What Curt Cignetti Said During Wednesday's College Football Playoff Press Conference

Indiana football coach Curt Cignetti had an extra press conference this week. Here's everything he had to say during his final media availability before Friday's College Football Playoff game at Notre Dame.

Todd Golden | Dec 18, 2024

Indiana football coach Curt Cignetti speaks to the media during his pre-Notre Dame College Football Playoff press conference on Dec. 18, 2024. / Todd Golden | Hoosiers On SI

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BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - With Indiana in the College Football Playoff - the Hoosiers take on Notre Dame at 8 p.m. ET on Friday at Notre Dame Stadium - media availability works a little bit differently than the normal week-to-week routine.

There's been more player availability and the first media access to coordinators since fall camp, all of it required by CFP rules. It also means coach Curt Cignetti spoke twice this week to the media instead of his usual once-a-week press conference.

Cignetti did a Zoom meeting with the media on Wednesday. Here's everything he had to say.

Opening statement ...

Cignetti: Thursday practice on a Wednesday, cause of a Friday game, but creatures of habit, I know all of us coaches we write down, it's Thursday today, but even though it's Wednesday. So prep is almost done, but not quite done. I like where we're at. We've had a good week. and we're getting closer to kick off, so with that, I'll open it up to questions.

On Cignetti's personal history against Notre Dame ...

Cignetti: My first year as a graduate assistant coach at the University of Pittsburgh for Coach (Foge) Fazio. We had a pretty good team, played Notre Dame at Notre Dame. We went to Fiesta Bowl that year and won.

It was a tight game, low scoring, maybe 14-9 or something like that. Great game, I think Gerry Faust may have been the coach at Notre Dame at the time. '

Second time would have been -- I was coaching at Rice, so the year Notre Dame won the National Championship. I believe Lou Holtz was the head coach, '86 maybe -- or '88. End of the year, cold. Our guys, Rice, the weather is warm, come out pregame, I mean, it was really cold, sweatshirts on, the whole deal.

Notre Dame comes out, short sleeves. Nobody had long sleeves on. We scored first, but that was it after that. We got waxed.

Went up there with Johnny Majors (at Pittsburgh), got beat pretty good. Then played Notre Dame the last game at Pitt Stadium, old Pitt Stadium. I was working for Walt Harris near the end of the season. We beat Notre Dame. That was a memorable night.

Then played them in the Gator Bowl in 2002 at North Carolina State, Philip Rivers' junior year, I believe it was. We won, I think it was 31-13 or something. It was a good win. We won 10 or 11 that year at NC State.

Yeah, played them a few times and looking forward to this match up against a really good football team. They're a really good football team.

On Notre Dame quarterback Riley Leonard's running ability and extra prep time ...

Cignetti: I think the extra prep time is an advantage for both sides to learn their opponent, but sometimes you can have too much information. In my mind, what they do, I would call those plus one runs more so than option. We've seen those throughout the course of the season.

Now, who they're doing it with is the difference. They're good up front. Riley Leonard is a great competitor. He's got great mobility. He can throw the ball well also. Backs are good. There may be a little wrinkle that we haven't seen yet, but for the most part we've seen this kind of stuff and seen it through the years.

At the end of the day, it comes down to blocking, tackling, gap control, winning the line of scrimmage, and the fundamentals of football.

They've got a good offense. Riley Leonard is a big part of it. I've been watching him on tape for a few years, studying when he was at Duke. I think a lot of him as a player, and they did a nice job.

On linebacker Jailin Walker ...

Cignetti: Yeah, I love that guy, great guy to be around, always a smile on his face. Really good football player and a guy that really didn't come -- he came from a tough situation in Richmond, and football was like his way out. I've heard him express that a few times. And he loves the game.

When we recruited him, he was a running back and a linebacker. He's about 195 pounds. Coach Haines, I give him a lot of credit, from the very beginning, he thought he was a terrific prospect. From the day he set foot on campus back at James Madison, those things showed up -- speed, quickness, twitch, love of the game, passion. Made a lot of big plays at James Madison, game changing plays, and has done so here too. He's a topnotch guy.

He's a guy I'll really miss when it's all over, and we don't plan on this being over for a while. I think an awful lot of him. He loves football, loves it.

What's the most important thing for Friday's game ...

Cignetti: Play well from the first play to the last play.

On playing in potential snow ...

Cignetti: I hope it snows a foot and a half. We have a Canadian quarterback. Did you see him throw the ball against Purdue? This guy grew up like in the frigid north. He looked pretty good to me that night. So I don't think it's going to bother him very much.

So much revolves around that guy, right? Everybody else will find a way to stay warm, but it's not a concern. It's going to be cold. It's going to be windy. There could be snow on the ground. Both teams have to play on it.

We've been practicing outside in the cold for a long time. We played in it against Purdue. When we started the game, there was snow on the turf. It was cold. It was windy. So we've been through it.

Do CFP protocols change the travel routine at all ...

Cignetti: No, not really. This first round is treated as more of an away game. We'll have the normal Friday routine tomorrow, leave about the same time we normally would. We will charter a plane up there, flying to South Bend, take a bus to Michigan City about fifty minutes away, hotel, team meal, team meetings in the evening, have meetings in the afternoon before the game.

So not much is going to change for this one here.

On winning national Coach of the Year honors ...

Cignetti: Well, I've got to stand up for myself. I think I swept all the awards, not almost all. I'm not eligible for the Dodd (Award) because I haven't been here for a year.

No, it's a credit to our team and our coaches. You know, it's flattering. I haven't had a lot of time to think about it truthfully. I'm sure at some point it will register.

I think when you're young and you aspire to be good in any profession, these kinds of things are meaningful. But I've got to give a lot of credit, first of all, to our administration for providing the support and commitment that allowed us to have the means to be successful and then our staff who had a major role, Derek Owings, our strength and conditioning coordinator, the assistant coaches in developing these players.

Then the players themselves, who chose Indiana, bought into a vision and a dream. They had to dig deep. They had to do their research, and believed it was possible. A lot of them were looking for a bigger stage to prove themselves, and they've bought in. They received the message. They apply it daily. They've been very consistent. They've been a great group to coach.

It's never perfect, never always perfect. There's a hiccup here and there. But this team has really a lot of kids on it that are great leaders and a lot of character on this football team, a lot of experience, a lot of guys that have been two, three, four-year starters, have been very consistent through the years. You know, it all come together.

I hear a lot about our schedule, right? When the season started, we were playing the defending national champ, the runner-up, and Ohio State, and six or seven teams that have played in bowl games. We have the largest margin of victory in the country, and if you just look at P4 teams, it's the second largest margin of victory.

Then I hear we haven't beaten a top 25 team. When we played Nebraska, they were 25th in the coaches poll. We were 18th. We beat them 56-7. At the end of the day, those awards -- back to the awards, right? This is where all this started. I'm very appreciative. I'm humbled. But I've got to give credit where credit is due, and that's to everybody else in this organization.

On putting phones away at meetings and the focus and psyche of the team ...

Cignetti: That was the coaches meeting, staff meeting. They were to give the players the message also because nowadays everybody's got their phone, right? But turn the phones off in the meetings.

I've really seen the focus, the prep, the urgency on the practice field, the speed at which we practice, the execution level really ratchet up a notch or two. Not that it was not good in the off week, but this is game week, and it's different.

I like where we're at, and I hope I like where we're at when I walk off the practice field this evening, but I'm confident that I will.

On building the roster and how similar or different this season has been in that regard ...

Cignetti: Well, invention is the mother of necessity or vice versa. I may have that backwards.

We had a desperate roster situation when I came. Ten offensive starters in the portal, half the defense. Within a week or ten days, we were down to 40 guys. It wasn't like we were running guys off. It was just the times. The coach leaves, and we had a lot of guys from Texas and wherever and what have you.

Once the evaluation process started, there was familiarity with a lot of these guys. Most of the guys we recruited, somebody in the organization knew them well.

And the JMU thing, like I said a number of times, I never once even thought that that was a remote possibility because this process happened so quickly, I was making the decision on what I was going to do. But then as soon as I got here, they started to jump in the portal. One guy came, and his buddy would come and led to what it was.

I knew these guys could play, and I knew they could help us, and I knew we needed them. Because we had to change the culture. We had to change what people think. We had to bring some people in here who were used to winning championships, used to going to bowl games. Then you bring guys in here like Myles Price, who Derek Owings knew real well; Trey Wedig, who Bob Bostad knew real well; Ellison, who we had recruited at JMU, Ke'Shawn Williams, both from Wake Forest. I know I'm going to forget people, but Shawn Asbury we had recruited twice, once out of high school when he went to BC, and once on the way back from BC when he went to ODU. Terry Jones his teammate.

Kurtis Rourke, who we really didn't have a tie to, but researched him, liked him on tape. This was a great opportunity for him based on our track record with quarterbacks and the guys we were adding to the portal. And obviously he has thrived. I know I'm forgetting some people.

I guess every coach is different in terms of their valuation when it comes to recruiting. My experience as a recruiting coordinator, when I went with Johnny Majors to Pitt in 1993 and I was -- technically had that title throughout -- until I left Alabama, left the staff at Alabama. So I was always very involved in the recruiting and evaluation process.

I got my mistakes out of me at a young age, unfortunately for Coach Majors, and learned a lot in terms of what I was looking -- what the prototypical prospect that came to a four-year school and was successful, what that looked like in high school or now in the transfer portal versus the guy that had potential, could be -- but hadn't quite put it together yet.

So production over potential, you've heard me say it a million times, it worked for us.

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