Coaches Show Recap: “Gotta Keep the Train on the Tracks”

Written By: Ben Gillard (@benjgillard)

Head Coach Curt Cignetti sat down with “Voice of the Hoosiers” Don Fischer on Thursday for the fifth 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 road matchup against the Northwestern Wildcats this weekend.

Coach Cignetti started the show by giving his thoughts on the Hoosiers 42-28 win over the Maryland Terrapins last Saturday, saying, 

“They [Maryland] have got a lot of talent on that football team and really took it to Indiana last year. Our guys were ready to go, the game started, and we turned the ball over a few times offensively, uncharacteristic. Our defense really stepped up; I don’t think they gave up a first down after any of the turnovers… I’d like to have finished the game a little better, but it was a great win against a team that beat us decisively last season.” 

Cignetti then praised the fans who stuck it out in the rain, saying, “Really good crowd that was into the game. We’ve got to keep getting better as a team, and if we do our part, the crowds and the atmosphere will keep improving; we just gotta keep the train on the tracks.”

Highlighting the importance of energy that both the players and the crowd bring, Cignetti said, “Everything starts with energy, there’s no emotion, no movement without energy. You know the players have got to bring the energy from the locker room to the field. And then when the crowd adds to [the players’] energy with their energy, things can really get ramped up, and I’ve seen it many times. It’s good, I think every game at home has improved from that standpoint, and we just gotta keep moving forward.”

Fisch then asked Cignetti about how impressed he was with his team’s resiliency, to which Cignetti said, “You must be used to seeing the cookie crumble, because we really haven’t seen any real adversity yet this season. We haven’t been behind, which is unusual. We haven’t been down by two scores or three scores; I mean, I had a team in their first Sun-Belt game on the road, and we’re down 25 points in the 2nd quarter. You know we kept our poise, stayed at it, and won the game…I really don’t think we’ve seen any real adversity this year. I hope we don’t this Saturday, but you’ve got to be ready for it when it shows its head.”

Turning his attention to the Northwestern game this Saturday, Cignetti said, “This is the best defense we’ve seen yet. They play really hard; they’re always in the right place; they’ve got answers to problems; they do a great job disguising coverage on the back end; they want you to go the long way.” He then turned his attention to the offense, saying, “Offensively, they’ve struggled a little bit. They’ve run the ball pretty well in some games; the quarterback position’s been a little inconsistent, but they’ve got skill. They’ve got a kickoff return guy who I think is in the top 5 in the country; he had a 96-yard [return] against Washington.” 

Ultimately, Cignetti said, “This is going to be a tough challenge; I mean, we’ve gotta be on our p’s and q’s. We’ve got to go out there with the right mindset and take care of business.”

When asked what the keys to success are against the Wildcats, Coach Cig said, “We’ve got to win the line of scrimmage; we’ve got to stop the run game number one. Stop the run. And then we’ve got to affect the quarterback when he’s in the pocket and do a good job covering. We’ve got to swarm the football and create turnovers.”

Cignetti ended the program by sharing his thoughts on rankings as the Hoosiers have been ranked for the first time since 2021, saying, “The only thing that counts is what your record is when it’s all said and done and what your ranking is. So to us, it's just noise and clutter.” He went on to say, “I’m used to being ranked first, second, or third before we moved up to FBS, and then when we moved up to the FBS, we were ranked 25th after four weeks and were ranked most of the year last year.” Here’s hoping Cignetti will have the Hoosiers ranked for years to come.