Cignetti Has Been Working Overtime to Prep for Notre Dame

Written By: Nick Gonzales (@nrgonzales_)

The week has finally arrived leading up into the Hoosiers first College Football Playoff appearance. After stomping Purdue, the Hoosiers have been waiting patiently for the past few weeks for the chance to prove themselves. While it’s disappointing for the Hoosiers to not make the Big Ten Championship, it has proven beneficial to the team giving them an extra week to rest their bodies to ensure they are as healthy as they can be when Friday arrives. While the players have probably enjoyed some time off, they are itching to get back to playing and so is Coach Cignetti who has been working overtime to prepare for the Fighting Irish.

“It (last week’s prep) was challenging. I did get home a lot later than I normally do, and I was still in early, 4:30, 5:00 a.m., because you're dealing with portal evaluations, official visits, and still opponent prep to some degree. Then you're dealing with your staff and your player retention as well. I'm glad that week is behind us,” Coach Cignetti stated during his Monday press conference.

Not only was Cignetti putting a brief game plan together for Notre Dame, but he was also dealing with the transfer portal which has been crazy this year. While Indiana is still looking for a potential quarterback transfer to fill Rourke’s shoes once he is done with the season, Cignetti’s main focus is always the next game (if you want to read more about Indiana’s latest portal activity, read about it on Hoosier Huddle).

“I think to me and our guys, in my mind, it's just another game. You prepare for this one like you prepare for all of them. I think for our players, they're going to be excited to play and excited to prove something,” Cignetti said on Monday.

It’s still a business trip in the team’s eyes, but the players can barely hold their excitement. JMU defensive line transfer, James Carpenter, said the other day in an interview how “surreal” it is to experience this “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” that he never thought would be possible as a walk-on at James Madison. However, he noted that the job is not done yet and they must get the job done on the road this weekend for a chance at the quarterfinals. Many of the players and coaches also see it as a chance to redeem themselves after the Ohio State game.

“I don't think anyone was happy with the way we came out of Ohio State. We didn't give ourselves a chance to be successful, giving up 14 points on the punt team and then having some of the communication breakdowns we had on pass pro. We didn't give ourselves a chance to play offense.

But I think our guys have learned from that too and we'll be better in a hostile environment than we were that particular day. At the end of the day, it's just football. The game is going to be won or lost between the white lines. I want them to go out there, fly around, have a little swag, and play the way we can play.” Coach Cignetti responded when asked about how the team can handle the stage and magnitude of the game.

With game week finally here. The Hoosiers are stepping up their preparations and putting it into high gear. As a self-pronounced “film junkie,” Cignetti says he’d rather be watching tape than anything else, other than sitting on his recliner, so during last week’s preparation, he had a lot of time to do so.

“We've been watching Notre Dame from the get-go. I also like the sense of urgency during game week in terms of preparation where you're more detailed and focused and putting that plan together. We put a few core things in that we've been practicing forever that fit the Notre Dame game, and we'll get a little bit more specific this week,” Cignetti responded when asked about how much film he watched during their week off.

With the game being on Friday, the Hoosiers don’t have as much time as they typically would during game week, so they’ll utilize the time they have by stacking days. As the only playoff game played on Friday, the whole nation will be tuned in to their TVs to see if Indiana can handle themselves and come out of South Bend with a trip to New Orleans and the chance to play in the New Year.