Coaches Show Recap: “We Got Ourselves An A+”

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 “The Old Brass Spittoon Game” against Michigan State this weekend.

Coach Cignetti started the show by praising the crowd and the atmosphere on Saturday, saying, “Things just continue to build; it’s like a tidal wave, the way it started and progressed to. All of our games are sold out, and of course we had Big Noon Saturday there the week before and College GameDay and that brought more and more people in, and we had a real gutty win against Washington.”

Cignetti continued by speaking on his experience with the College GameDay hosts, saying, “They were very complimentary; outstanding crowd and enthusiasm and excitement. We did well; we got ourselves an A+.” Cignetti also went on to talk about how much Lee Corso means to his family, telling a story about how when his father was diagnosed with cancer, Corso sent him a cross with supposed healing properties. His father kept it on his dresser the entire time he was in the hospital and eventually beat cancer.  

After this, Coach Cignetti then turned his attention to the Washington game, saying, “We went in there without Kurtis [Rourke] obviously…but we were very inconsistent offensively; we weren’t balanced; we left a lot of plays out there and didn’t execute great in the passing game.” Cignetti was pleased, however, with how his team responded to adversity, saying, “The offense has done a great job all year long responding when the defense gives up a touchdown; we did. We went down and scored again and then began to ground and pound…It was a good football game. Defensively, I thought we were really opportunistic…they’re all good wins, but we got that one done shorthanded.”

Cignetti ended the show by previewing the Hoosiers matchup with the Spartans this Saturday, saying, “Coach Smith got a lot of respect for him. [MSU] is a talented group… they’re going to run the ball, and they’ve got the play action pass and they’re going to chuck that thing way down the field, and that’s what they do… This is a really good football team, and we’re going to have to go out there and play our game and play it well.”