Here's everything Curt Cignetti said after Indiana football's first training camp practice

Indianapolis Star

3 days ago

It's finally college football season. Indiana football opened its fall training camp Wednesday with a morning practice.
The Hoosiers are coming off a historic season in which they made their first College Football Playoff appearance. Coach Curt Cignetti has maintained a consistent message leading up to camp: Last season is over and they must earn success this season. It's not unsurprising from a man who has kept the same recliner for more than 35 years.
Though some may have been surprised by IU being near the top of the Big Ten, even despite Cignetti's history of winning. And it's possible his team wins plenty in his second season after bringing in standout transfer quarterback Fernando Mendoza, retaining key players on both sides of the ball and filling holes through the transfer portal.
Cignetti spoke with reporters following the first practice. Here's a transcript of what he said.
Cignetti: Practice 1 in the books. It was hot, and it was humid, but I thought the older guys, experienced guys, pushed through it well. The team, in general, did push through it well.
We got our work done. Took a business-like approach. Haven't watched the tape yet. We'll do that after this press conference with the staff, but it's good to be back and good to get going.
Q. Curt, you mentioned having those veterans. When you have so much continuity on the coaching staff and you bring back key guys kind of across the roster, does that eliminate some uncertainty you might otherwise have going into fall camp about kind of the team or the roster at all?
Cignetti: I think the staff, we know what to expect from one another. The experienced guys that we have a long history with, the same. To bring in experienced guys from other programs is good. We just have assimilate them into our way of doing things, which we began doing last January.
You know, you're as good as you are today. Your résumé, your body of work in the past is sort of an indicator, a predictor of what the team is capable of doing, or the staff, but you got to put the work in. You got to find the edge every day.
It's that kind of business where the margin for error is very slim, and that's what makes it such a great game and such a great profession. It's challenging.
Q. Curt, I recognize some of this probably you only find out with experience, but this is the start of kind of only having 105. Normally you have more walk-ons, which I imagine allows you to do a little bit more in terms of the way you plan scout team and things like that, and of course, you've had success with guys like James Carpenter that joined you as walk-ons and wound up becoming really important players. What are the differences in the way you plan around how you manage your roster in the preseason if you don't have the complement you once did?
Cignetti: Truthfully I've always been a small roster guy. I don't think we've ever had 110 guys on our roster, and most years we've been at or below 105. So really it's business as usual.
I don't like a huge support staff, coaching staff. I don't like a real big team, 130 guys. I want everybody in the organization on the football team to have a role and be the right kind of people because everybody affects somebody else positively or negatively. For us it's business as usual, and the size of our roster is really no different than it's been most years. Probably a little bigger. There are a number of years I've been in the 90s.
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Q. There were a couple of linemen out there that were obviously missing spring in Benson and Evans. I know it's just one day in, but just your thoughts on how they looked out there getting back in the groove of things and your confidence level and the depth that you guys have built on the O-line?
Cignetti: Yeah, well, until I watch the tape, I can't really say. We're also practicing without pads, so give us three or four days, but it's good to have both those guys back.
They've played successful physical. Gives us more depth. I'm very high on the potential of our offensive line, and Bob Bostad does a good job of coaching those guys. A tough, old-school guy. I think we've got a chance to be good.
Q. What are the differences and challenges from a Year 1 like last year to a Year 2 of a program? What becomes, I don't want to say, easier, but more routine, and what new challenges do you have to see to make sure you guys are improving?
Cignetti: Well, to me every year you've got to start over regardless of how long your tenure has been or what your record was the previous year. You always start at ground zero and build it from the foundation up.
The expectation level, you know, on the outside, some of the noise, is a little different, but I think one of the things we really got to do a great job of is staying focused on the things that affect positive development individually and collectively and kind of block all the other stuff out.
It's a great game. It's entertainment. I think taking a business-like approach, checking your ego at the door when you enter the building, being totally focused, being where your feet are, controlling the controllables is the key to the drill.
Like I've said before, the season is a marathon. It's not a sprint. You've got to be able to handle success, failure, overcome obstacles, and you have to do that during the game too, good game, bad game. You have to be able to compartmentalize, rip off the rearview mirror, and play the next play. To me it's more of the same than different.
Q. Curt, this is only Day 1, but we're only four weeks away from game one. What do you guys have to do every day to get to the point where you want to be with this short time frame?
Cignetti: I think we have to have a great sense of urgency, have great focus, and maximize our opportunities across the board and really develop these guys, identify roles, who can do what, build depth, promote competition and then get ready to play the opener against Old Dominion, a Sun Belt team that we're familiar with from JMU.
I addressed Old Dominion in the team meeting, the first team meeting, because these Sun Belt teams are very capable. They have a history of knocking off (Power Four), or in the past they were called FBS teams. We beat Virginia. Marshall beat Notre Dame. App State beat A&M. Louisiana beat Mississippi State and on and on and on. They're good teams. When you play them early in the year when they're healthy and they're at full strength, they're especially dangerous.
Throw in the first game, certainly the first game what's changed, what's different from last year. So we have to be ready to go, but we will be.
Q. Just continuing on that with Old Dominion and the early nonconference games, what's your message to the fan base to kind of generate more enthusiasm about those early games?
Cignetti: Well, I just addressed Old Dominion. I'm not worried about anybody else. My focus is on camp, developing this football team, but we are 20 practices away from the opener, which creates a sense of urgency to get a lot done in a short amount of time with an eye on ODU. I really don't have an eye on anybody else.
I mean, we did our opponent scout in the spring in the offseason. I expect us to sell out. I know one of those games is a Friday night game. It gets a little tougher to get to the stadium for some people on a Friday night, but we create a lot of excitement around here, and I expect us to have great crowds.
The focus right now is getting in the room with the coaches, watching practice tape, evaluating who did what, how we did, putting tomorrow's practice together, installation, and having a great practice tomorrow, all leading toward running out of the tunnel for the first game.
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Q. Your receiving corps, really good players coming back. Preseason accolades on paper looks really good. What are the key things for Cooper and the whole group to go from really good to maybe moving in toward that elite territory?
Cignetti: I think they've got to, No. 1, commit and have the discipline to achieve their goals and understand that you can't rest on your laurels. That just doesn't happen on its own.
I always talk about that margin for error, the difference between winning and losing, and how small it is. Every day you've got to relentlessly pursue the edge, what gives you the edge, and discipline, commitment, and work ethic, purposeful preparation create an edge. That's what we need from those guys and all the other key guys that they're going to be playing a lot of football for us.
Q. Rolijah Hardy was a pretty late add last year. I want to say it was May 24. When did he land on your radar? Where did he grow last year?
Cignetti: Coach (Bryant) Haines found him, evaluated him. I believe we brought him in for a late spring or early summer visit. After the Northwestern game, which was in the middle of the season, he became the third linebacker in our trio package, which we use against two tight ends, 12 personnel. He's got a great future.
Q. You mentioned in Vegas about Jamari Sharpe positioning himself to start opposite of D'Angelo Ponds. What has he shown you in the spring and then at the end of last season that has put him in that position to be that?
Cignetti: I think he's grown up a lot and improved as a football player. He has a couple of guys breathing down his neck that have a chance to be good players too, so we've got good competition at that field corner spot.
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Q. How has your life changed in Indiana from a year ago when you got here and not that many people knew much about you, and now can you even walk down the street without being recognized or applauded, so to speak?
Cignetti: Yeah, well, we did go through that phase. You know, gas at 5 a.m., and two or three selfies at 5 a.m. People waiting for you outside the office when you leave.
So that's all part of being successful, I understand. I grew up in this business and been in it a long time. But you don't meet expectations and you don't do as well as you would like, things can turn real fast the other way.
I think what's changed the most besides the familiarity with all the people in town — and it's a great town, great college town — is everything in my house works now. We bought a house from a guy named Tom Martin, who was friends of Bobby Knight, and it had a lot of toys in it. It took my wife about a year to get everything to work. Not that he neglected it because he didn't.
So we have a lot of new faces on the football team too. That's changed, but I think that's most people across the country now.
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Q. Coach, with Pat Coogan, what was it that really intrigued you about him to have him come here, and then has the center position — how much has that evolved over the years? Maybe more responsibilities, more to do?
Cignetti: Yeah, well, you know, Pat started at Notre Dame, a great program. Played a lot of football for them. Was an older guy, was looking for a home. He had a girlfriend that went to school here. We were looking for a center. Mike Katic had graduated. It was a perfect fit. Sure glad we got him, and I think he's going to be a great leader for us.
I think the center position, like most of the other positions on the football team, have evolved quite a bit as technology has improved and the game has become more sophisticated. I think offense, defense, special teams are more complex than they used to be, but the learning tools and the teaching tools available to the student-athletes have improved also, so their ability to learn faster, quicker, and more has changed as the game has changed.
Q. You talk about avoiding complacency time and time again. Twenty practices, how do you avoid that from day in and day out?
Cignetti: Well, right now we're looking for consistency in performance. A lot of the older guys have been to it. Some of the guys went through last season, and some of the older guys that are projected to start joined us in January and had a taste of it in the spring. So they're still learning too.
But what you're looking for is consistency in performance individually and collectively day in, day out. You want to stay on that kind of a trajectory and keep improving, every play, every drill, every day. When you get 11 guys doing their job the way you want them to do it and teach our brand of ball, there's really no limits on what you can accomplish.