Automatically by announcing your departure has caused many fans heartbroken, Indianapolis head coach….

Automatically by announcing your departure has caused many fans heartbroken, Indianapolis head coach….

Curt Cignetti left his position as head coach of the JMU football team on Thursday to take a similar position at Indiana. Jeff Bourne, the director of athletics, stated that afternoon that JMU intended to appoint a replacement within a week.

The deadline has passed, and no formal hire has been made as of yet.

Players continue to use the transfer site as the search committee continues to look for prospects behind closed doors. Twelve players had logged onto the portal as of Wednesday night, and five high school prospects had declared on social media that they had withdrawn their commitment from JMU.

The demand for a head coach has increased due to player and recruit departures. When Cignetti left, Bourne knew this, which is why he indicated the search appeared to be moving quickly.

Before the connection closes, Bourne stated, “I want to give the new coach at least a week or ten days to review things and have access to that portal.” It is alerting you to the fact that the window is getting smaller.

Time is of the importance for Bourne if he wants that window to remain in his new coach because the portal closes on January 2.

However, it appears that the committee has not yet reached a decision. Four applicants, all head coaches or past head coaches, were being considered by JMU, a source told the Daily News-Record (DN-R) on Saturday. Sources told The Athletic on Tuesday that Rutgers defensive coordinator Joe Harasymiak and head coach of Holy Cross Bob Chesney were among the other names being seriously examined.

The DN-R also revealed that on Monday, a jet carrying Bourne, graduate assistant coach Dimitri Holloway, faculty athletic representative Roger Soenksen from JMU, and Cliff Wood, the leader of the Montpelier Collective—an independent NIL collective that works with JMU student-athletes—departed Shenandoah Valley Regional Airport for Worcester, Massachusetts, with a stop in Teterboro, New Jersey, on the way back.