With the Las Vegas Raiders looking for a new quarterback and head coach this offseason, many have speculated that Indiana\u2019s combination of Fernando Mendoza and Curt Cignetti could continue working together in Las Vegas.<\/p>\n
The Hoosiers are playing for the College Football National Championship on Monday night, and the Raiders are expected to use the No. 1 overall pick in the 2026 on Mendoza. So, keeping that head coach-quarterback together is a intruiging option for many in Raider Nation.<\/p>\n
However, ahead of the title bout against the Miami Hurricanes, Cignetti shot down any rumors about him making the jump to the pros.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not an NFL guy. I made that decision a long time ago when I went with Chuck Amato to NC State in 2000. I had a chance to go with the Packers,\u201d Cignetti said Saturday, Jan. 17 from CFP media day in Miami (h\/t Indy Star\u2019s John Leuzzi<\/a>). \u201c… I declined the opportunity. I almost took it. That\u2019s when I made the final decision, and I\u2019ve always been more of a college football guy.\u201d<\/p>\n The 64-year-old, who turns 65 in June, has been in coaching since 1983 and has never left the college ranks. Also, he signed a contract extension with Indiana earlier this season. So, keeping the Mendoza-Cignetti tandem together with the Raiders always seemed more like a hypothetical connection than a legitimate option. Meanwhile, the organization is moving on to second interviews with candidates this week, holding a few meetings in Miami<\/a> as the team\u2019s brass watches its next quarterback, presumptively, on Monday night.<\/p>\n In Other Raiders\u2019 Links:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With the Las Vegas Raiders looking for a new quarterback and head coach this offseason, many have speculated…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":688703,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2065],"tags":[7,1744,393,86540,4241,2455,2454,6,525],"class_list":{"0":"post-688702","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-las-vegas-raiders","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-las-vegas","10":"tag-las-vegas-raiders","11":"tag-las-vegas-raiders-coaching-staff","12":"tag-las-vegas-raiders-news","13":"tag-lasvegas","14":"tag-lasvegasraiders","15":"tag-nfl","16":"tag-raiders"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115921960770786978","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/688702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=688702"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/688702\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/688703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=688702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=688702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=688702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}