Given the reality of the moment, with players declaring for the NCAA transfer portal, with national signing day looming, new Indiana University football coach Curt Cignetti realized the old adage that you only get one chance to make a first impression.

So for three weeks, Cignetti pretty much gave up sleeping to recruit an entire team. He was so tired, he said, that once he dozed at the wheel of his car briefly and hit a curb, damaging a tire. Scary. Hopefully, he has had time to snore since.

Come next fall, if the Hoosiers don’t win, no one is going to remember whether or not Cignetti squeezed in 40 winks the preceding November.

“It’s been a whirlwind really,” Cignetti said when he had 31 players in the fold. “It’s been 20 days of fourth-and-one. But it was crunch time. It had to be done.”

Indeed. The Indiana administration parted ways with former coach Tom Allen on a Sunday – who quickly resurfaced as defensive coordinator for Big Ten foe Penn State – and hired Cignetti away from James Madison University just days later.

Cignetti brought a large crowd of assistant coaches with him from Virginia and spent every hour of daylight and beyond poring over a list of potential transfers, bringing in freshmen, and trying to talk some Hoosiers who had declared their intention to transfer into changing their mind.

Two notable results from that sweet talk involved hanging onto Donaven McCulley, who emerged as an all-league receiver after starting out as a quarterback at IU, and convincing Trent Howland, who had already decided to move on to Minnesota, to stick around Bloomington.

After being designated as the man to halt IU’s 100-year football losing streak (most fans will admit it feels that way) Cignetti made one blow-it-up public appearance, grabbing a microphone for a mini-pep talk to basketball fans at Assembly Hall. The most memorable line uttered was, “Purdue sucks.” OK, so the Old Oaken Bucket rivalry will continue.

The most surprising thing about Cignetti being the chosen one to lead the Hoosiers into the next era is his age. He may sound and act younger, but Cignetti is 62. He has a lengthy distinguished record, winning wherever he goes, including being an assistant for one of Alabama’s national championship teams. That age numeral indicates Cignetti knows Indiana is impatient for success in a hurry. Cignetti is not selling patience. No fan base in America has had more patience than Hoosier Nation.

Going back to 1899, the Hoosiers are 206 games under .500, The last time IU has represented the Big Ten in the Rose Bowl was 1967. This is not a school where Cignetti is expected to compete for championships right away but one that is pleading for a team that can win more games than it loses in a season and be invited to one of the ridiculous 43 bowl games out there.

As for the departed Allen, who threw his heart and soul into being the guy who turned it around for IU, he led Indiana to a Gator Bowl and an Outback Bowl in seven seasons and left town with friends because he was regarded as a first-rate individual.

Allen’s deal allowed him to bring more than $15 million with him as he left, and he landed a high-profile position at a perennial nationally ranked program that provides all of the resources he needs to shine in that role.

As bruising as it was to be fired, Allen left with dignity intact and with providing some good memories before everything from the changing nature of the recruiting game because of transfers and the NIL pay structure, combined with inopportune injuries, sent the Hoosiers into a three-year tailspin.

After 2-10, 4-8 and 3-9, it was obvious a change was coming. Athletic Director Steve Dolson had to take action. No one can know as 2024 begins if Cignetti’s arrival signals the correct action. Every time a new coach is hired, optimism trails in the wake of the hire.

“I fully expect to win big this year,” Cignetti said.

That sounded even better to the masses than downgrading Purdue.

There won’t be too many hold-over familiar names in the Indiana University football starting lineup next season, but what transpires on the field at Memorial Stadium will demonstrate if Cignetti’s sleepless nights were worth it.