BLOOMINGTON — Monshun Sales will be a fitting talent to become Indiana football’s first 5-star signee in program history.
The Lawrence North receiver verbally committed to the Hoosiers on Friday, July 17 during an appearance on The Pat McAfee Show. The state’s top recruit had plenty of options with Ohio State, Alabama, Texas and LSU all making him a priority target.
Indiana coach Curt Cignetti and his staff held their own against those blue bloods to reel in the consensus top-20 recruit out of the 2027 class.
For Cignetti, landing Sales the result of the success he’s had developing receivers going back to his days on Nick Saban’s staff at Alabama. As Saban’s receivers coach, he played a key role in turning Julio Jones into a perennial All-SEC talent.
When Jones officially announced his retirement last year with a video on social media, he gave Cignetti a shout out in the same breath as Saban.
As a head coach, Cignetti has developed a well-earned reputation for identifying quarterbacks who fit his scheme, but his staff’s eye for talent, coaching acumen and game planning at receiver is just as impressive.
With Mike Shanahan coaching the position, Cignetti’s teams have produced at least one all-conference selection from 2020-25. They’ve had multiple all-conference selections in the same season three times during that stretch.
One of those instances came last year with Elijah Sarratt and Omar Cooper Jr. ranking among the Big Ten’s top-10 receivers in receptions, yards and touchdowns. Cooper, who also went to Lawrence North, became Shanahan’s third pupil to earn All-American honors and ended up getting drafted in the first round. Sarratt, a one-time Division II signee, got in the fourth round.
The strides Charlie Becker made as a sophomore were just as impressive.
He emerged as the most dangerous deep threat in the country the minute he hit the starting lineup at midseason. Becker came through with a series of increasingly difficult clutch catches during the playoffs to help IU win a national title.
It’s the exact scenario Cignetti laid out for Indiana early in his tenure. At Big Ten Media Days in 2024, he foreshadowed landed players of Sales-caliber.
“We’re going to win here and show them the facts in black and white, backing it up with numbers,” Cignetti said of his message to recruits. “What we’ve done at JMU, what we’ve done at quarterback, receiver, defensive line and things like that.”
That ready-made recruiting pitch had to make an impression on Sales, a 6-foot-5, 195-pounder who will hit campus next year with aspirations of reaching the next level as soon as he is eligible.
There isn’t a coach or staff in the country currently better suited to get him there than Cignetti.
Michael Niziolek is the Indiana beat reporter for The Bloomington Herald-Times. You can follow him on X @michaelniziolek and read all his coverage by clicking here.
This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Indiana football had recruiting pitch ready for Monshun Sales
Reporting by Michael Niziolek, The Herald-Times / The Herald-Times
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By Michael Niziolek, The Herald-Times | USA TODAY Network
