Indiana football head coach Curt Cignetti spoke with the media on Tuesday in Las Vegas at the main podium to address a variety of topics.<\/p>\n
Below is his full Q&A, as well as a full transcript.<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t forget to his that Subscribe<\/a> button on YouTube!<\/p>\n<\/p>\n CIGNETTI: Good to be here. Exciting time getting ready to start camp. Always great to be on the roster, especially when your first year was 1983 and you\u2019re into your 40-some odd years of coaching.<\/p>\n I would like to thank Tony Petitti for his leadership, Pam Whitten, Scott Dolson for their commitment to the Indiana football program. Year one is in the books. 126 years of Indiana football. Best season in Indiana history. No. 1 out of 126.<\/p>\n I think staff continuity has been a big part of our success through the years, regardless of where we\u2019ve been, and kudos to them. With the 10-0 start, the staff holds the distinction of being the only staff in NCAA history to start the season 10-0 at two different schools and did it in successive seasons back-to-back.<\/p>\n I get questions, how are you going to sustain it? We\u2019re not looking to sustain it. We\u2019re looking to improve it. And the way you do that is by having the right people on the bus, upstairs in the coaches\u2019 offices, downstairs in the locker room; having a blueprint plan and process; high standards of expectations, never lowering your standards; day-to-day plan, highly structured and organized; organizational discipline to improve in critical areas, which usually you have to do with player development, scheme development, program development, and create those intangibles entering the season. Consistency day in, day out.<\/p>\n Consistency is huge so that we can play fast, physical, relentless, smart, disciplined, poised, not affected by success, not affected by failure, and never ever satisfied until the game is over.<\/p>\n This year\u2019s team has a lot of nice pieces. I would use that term, \u201cpieces.\u201d Now we\u2019ve got to mold this group into a team in fall camp.<\/p>\n I like a lot of parts on this team. Now we\u2019ve got to get them all thinking alike, buying into the team vision, which is critical to success. You can\u2019t ever have any selfishness on your team, ever, regardless of who it is. Personal goals are secondary to team goals. When a team is successful, everyone benefits. So we\u2019ve got a blueprint. We\u2019ve got a plan. We try to improve it, our methods, but for the most part, continuity in staff, everyone thinking alike. Understanding what needs done and how we do it has been the key to the drill.<\/p>\n Excited for this season. Got a good Big Ten schedule, and it will all be done between the white lines. Talking season will end here soon, and then let\u2019s play the games and see where it stands at the end of the year.<\/p>\n Let me open it up for questions. Go ahead.<\/p>\n Q: What attracted you to Fernando Mendoza? And then also, the success of last year, how has that changed your program for the better? What has it done?<\/p>\n CIGNETTI: Fernando Mendoza, we had his younger brother, Alberto, in the program. He actually signed for us and was committed to us at JMU. When I went to Indiana, he came to Indiana. I\u2019ve been aware of him. Watched a lot of his Cal tape once he decided to enter the portal. Saw a quarterback that had played a lot of football, a lot of good football. Has size. Has mobility, quick release, good arm. Can extend plays. Smart guy.<\/p>\n He has areas he has to improve, but I really liked his last five days of spring ball. I have a lot of confidence in him. Excited to see how he develops.<\/p>\n Last year\u2019s success, you know, has helped us in so many different ways. It\u2019s helped the university fundraising at all levels, academic and athletic. Indiana has the second-largest alumni base in America to Texas. So there was a lot of Hoosier pride out there.<\/p>\n Obviously it opened a lot of doors in the recruiting process because the first year we were selling promises, things we had accomplished in the past. Now we put it on the field. So we had better-looking athletes walking through the doors.<\/p>\n Okay, now that\u2019s all done. Last year is done. All the Coach Cignetti pictures in the buildings on game days, get them off the walls, all that stuff. Everything is earned, not given now. Okay? Nothing good in life comes easy. What\u2019s cheap won\u2019t last. What lasts isn\u2019t cheap. You got to pay the price every single day, and do it consistently. When you are good, then you got to have that burning desire to be great because 98% of this game is between your ears. Next question.<\/p>\n Q: I spoke with Mikail earlier, he talked about the standard you just spoke of and last year getting everyone to buy into what you brought over from James Madison. This year how much do you rely on those returners, the leaders that have followed you, to sort of help teach that philosophy and teach that standard and sort of become coaches under the helmet?<\/p>\n CIGNETTI: You know, it\u2019s a top-down approach. Everything starts with me, trickles down to the assistants. They\u2019re in charge of their room or their area. You can never have enough good leaders on your football team down in the locker room.<\/p>\n There is a small contingent of JMU guys still on this team that\u2019s played really good football for a long time, that has the right stuff, and leads in a positive way. Those guys are invaluable.<\/p>\n But we have other guys on our team that are good leaders. Coogan coming in from Notre Dame. Smith, Carter Smith, our left tackle. I mean, I could name 10 or 12 guys that have potential to be really good leaders on our football team.<\/p>\n You win with people because the season is not a sprint. It\u2019s a marathon. You got to be able to handle success. You\u2019ve got to be able to handle failure. You\u2019ve got to do the right things off the field. You have to stay away from the land mines. You have to pick other guys up when they\u2019re down, but you have to have consistency and performance game in, game out, week in, week out.<\/p>\n Especially when you\u2019re successful, right? You can\u2019t have the warm fuzzies, become complacent, begin to hate the things that got you to where you are. That stuff is not hard. Those are things that aren\u2019t talked about very much, but to go the distance, those are the things that you\u2019ve got to thrive and be good at.<\/p>\n Q: You guys recently announced that you canceled a future home-and-home series with Virginia. Can you talk about what went into that decision and why you think that\u2019s in the best interest for your program and the fans?<\/p>\n CIGNETTI: That was a scheduling philosophy that began before I was hired, but I did sign off on it upon being hired before our first season, okay?<\/p>\n Look, here\u2019s the bottom line, okay \u2014 we picked up an extra home game, and we play nine conference games. The two best conferences in college football, any football guy that\u2019s objective will tell you, are the Big Ten and the SEC, all right?<\/p>\n Twelve of the 16 SEC teams play three G5 or an FCS game. Twelve of those teams play 36 games \u2014 29 G5 games and seven FCS games \u2014 and one less conference game.<\/p>\n So we figured we would just adopt SEC scheduling philosophy. You know, some people don\u2019t like it. I\u2019m more focused in on those nine conference games.<\/p>\n Not only do we want to play nine conference games, okay, and have the four-four championship \u2014 the playoff format \u2014 we want to have play-in games to decide who plays in those playoffs. Championship weekend, let\u2019s play three versus six and four versus five. You want to decide that on the field and make sure everybody\u2019s strength of schedule is what it needs to be? Let\u2019s make everybody play nine conference games, and on championship weekend three will play six, four will play five. There\u2019s still room for another at-large in that format.<\/p>\n Why shouldn\u2019t the Big Ten have four AQs? Because Ohio State actually finished fourth in the conference at the end of the season. Indiana and Penn State were tied for second. They won the tiebreaker. Ohio State won the national championship. You want to put the best teams in the playoffs, give the best leagues the AQ, but make them earn it with play-in games.<\/p>\n We wouldn\u2019t be opposed to Big Ten-SEC regular season games every year. We need to standardize the schedule across the board if we want to have objective criteria for who should be in the playoffs and who shouldn\u2019t, and we need to take the decision-making off the committee to some degree.<\/p>\n Q: Your first season culminated in an 11-1 season and a CFP berth. A meteoric rise in just 14 months. You already talked based on the standard a little bit. How are you ensuring your Cinderella culture now becomes the standard and not just the exception?<\/p>\n CIGNETTI: Hey, look, the theme of this year really is humble and hungry versus noise and clutter.<\/p>\n Humble and hungry. If you are humble and you are hungry and you got that fire burning inside your belly and you\u2019re committed to high standards, okay, and the leadership has a good plan \u2014 structured, organized plan that\u2019s going to lead to your development and team development \u2014 then you\u2019re going to reach your full potential.<\/p>\n Okay?<\/p>\n If you are resting on your laurels and you got the warm fuzzies based on what social media is telling you or what you read on social media and you think it\u2019s just going to happen again because it happened before, you ain\u2019t going to be a very happy camper when the season is over. My job is to make sure that doesn\u2019t happen.<\/p>\n Now, I\u2019m really good at a couple of things. I know I got to improve in a lot of ways, but I\u2019m really good at keeping the main thing the main thing and being a watchdog for complacency and stomping it out. When we go to camp and we get ready for that first game, these guys will be thinking like we need them to think.<\/p>\n Q: You talked about how it is pretty hard to top the greatest season in school history. Last year you talked about how you were excited about NIL. You just mentioned you have the second-largest alumni base. What are some key non-negotiables that you have for NIL budgeting or even just ethics going forward to kind of prevent some of the things you just talked about, like complacency, especially whether it be high school or kids coming out the portal?<\/p>\n CIGNETTI: I think we\u2019re talking about two different issues there. On one side we\u2019re talking about player development and becoming the best you can be, and on the other side we\u2019re talking about institutional resources that lead to retention and recruiting.<\/p>\n Our goal is to be the best. This is a great league. There\u2019s some schools in this conference that have great tradition for a long, long time and have some incredible resources.<\/p>\n I personally \u2014 my personal goal is we\u2019re in the top one-third of the conference when it comes to resources in all areas that are critical to program success.<\/p>\n Now, the landscape is still changing, changing as we speak today. You\u2019ve got to be light on your feet and nimble, and at some point hopefully down the road this thing will settle down and we\u2019ll have clear rules and regulations on how we operate.<\/p>\n Not yet a member of TheHoosier? Take advantage of our launch with On3 and\u00a0join our community<\/a>! Just $1 for your FIRST MONTH and then 50% off the rest of your FIRST YEAR! Join\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Indiana football head coach Curt Cignetti spoke with the media on Tuesday in Las Vegas at the main…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":228070,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[16784,7,723,20593,49,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-228069","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-curt-cignetti","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-in","11":"tag-indiana-hoosiers-bloomington","12":"tag-ncaa","13":"tag-ncaa-football"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114899107638990454","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228069","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=228069"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228069\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/228070"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=228069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=228069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=228069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}