Coaches Show Recap: “Championship Teams Find A Way To Win Football Games”

Written By: Ben Gillard (@benjgillard)

Head Coach Curt Cignetti sat down with “Voice of the Hoosiers” Don Fischer on Thursday for another episode of “Inside IU Football.” Over the course of the hour-long show, Coach Cig spoke on how he feels the Hoosiers are playing and what he wants to see from the team heading into their second bye week of the season.

From the very first minutes of the show, the excitement amongst Indiana fans was palpable. In front of a packed Hoosier Hanks crowd, Cignetti joked, “The Hoosier Hanks showing reminds me of our stadium from the first game of the season to the middle of the season to the end of the season. This is overflow; this is unbelievable, and I’ve gotta thank everyone for coming out.”  

Cignetti then went on to jokingly jab Fischer for his opening of the show, where he described IU’s upcoming game against Ohio State as “the biggest game in IU football history.” To this, Cignetti said, “I’ve got to take some exception here, ‘the biggest game in IU football history.’ I mean, you’re such a media guy. It's a big game cause it's the next game. Every game is the only game coming up, and that’s what makes it a big game. But what happens is, if you keep becoming successful, then the meaning of the next game and next game becomes bigger.” 

Cignetti then shared his thoughts on the Hoosiers 20-15 victory over Michigan, saying, “We really had a chance to distance ourselves, I thought in the first half. Really, [we] just had some missed opportunities. There wasn’t much getting done on offense, and so the defense kept responding and responding; it was a physical game.” 

Coach Cig then made sure to highlight Ke’Shawn Williams’ key punt return: “He basically took the team on his back right there. He went and attacked that ball; it wasn’t an easy catch…that was a huge play in the game. But we found a way to get it done, and championship teams find a way to win football games.”

Turning his attention to the bye week, Cignetti said, “I think it is a really good time to have a bye week, right now.” Perhaps most importantly, Cignetti updated fans on the health of WR Myles Price and RB Justice Ellison, both of whom suffered apparent injuries against Michigan. “Some of those hard hits, those guys are all ok. They’re practicing right now.” This came as a huge sigh of relief to the crowd at Hoosier Hanks, who erupted in applause.

Ultimately, as Cignetti says, “We approach every bye week the same way. We’re going to get refreshed number one, recharged, and still stay sharp with our timing and fundamentals on the practice field. We’ll kind of slow cook this next opponent, the same thing we did against Nebraska.”

Cignetti ended the show by touching on how fast the culture at IU has shifted,  saying, “I didn’t come here to lose, but we had a lot of work to do when I got here. Because we had so many guys in the portal, and we had to change the way a lot of people thought. But I knew on that December signing date when we got those 22 transfers, I knew we had flipped the roster, and I knew we had a shot.”