Okay. I do. I do. Uh, and if you're asking me, like in general, any kind of war of words, war of press conferences, I'm I'm gonna take Kurt Signetti 10 times out of 10 over uh Sonny Dykes. Not a battle that I would suggest getting into. Though I will say, I am happy that both of these coaches did this. I think it's generally harmless, and it's a lot of fun, and it's a little more revealing than what we typically get from coaches. I'm not even saying this from a hey, it gives us content standpoint, which obviously it does that. I will admit that, and that's generally a good thing. But it was just it was fun content. Like it's fun for everybody. Coaches can be such robots a lot of times when they are behind the mic at a press conference and they never give you anything, and it's so dull and boring. This was fun and real, and you know that these guys have these thoughts about their players, their former players, other coaches. You know that they have these thoughts, but most of the time they don't actually let that out into public. And I understand obviously the strategy behind that and why they wouldn't do it, but it's fun when we get a peek inside the curtain like this. So at the end of the day, I would extend a big thank you to Sonny Dykes on that front and say, I appreciate you starting this. I appreciate your candor about Hoover, and I am happy that this then drew the response that it did from Kurt Signetti. And hey, Sonny Dykes can't be that upset, right? Because he just got a contract extension. We just learned that within the last week. Got a multi-year contract extension. He was already making$7 million, so I mean, which was pretty damn good for the Big 12. I know he was trailing Coach Prime. I feel like that might be it. He was toward the top of the Big 12 in terms of pay. And now, uh presumably making more or at least has more job security here. That's not bad. It's not a bad gig. I think Sonny Dykes will be okay, even if he got dunked on by Kurt Signetti. Now, Dykes, to me, is a really interesting test case here. If you're asking me what I think about that extension, I think Sonny Dice is a bit of a Roar Shark test. You know, the inkblot thing. You can two people can look at it and see the a different thing. You can look at it and say, well, he's 36 and 17 in four years. He's basically he's averaging nine and four every year. He's averaging nine wins a season. That's about as consistent as anybody in the Big 12 if you take it in that respect. And he also has a national championship game appearance. Nobody else in the Big 12 has that. So how can you really? But I would also I look at it and say, well, it's you know, that's very heavily skewed by that first year. Magical run with Max Duggan, and full credit to him for that. Uh, that was great. Only by the way, after Chandler Morris got hurt and then he was forced to play Max Duggan, but it did happen, and you got to give him a lot of credit for that. I just don't know if I'm an opposing fan. Sonny Dykes really scares me that much. If I see, oh, TCU locked up Dykes to an extension. I'm I'm not looking at that and being like, oh, well, crap, we're gonna have to deal with this guy for a while. Maybe that's unfair. He's for the most part at a higher fall. I mean, he's probably gonna win eight games every year, but I don't, I don't know. He's got to prove it to me that he can get back to up to the level of actually like winning a Big 12 championship. I think that, you know, he's gotta he's got a lot to prove there. And, you know, it'll be very interesting to watch on this subject how Josh Hoover does under the tutelage of Kurt Signetti versus what he did at TCU. Do the best friends defense and run game make so much of a difference that all of a sudden Hoover looks like a a different dude and he's playing like Fernando Mendoza and he's a Heisman candidate. And, you know, that may tell us something about that too. But uh, hey, for now, congrats to Sonny Dykes for getting that contracts extension, man. Go get yours.