Coaches Show Recap: “We’re Going to Have a Sellout Crowd that Stays for Four Quarters”

Written by Ben Gillard

Head Coach Curt Cignetti sat down with “Voice of the Hoosiers” Don Fischer on Thursday for the fourth 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 Big Ten home opener against the Maryland Terrapins this weekend.

Coach Cignetti started the show by giving his thoughts on the Hoosiers’ 52-14 victory over the Charlotte 49ers last week, saying, “A good win, fourth win, and we’ve gotten off to a good start obviously.” Cignetti then turned his attention to the first half, saying, “You know, I didn’t think we had a lot of energy coming out; we were up 17-7, they scored, and then it’s 17-14 with about 5:30 to go in the second quarter, not real pleased with what’s going on, and then we knocked it in the end zone twice … and I think we came out and played with better energy on defense early in the third quarter on one drive.” Cignetti was quick to qualify this criticism though, saying, “It’s a good win, you know? We’ve done some good things this year statistically, but none of that really matters. All that matters is that Maryland is about 36 hours away.”

Turning to the Maryland game, Fischer asked Cignetti about the potential weather issues as Hurricane Helene makes its way north. To this, Cignetti responded, “Yeah, but they’re talking about maybe no weather issues. I’m going to look at it that way. Hopefully it’s [Helene] out of here Friday or early Saturday morning, but you never know the weather.”

Cignetti then said, “I’m expecting that it is going to be gone; we’re going to have a sellout crowd that stays for four quarters that helps the team to an extra touchdown, and that we have a great day.” To which the audience at Hoosier Hank’s responded with cheers, hopefully an indication of a great crowd regardless of the weather.

On how the Terrapins match up with the Hoosiers, Cignetti said, “They [Maryland] are a talented football team; there’s no doubt about it … I think they’ve got a real dynamic receiving corps … you’ve got to tackle them, and we can’t let them get behind us. The quarterback is a senior; he’s completing 75% of his passes; he’s a real competitor; I know him well.” On defense Cignetti said, “They’ve got some real big, disruptive guys inside; they play a lot of people, really play a lot of people on the defensive line, and they’ve struggled in the secondary.”

Ultimately, Cignetti said to beat Maryland, “We’ve just got to play our game. We play poised, disciplined, play like we play.” He went on to praise the team, saying, “I’m not patting our team on the back, but we are outscoring people 66-0 in the first quarter, and 49-3 in the fourth, and 38-3 in the third … so that’s not bad.” Cignetti then made sure to highlight that this game will not be a walk in the park, saying, “We’re playing a team that beat us, not this team but the team that wore the Indiana uniforms, by 27 points, and it could have been 55 if they hadn’t called the dogs off. and this is going to be a very tough challenge.” 

Cignetti thinks his Hoosiers are up to the challenge, however, saying, “I just like our style of play, the way we play the game. We take a very business-like approach to it, one play at a time, we don’t get too high, we don’t get too low, we’re very methodical with the way we do things, and that consistency is going to help us Saturday if we can keep that going.”

The Hoosiers business-like approach is in large part thanks to Coach Cignetti’s hours and hours spent watching film. Cignetti said that he spends “80 out of 90 hours [in a week] easily” watching film, helping the players get ready for the game on Saturday. While he is at home, Coach Cignetti watches film in his prized Bradenton-Young chair. When asked about this chair, Cignetti said, “I’ve been married 35 years; we bought a Bradenton-Young, La-Z-Boy basically right off the bat, and we still have it. It’s my chair, and my wife has tried to replace it every time we move, and I won’t let her. It sits right in the TV room and doesn’t match anything.”

One thing is for sure: all that time watching film in that chair has helped get the Hoosiers rolling this season. Now it is time for the fans to follow Coach Cignetti’s orders and sell out the Rock and stay all four quarters.