My feeling is Cignetti promotion is a good one.

I don’t mean this as a knock on Cignetti, but the defenses in the WAC in those days were pretty bad.

Fresno did manage to put up 42 during his time on the ’05 USC team that played for the national championship against Texas.

i like the hiring. and i like that boras was promoted too. i wonder how much input boras will have in the offense?

my only other question is who is the rams qb coach now?

• This reply was modified 9 years, 3 months ago by InvaderRam.

One guy, apparently, is already blaming the playcaller,
before a play has even been called.

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St. Louis Rams Admit Failure by Settling for Frank Cignetti as OC
By Sean Tomlinson , NFL Analyst
Feb 6,2015
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2356543-st-louis-rams-admit-failure-by-settling-for-frank-cignetti-as-oc

http://www.post-gazette.com/sports/pitt-football/2009/08/16/Pitt-Football-Frank-Cignetti-Jr-s-journey-home/stories/200908160186
Part One of the Pitt Post Gazette series on Cignetti

Frank Cignetti Jr. had one major important task to take care of on this particular day — purchase a puppy to bring home and surprise his three young daughters who, along with his wife, Ellen, were returning from a couple dayscouple of days at the Jersey shore.

“Can you hold on for a minute — I absolutely have to take this call,” he said.

He then proceeded to hammer down the details of the purchase of a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, who would eventually become a part of the Cignetti household, named Gracie, and earn Cignetti a whole lot of “father-of-the-year” points — at least in the eyes of his daughters, Alyssa, 9, Gabrielle, 7, and Ella, 4.

“You can’t put a price on that,” he said of the size of the smiles on both his wife and daughter’s faces.

Of course, Cignetti probably locked up that father-of-the-year honor up in their eyes in February when he accepted the position as Pitt’s offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. He and his family got to move from California and be closer to all of their friends and family.

“Once you are away from family and friends, you realize how it important it is to be around family and friends,” he said. “I can’t tell you how positive of an experience it has been for my daughters to be able to walk up the street to play with their cousins, and for their grandparents to be so close and be able to see them and be involved with them.”

Cignetti, 43, is from New Kensington and played college football at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. He got his coaching start as a graduate assistant at Pitt in 1989, then as an assistant at IUP (1990-98).

He also comes from a family of coaches with deep ties in Western Pennsylvania. His father, Frank Cignetti Sr., was an assistant coach at Pitt in the 1960’s and the head coach at both West Virginia (1976-79) and IUP (1986-2005). And his brother Curt, who is an assistant at Alabama, was an assistant at Pitt from 1993 to 1999.

Cignetti now lives in Treesdale, about 15 houses from one sister and a few minutes from another sister.

“When I first came here and was asked if I took a pay cut to come here [from California], if you just look at money, yes I did. But there are so many things in life you can’t put a price tag on, and those are things that to me, are far more important.”

Cignetti’s return to Pitt has been well received for a lot of reasons and many of them have nothing to do with the fact that his name is well known in these parts — although that’s a big part of it.

But there is also a fan base which has grown restless the past few years about a Panthers offense which has been neither imaginative nor productive at times.

And fairly or not, the brunt of the criticism was heaped on former offensive coordinator Matt Cavanaugh, who left to become the quarterbacks coach of the New York Jets.

Cignetti’s father, Frank Sr., said that when he heard his son was coming home to coach at Pitt, he was extremely excited. But he also knows how hard it can be to coach in your hometown.

“We were all very, very excited when the opportunity presented itself because it has always been his dream to get back to the East Coast and be back close to home,” Cignetti Sr. said. “And then to not only get back East, but to get here, to Pitt, it was almost too good to be true. Of course, now I’m sure there will be a lot of people who will have suggestions for him about how to go about his job.

“That can get uncomfortable at times. But he’s an experienced coach now and he’s been around good coaches so he’ll handle himself extremely well.”

Cignetti’s hiring signaled the dawn of a new era for the Pitt offense. But he laughs at the notion that he is some sort of savior. He understands that few coordinators in the country will be under more scrutiny than him, especially given the lofty expectations for the Panthers this season.

“Matt is a great football coach and, don’t forget, he is one of the greatest quarterbacks in this school’s history,” Cignetti said of Cavanaugh. “So if people were tough on an icon like him, I know that the expectations are very high here.

“I understand that and, believe me, nobody is going to expect or demand more from our offense than me.”

Cignetti has always admired the university, the athletic department and especially head coach, Dave Wannstedt. He said the opportunity to work for people for whom he has deep admiration — Wannstedt, Chancellor Mark Nordenberg and athletic director Steve Pederson — made the job too good to pass up — even if he did, as he said, have to take a slight pay cut from the $350,000 he made at the University of California.

The pieces are in place, he said, for the Panthers to become an elite program again, sooner rather than later.

“Dave Wannstedt has built the foundation for a championship,” Cignetti said. “And if you ask me, championship starts with a great defense. You need a great defense and great special teams and an offense which will protect the football, score points and win the field position battle.

“I didn’t take this job just because it was close to home; things had to be right. First and foremost, this is a great academic institution in the greatest football city in America, but beyond that, coach Wannstedt and I, our philosophy and approach is very similar.”

Cignetti’s first item of business has been to try and coach up the Panthers quarterbacks: Senior Bill Stull, junior Pat Bostick, redshirt freshman Tino Sunseri and freshman Kolby Gray. The group has not performed particularly well in the past few seasons, but in Stull and Bostick he has two players with a combined 22 career starts.

“Whether it is Billy Stull, Pat Bostick or Tino Sunseri, we have high expectations,” Cignetti said. “We expect them to compete with each other, we expect them to be successful. And I believe we have the players here in this [quarterback] room to do just that, and frankly, I’m not going to except anything less than their best.

“We’ve set the bar high for them.”

The bar has certainly been set high for Cignetti, but he wouldn’t have it any other way.

“I don’t feel any more pressure than any other time in my career,” he said. “This is a performance business, a bottom-line business and every place I have been, the expectations are extremely high. You don’t get into this profession if you don’t understand that.”

Tomorrow: Frank Cignetti’s offensive philosophy from those who know him best. Paul Zeise can be reached at pzeise@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1720. First Published August 16, 2009 4:00 AM
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• This reply was modified 9 years, 3 months ago by wv.

wv wrote:

He then proceeded to hammer down the details of the purchase of a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, who would eventually become a part of the Cignetti household

Oh oh. Bad choice of a dog breed.

Given that…what kind of coordinator could he be?

I already don’t like him.

wv wrote:

Well what kind of dog should an OC have?

Zooey wrote:

Oh, dear. I know nuthin about that dog, but it weirdly LOOKS like King Charles.

Well, if Cignetti cant get the Rams to execute
better, heads need to
roll.

w
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_I_of_England
Execution…
…
“but I must tell you that their liberty and freedom consists in having government … It is not their having a share in the government; that is nothing appertaining unto them. A subject and a sovereign are clean different things.”[274] He continued, “I shall go from a corruptible to an incorruptible Crown, where no disturbance can be.”[275]

At about 2:00 p.m.,[276] Charles put his head on the block after saying a prayer and signalled the executioner when he was ready by stretching out his hands; he was then beheaded with one clean stroke.[277] According to observer Philip Henry, a moan “as I never heard before and desire I may never hear again” rose from the assembled crowd,[278] some of whom then dipped their handkerchiefs in the king’s blood as a memento.[279]….

InvaderRam wrote:

who knows. cignetti could surprise us. and i still like the fact that the coordinator and players will have real familiarity with each other. that can’t be discounted working with these guys every day. knowing their strengths and weaknesses. and maybe he even brings a fresh perspective that schotty was missing.

who knows. but i’m actually happy about this announcement.

nittany ram wrote:

Well there is nothing about this hire that will ‘wow’ anybody. But I agree that the continuity in offensive systems is important.

Well we know the offensive philosophy and most likely, it ain’t gonna change. Power running mixed with play action plus big plays of other kinds (besides long throws) designed to take advantage of this or that defense.

Schott was good at it. That’s controversial, I know, but still, that’s my verdict. The only thing holding him back was personnel.

Cigz could be as good as Schott or better. If he’s better that’s gravy. The main thing, though, is personnel. The Rams may have enough at receiver, they have a couple of backs, they ought to be able to field a healthy line with depth. If that all works out Cigz ought to do just fine, I would think.

It will be interesting to see if he adds anything we haven’t seen yet.

I agree that the main thing is, keeping the same playbook (more or less) and the same system and terminology. Means you don’t lost 2-3 years of development on guys like Tavon and Quick and Cunningham etc.

i thot this was interesting from the article above.
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——————————
“…Cignetti’s approach is one that should be welcome to the ears of Pitt fans who, via talk radio, e-mails and message boards, have expressed frustration over a lack of touches for the team’s best players in critical spots in critical games too often the past few years…
…
“Frank and I connected immediately because we shared a common passion about certain aspects of football and quarterback play that not many other people even think or talk about,” Dilfer said. “He is the kind of guy who will look at what he has and who his best players are and then design an offense for this season which is going to take advantage of them.”…

zn wrote:

InvaderRam wrote:
. in particular i wonder if he’s got any other ideas about how to use tavon.

My thing with Tavon is, if he is used in new or different ways, it will be because he has advanced in his technique and knowledge and can DO more things.

It’s an unwinnable debate, as a debate–if Tavon is given more to do, I believe it will be because in his 3rd year he can do more things. But then, it would be hard to prove that…we don’t see practices and meetings, so we don’t know what they think he can and cannot do at this point.

>wv wrote:
“He is the kind of guy who will look at what he has and who his best players are and then design an offense for this season which is going to take advantage of them.”…

Same thing. If that’s true of Cigz, yay, because I value that a lot in a coordinator. However, I also believed that was a Schottenheimer strength too. It’s just that Schott’s teams went up and down in terms of who and what they had to work with and how far along they were.

Well, I agree, I would expect Stedman and Tavon to improve
simply because they have another year in the system under their belts.

But I am not sure about Shotty. I have doubts about whether he knew
how to best utilize Tavon. Granted, he had to deal with all kinds
of injury issues. But i still have questions about whether he
used Tavon correctly. I’m not sure.

I’m looking forward to the Cignetti Era.

w
v

General agreement on the thread. I think the OL personnel and the QB issue will determine what we can do.

My point about Tavon.

As I have said before, Tavon needs to play underneath a downfield passing attack that drives the DBs off the ball.

The absence of that condition has not, in my mind, been primarily a matter of the OC. It has been the absence of WRs until last year, at which point we lost our QB.

A healthy, starting-quality QB plus a solid OL will ALLOW an OC to use Tavon successfully. I don’t think it has previously been a genuine option.

‘Course, I do think Schotty used too many jet-style gimmicks with Tavon. But, again, at least some of that was because he had a lousy QB and OL.

wv wrote:

My thing with Tavon is, if he is used in new or different ways, it will be because he has advanced in his technique and knowledge and can DO more things.

It’s an unwinnable debate, as a debate–if Tavon is given more to do, I believe it will be because in his 3rd year he can do more things. But then, it would be hard to prove that…we don’t see practices and meetings, so we don’t know what they think he can and cannot do at this point.

it is an unwinnable debate. if tavon does improve and do more things next year, is it because cignetti is offensive coordinator or simply because he just has another year of pro football under his belt?

regardless. i expect cignetti to introduce the offense to some new things. perhaps his experience as an offensive coordinator in college will bring some other concepts we weren’t used to seeing before? i just don’t know that much about him. i know he has traditionally been a run first type coordinator, but i don’t know much about the offenses he ran before.

nittany ram wrote:

Well, I agree, I would expect Stedman and Tavon to improve
simply because they have another year in the system under their belts.

I’m looking forward to the Cignetti Era.

w
v

You think a former Pitt coach is going to help Stedman and Tavon? He probably took the OC job so he could purposely sabotage their careers.

I miss Pitt v WVU and Penn St v WVU.
I loathe what money has done to college football.
WVU in the Big 12? Playing Oklahoma and Kansas
and Iowa? Its ridiculous. Those old Eastern rivalries
should never have died. Blah blah blah, wv grumbles…

I remember when Cignetti Sr, coached at WVU.
Maybe he’s related to Fisher:

1976 West Virginia 5–6
1977 West Virginia 5–6
1978 West Virginia 2–9
1979 West Virginia 5–6

w
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Rams Promote Two Offensive Assistants

By Myles Simmons Rams Insider @MylesASimmons

http://www.stlouisrams.com/news-and-events/article-1/Rams-Promote-Two-Offensive-Assistants/892361b3-7077-4a64-bf1e-799e07c18e66

The Rams’ search for an offensive coordinator has come to an end, as the franchise has promoted two of its offensive assistants. Quarterbacks coach Frank Cignetti will take over as the offensive coordinator, and tight ends coach Rob Boras will serve as assistant head coach/offense.

In their new roles, Cignetti will call the plays and lead the coaches through game planning and installments. While continuing to coach the tight ends, Boras will assist in overseeing the entire offense with an emphasis on the run game.

Coming off his third season leading St. Louis’ QBs, Cignetti has a coaching resumé that spans two decades of work in both the college and NFL ranks. In 2014, he helped coach Austin Davis to consecutive 300-yard, three-touchdown performances — a first for the franchise since Kurt Warner accomplished the feat in 2001. Back in his first year with the Rams, 2012, quarterback Sam Bradford set new career highs in yards passing (3,702), touchdown passes (21), and passer rating (82.5).

“Frank has been a key asset to our staff over the last three years and I’m confident that he’ll do a great job leading our offense in this new role,” head coach Jeff Fisher said in a statement. “He’s done a great job in some difficult circumstances and he brings a great body of work as a play caller at some significant college programs. Our players know and respect Frank, and I believe we’ll benefit from the continuity he’ll provide.”

Prior to his arrival in St. Louis, Cignetti spent time as the offensive coordinator at Rutgers, Pitt, and Cal. He also spent a year as the 49ers quarterbacks coach in 2007. Before that, he was the offensive coordinator at North Carolina and Fresno State.

Cignetti got his start in the NFL as a quality control assistant with the Chiefs in 1999, and served as the Saints’ quarterbacks coach from 2000-01. His father, Frank Cignetti Sr., was a longtime head coach for Indiana University of Pennsylvania — a D-II school — where he led the team to 13 postseason appearances. The junior Cignetti was on his father’s staff from 1990-98.

Boras also arrived with Fisher in 2012, coaching up key contributors like Jared Cook, Lance Kendricks, and Cory Harkey at the tight end position. Last season, Cook led the Rams with 52 receptions, and Kendricks had a team-high five receiving touchdowns.

In all, the 44-year-old Boras has spent 11 years in the NFL. Having served as an offensive assistant for DePauw, Texas, and UNLV, as well as a one-year stint as Benedictine University’s head coach, Boras got his NFL start as the tight ends coach under Lovie Smith with the Bears in 2004. During his six seasons in Chicago, Boras helped the Bears earn a trip to Super Bowl XLI. In 2009, the Bears’ tight ends led the NFL in receiving touchdowns (13), and in 2008 Greg Olsen and Desmond clark had 95 receptions — the highest total for a tight end duo in franchise history.

Following his stint with the Bears, Boras spent two years as the Jaguars’ tight ends coach, leading Marcedes Lewis to his first Pro Bowl selection in 2010. That year, Lewis had 58 receptions for 700 yards and 10 receiving touchdowns — tying a franchise record.

“Rob is a tremendous teacher and he’s done a great job with our tight ends,” Fisher said. “His expanded role is sure to make us better as an offense.”

By keeping the promotions in house, both Cignetti and Boras have an advantage of not only knowing the Rams’ personnel, but the teams and players within the division as well.

Loyalty was key for Fisher in OC search

By Jim Thomas

http://www.stltoday.com/sports/football/professional/loyalty-was-key-for-fisher-in-oc-search/article_5f73bc36-da5d-5282-a0c6-dc3da462ea95.html

After Brian Schottenheimer decided to head south to the Georgia Bulldogs, Rams coach Jeff Fisher said there was “no doubt in my mind that I had his replacement on the staff.”

Why, then, did it take more than a month for Fisher to formally introduce Frank Cignetti as the team’s offensive coordinator?

“I think you’re rewarded for patience,” Fisher said.

He used the hiring of running backs coach Ben Sirmans to illustrate his point.

“I think we have an outstanding running backs coach in Ben, and we interviewed eight different coaches before we hired Ben three years ago,” Fisher said.

That was 2012, Fisher’s first Rams staff. Sirmans wasn’t hired until March 2012.

“Through the process, often times, different opportunities come up,” Fisher said.

In other words, he never has been one to rush into staff hires. And with rare exception, Fisher is very loyal to his assistants once they get hired.

This time around, Fisher said he only had one formal interview with an outside candidate. That was former Buffalo offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett.

A second interview was scheduled with Hackett during Super Bowl week.

By that time, Fisher was firmly committed to going in-house, meaning the second interview with Hackett was for either the Rams’ quarterbacks or tight-ends coaching job. (Depending on whether Fisher promoted Cignetti from QBs coach or tight ends coach Rob Boras to offensive coordinator.)

Hackett decided instead to follow Doug Marrone, who was his head coach in Buffalo, to Jacksonville as quarterbacks coach. Marrone is assistant head coach/offensive line coach for the Jaguars.

Fisher said he talked to a couple of other candidates on the phone (a group that included Kyle Shanahan, who ended up as Atlanta’s offensive coordinator, and Adam Gase, who ended up with that position for Chicago).

Alex Van Pelt and Rob Chudzinski might have gotten interviews with Fisher, but Green Bay (in the case off Van Pelt) and Indianapolis (Chudzinski) denied interview requests by the Rams.

But in the end, Fisher wanted to stay with his overall offensive philosophy. Stability and continuity were very important to him.

“Your terminology, your run-game philosophy, your game-calling philosophy, the understanding of your philosophy — it’s ingrained in you,” Fisher said. “From an organizational standpoint, I didn’t want to change any of that … I just wanted to get better.

“I knew that this staff was qualified to do that. We just needed some new leadership, and that’s what we have.”

Perhaps with that in mind, Cignettii emphasized leadership and motivation as characteristics he brings to the coordinator’s job at his introductory news conference on Friday.

In his two interviews or “meetings” with Fisher, Cignetti stressed those points.

“I wanted to be the coordinator because I love to lead,” he said. “I love to try to bring a group of men together, coaches and players, and try to make it something great. To go from good to great.”

Obviously, calling the Rams’ offense good last year — or in any of the three years with Schottenheimer as coordinator — would be stretching it. The Rams finished 21st in points per game in 2014, 28th in total offense, 20th in rushing offense and 23rd in passing offense. But Cignetti’s overall point is that he relishes the challenge and the opportunity of trying to improve the offense.

“As coach (Fisher) and I sat down in our two meetings, I think what happened was we got to know each other better,” Cignetti said. “Coach asked great questions. I was very comfortable in both meetings, and if anything, it just built our relationship.

“That’s the other thing that’s important in the leadership role is that you’ve got to care about people and build trusting relationships. I think through our process, that’s what happened. We got to know each other better.”

Cignetti, 49, said the core of his philosophy as a coordinator is the ability to run the football. This should come as no surprise to anyone familiar with Fisher’s track record as a head coach. He wasn’t going to hire a coordinator who planned to throw the ball 50 times a game.

“I believe in running the football,” Cignetti said. “You run the ball to win. The quarterback’s best friend is running the football. But you also have to be flexible enough to do whatever it’s gonna take to win a game.”

To Cignetti, it’s more about players (and maximizing their strengths), than play-calling. And doing whatever you can to get the ball in your playmakers’ hands.

Of course, just about every offensive coordinator says he will mold his philosophy to the particular strength of his players. Often that turns out to be little more than lip service.

There is at least some evidence in Cignetti’s past that he has that flexibility. At Fresno State, for example, he had run-heavy teams that were successful and had pass-heavy teams as well.

“When you have a guy like (wide receiver) Bernard Berrian, who was one of the best college football players, you want to get the ball in his hands,” Cignetti said. “Because you can throw him a little bubble screen and it might end up in the end zone. So you take a look at your personnel and how can you take advantage of their abilities. That’s just a quick example.”

On the subject of playmakers, Cignetti made it clear he plans to get Tavon Austin involved more in the offense. We’ve heard that before.

But Cignetti said he already has had discussions with wide receivers coach Ray Sherman and the rest of the offensive staff on that topic.

“Tavon Austin is an outstanding football player,” Cignetti said. “I saw him here (last) week. I’m fired up to get working with him.

“As coach Fisher and I sat down, it was: Hey, you think players, not plays. Especially in tough situations. Tavon Austin’s a playmaker.”