http://www.post-gazette.com/sports/pitt-football/2009/08/17/Frank-Cignetti-s-drive-sets-him-apart/stories/200908170199
Frank Cignetti’s drive sets him apart
Second of two parts: Secret to success … Keep it simple
August 17, 2009 8:00 AM

By Paul Zeise Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

First-year Pitt offensive coordinator Frank Cignetti Jr. is the son of a highly popular Western Pennsylvania coaching icon and he has had the privilege of working under and learning from some of the best offensive minds in both the NFL and college football.

But through all the X’s and O’s, pass routes and running plays and all of the things he has learned through years of marinating in offensive football philosophy, if you ask him to sum up his approach to the game, it is remarkably simple.

“Think players, not plays,” Cignetti said. “That’s especially true in college football. Identify who your playmakers are and then put them into whatever plays you are going to run against a given defense.

“I wish I had something more philosophical for you but honestly, it all comes down to the guys out there making plays and as a coach, you have to ask yourself, ‘How can I make sure my best players are touching the ball as many times as possible every game?'”

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.
It is an approach that Cignetti said he learned early on from his father, Frank Sr., who was an assistant at Pitt (1966-68) as well as head coach at West Virginia (1976-79) and IUP (1986-2005). And that approach is one he said he has consistently watched other coaching mentors of his — Green Bay Packers coach Mike McCarthy, San Francisco 49ers offensive coordinator Jimmy Raye and Fresno State coach Pat Hill — use to run dominant offenses.

Cignetti was a graduate assistant at Pitt in 1989 along with McCarthy before working for McCarthy in New Orleans with the Saints. He then went to Fresno where he worked for Hill from 2002-05.

One of Cignetti’s closest friends and mentors is former NFL quarterback and current ESPN analyst Trent Dilfer. The two met in the summer of ’02 when Cignetti was coaching at Fresno State and Dilfer, a former Bulldog who was the sixth overall pick of the 1994 draft, went to campus specifically to pick Cignetti’s brains about some offense.

“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.”

Dilfer said he and Cignetti have both studied and talked extensively about what is a common trait among hall of fame quarterbacks and have come to many of the same conclusions about how to develop the position properly.

Pitt junior quarterback Pat Bostick said that Cignetti’s relentless demands for perfection in learning, performing fundamentals and harping on details is unconventional but great.

“Coach Cignetti has done a great job with our feet and helping me get my rear end into throwing the ball,” Bostick said. “He is a great quarterback coach and a great offensive thinker. It is definitely different [than most coaches] but it keeps you on your toes. Attention to detail is such a big part of his approach. There are so many little things that most people wouldn’t be able to even see it but he is stressing them and pushing us on them every day and on every play.”

Cignetti put it simply: “In this classroom, with the quarterbacks, we have high expectations, we expect them to compete every day and we expect to be successful.”

Beyond his offensive philosophy, Cignetti’s approach to coaching is what really sold Pitt head coach Dave Wannstedt. Wannstedt was looking for a coach who ran a pro-style offense but what he also got in Cignetti was an extremely competitive recruiter and a guy whose energy level and borderline-hyperactivity rivaled Wannstedt’s.

“[Offensive line coach] Tony Wise said it best,” said Wannstedt, who is constantly on the move and known as a tireless worker, particularly in recruiting. “He said Frank is a lot like me in that he drives him crazy because he carries a lot of things on his plate at one time and never really sits still. He enjoys recruiting, he loves the one-on-one coaching and he is good with the staff.”

Dilfer, who was a backup quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers in 2007 and had Cignetti as his position coach, added, “Some people are energy-givers and he is a big-time energy-giver. On the field that season in San Francisco was miserable but Frank brought a lot of positive energy and enthusiasm every single day and as a result it was one of the greatest seasons I’ve had in terms of working with the guys in the quarterback room.”

West Allegheny coach Bob Palko, who was a graduate assistant at IUP when Cignetti was a player, said his coaching style is not much different from the way he approached the game as a Crimson Hawk athlete.

“Frank is the typical son of a coach,” Palko said. “He was the ultimate overachiever, he was also one of the smartest guys in terms of knowing football on the field. He was aggressive and he went after it every day. He does the same things as a coach and he is brilliant in a lot of ways when it comes to football.”

Although Cignetti still picks up the phone and calls Dilfer and McCarthy often for advice, he said his father is someone he leans on heavily.

Frank Sr. said that while he does give his son pointers from time to time, he’s quite sure that his son is capable of doing just fine on his own.

“I tried to expose him to both sides of the ball and gave him a great start and a solid base of knowing the fundamentals of a lot of positions so he’d have a lot of options,” Frank Sr. said. “He has studied the game and he has paid attention to every detail and he is an excellent teacher and in this business, that is the name of the game. And he’s a great motivator. We communicate a lot all the time and always have, but I think he’s beyond anything I could teach him now.”

NOTES — Pitt practiced without three tight ends yesterday. Seniors Nate Byham (headaches) and Dorin Dickerson (hamstring) are day to day and redshirt freshman Mike Cruz had another personal day and is considering his future. “I’m going to meet with Mike tomorrow [Monday] and hopefully we can get him back into this,” Wannstedt said. … Senior defensive tackle Gus Mustakas (recovering from knee surgery) was given the afternoon off. … Defensive lineman Justin Hargrove (Baldwin) has moved from end to tackle.

Paul Zeise can be reached at pzeise@post-gazette.com . First Published August 17, 2009 4:00 AM
===========

“Stan was encouraging
and appreciative,
and really couldn’t have been nicer”

Let the analysis begin 🙂

w
v

Not a lot of love for Jeff Fisher.
The panel thinks he’s Mediocre as a coach

http://www.rams-news.com/will-rams-finally-finish-over-500-in-2015-video/

w
v

zn wrote:

Raiders, C Stefen Wisniewski disagree on his value

by Larry Hartstein | CBSSports.com

http://fantasynews.cbssports.com/fantasyfootball/story/25017508/offseason-extra-free-agents-in-2015

Raiders center Stefen Wisniewski is set to hit free agency after he and the team were unable to agree on a contract extension during the season, reports ESPN.com. Wisniewski has missed only three starts in his first four years.

Wisniewski, who made $938,000 in base salary last year, likely is looking for $3 million or more annually, the report said.

Seems like he might be the Rams number
one target. Yes? No?

w
v

All i know is — and I’m repeating myself for the umpteenth time —
the entire season depends on the Oline.
They know Bradford is iffy, they know a rookie QB would be iffy,
they know Hill is iffy, they know a journeyman-Vet-QB will be iffy —
So I assume their thinking will be — Build a Brick WALL of an OLine.
Throw every resource at that one Unit. Do whatever you have to do
but make SURE that one Unit is topnotch.

The other units might have their flaws but they are
at least serviceable.

Its all about the Oline and they know it.
So…they’ll fix it. They have the cap space
and the players are out there.

Good things are going to happen
in year four.

Probably 16-0.

w
v

I for one am quite pleased.

I hated the idea of the
Olinemen, TE’s, RBs, WRs, and QBs having to learn
a New System.

Geez, its year four. Fer cryin out loud
no more system changes.

w
v

zn wrote:

I don’t really understand how you can think there’s no contract penalty
when he’s been playing for less than a million and now he’ll be playing
for fifteen million. I mean, thats a fourteen million dollar
penalty they way i look at it. Thats fourteen million dollars
they would have been able to spend on other players and now they cant.
Maybe this is just semantics, i dunno.

w
v

Because they have the cap space in 2015 and 2016 to handle it, and only a couple of major guys (Okung, Mebane) coming up in 2016 but that’s it.

It may be more money than before for Wilson, but they planned around it.

The point is they’re not going to lose anyone.

Yes it’s also true they can’t add anyone in terms of FAs, but…go through their roster and name their FAs.

The next 2 years also means trades and/or draft picks, and they’re good at both, and both are cheap.

Ok, I agree they planned for RW’s big raise, and they
have been brilliant with their personnel choices and personnel management.

But Wilson has been playing for peanuts and there aint
no more huge QB-discount. 15 million means they cant
add two New excellent players.

Should be very interesting to see what kind of team
the Seahawks put on the field next year. Does
a gutwrenching Super Bowl loss really affect
a team the next season? I dunno.

w
v

Dak wrote:

wv wrote:
jim, i was ready Bernies article about Faulk comments about the team and owner. I laugh at Bernies little rant against faulk…. st louis signed the contract to the dome and have known about the contract and did nothing till the last minute only after the ruling came out that st louis was in the wrong… dang… what a surprise they have to honor there part of the deal… Ive been a ram fan for 45 years and haven’t missed a game on tv since 1997. Hate to see them move but business is business and st louis did business poorly…. thanks for the chats and keeping us up on things.. we all appreciate it
simdoc 4:38 PM*

One, you have to go through the arbitration process. Two, Peacock has been working on this behind the scenes for well over a year. Three, LA has done next to nothing for 20 years to get a stadium. Four, San Diego has been at it for 15 years. I could go on. So you’re telling me St. Louis gets a year, a year and a half to meet Stan Kroenke’s schedule? Not the league’s schedule. But Stan Kroenke’s? Sorry. No sale. Obviously, Faulk’s entitled to his opinion, but he should stick to his area of expertise: the game of football.
jthomas 4:42 PM*
====================================

Its interesting how people have different ideas about
time-frames. JT sets the relevant time frame at “a year or a year and a half”.
But couldnt you argue that for years and years, the St.Louis folks have known this
issue was coming. And they did nothing?

I think both sides have points.

w
v

I really do think that when you’re talking about committing public funds, you go through the entire process. The CVC put together a plan to improve the Ed, which was the first step. I guess people can call that nothing, but it did cost money and effort to come up with the design. Then, they studied the Rams’ counter-proposal. There was a back-and-forth process that lately has been STL going forth, and SK giving nothing back.

During this entire process, SK has been more interested in L.A., apparently. So, while the Rams’ owner expects public aid for the project in STL, he’s moving forward with private money on an L.A. project. Then, SK is floating out there that he did indeed wait for STL’s cooperation but got bored and moved on — you know, trying to change the narrative. His actions, however, were of a man who avoided cooperation because he was looking to the West Coast.

I dunno Dak. The CVC dome-improvement plan was never ever
going to be taken seriously by Kroenke and they
should have known that. If they wanted to keep the Rams
they were gonna have to build a nice new stadium. Why didnt
the Peacock folks start working on this four years ago?

I mean thats a legitimate question, i think. A fair
question, i think.

I think the Peacock side also has valid
points and fair questions too.

But since both sides have reasonable points
and arguments — seems to me thats gonna tilt
things toward allowing the billionaire to move
the team, if thats what he wants to do.

There’s no ‘fairness’ in any of this btw 🙂
The move from LA wasn’t ‘fair’ and a move
back to LA wouldnt be ‘fair’. …call me a nihilist.

w
v

Everyday
is my birthday.

Cake, please.

And cheese-danish.

w
v

The actual catch by Butler is the most impressive
thing to me. He kinda twisted his body and threw
himself at the WR and took the Jolt,
and somehow still kept his eyes on the ball
and latched onto it.

One of the best football plays of the year, regardless
of the time and place.

w
v

PA Ram wrote:

Much better than last year.

Good game.
Actually enjoyed the halftime show and the dancing sharks.
Not big on the commercials(except for The Brady Bunch and Viagra car).
Did not stay to see Kurt hand the trophy to the Pats.
No controversial calls that decided things–that was good.
I hope the Rams get back again in my lifetime.

The Dancing Sharks were fine,
but no way the Brady Bunch should have been
on there — Partridge Family should
have been called. Only three things
can happen when you bring in the Brady Bunch
and two of them are bad.
Lets face it,
it was a bad call. I dont
even understand how they could
make a call like that.

w
v

Winnbrad wrote:

I have no problem with the call by Carroll. If it works, he’s hailed as a genius. If it doesn’t, then Carroll is probably expecting, at worst, an incompletion, which stops the clock.

Very low chance of a sack on that type of play, and if there is one, Seattle still has one time out left.

And he still has two chances left to score.

It was just one of those crazy football plays. We’ve all seen hundreds of them. Heck, there was one two plays before that, with the wacky catch.

Tough break for Seattle. Great play by the NE corner.

I remember a game between the Purple Gang
and the Rams.

Roman ran the ball three straight times at the one yard
line. Maybe it was four, i forget — stoned every time.

I got no problem with a pass down there
on second down.

w
v

Awesome defensive play.
I dont see how anyone could
blame the WR in any way, on that.

w
v

TSRF wrote:

I think I’ve been converted…

I hated Hockey growing up, especially trying to watch it on a black and white TV that needed rabbit-ear adjustments…
I couldn’t see the damned puck.
Now, with HDTV, its all there in living colour.
I guess it helps that I work with a bunch of rabid Bruins fans, and since I’m from Western CT and have always considered myself a Rangers fan by proximity, it got to the point that I had to watch games if I wanted to trash talk.
And you know what, I like it.
In my opinion, your average hockey player is much more relatable than your average NFL player.
I’ve watched a lot of football this season, 0 NBA (if anything, I’m a Knicks fan so I got nothing to watch…), and a lot of Rangers Hockey.
In years past, I had nothing to watch post Super Bowl. This year, I’m going to be following the Rangers’ playoff hunt.

I had an Art class back in 1970. The teacher told us to
bring in a picture of someone to draw. I was gonna bring
in a picture of Deacon Jones, but i forgot it at home.
So i had to scrounge around the classroom for a picture of
someone to draw — I found a Sports Illustrated cover
with Bobby Orr on it. So, i drew Orr, and got an “A”.

Thats my Hockey story.

w
v