Indiana football head coach Curt Cignetti met with the media to discuss the win over No. 9 Illinois and the road trip to Iowa.
Notes
– IU comes in the AP poll at 11 and in the Coaches Poll at 12.
– IU travels to Iowa (3-1) at 3:30pm ET on Peacock
– IU was named PopTarts Team of the Week
– Curt Cignetti was named Bobby Dodd National Coach of the Week
– QB Fernando Mendoza was named Big Ten Co=Offensive Player of the Week among a handful of other awards
Curt Cignetti Quotes:
Opening Statement
Cignetti: Regardless of the final score, there’s always things that show up on tape that have got to get corrected. Believe me, there’s plenty there.
So really more interested in moving on to our next opponent, which will be a real challenge at Iowa. Got a lot of respect for Coach Ferentz, everything he’s accomplished throughout his career as a head coach and as an assistant, too.
He was a great line coach before he became a head coach. And he was a graduate assistant at Pitt in 1980. I was a graduate assistant at Pitt in ’83 and ’84. He used to come by the offices now and then. Had a chance to — met him a couple of times out and around. Got to know him during the Big Ten meetings. Congratulate him on the big win a couple weeks ago to make him the winningest coach in the Big Ten.
And Iowa, it’s a tough place to play, Kinnick Stadium. They sell out almost every Saturday. It’s loud. So we’re going to have to play well. This will be a challenge, a more difficult challenge than the last one, for sure. And the sooner our guys realize that, the better.
On if he has any history with Kinnick Stadium…
Cignetti: Yeah, I do not.
On if the defensive personnel are more versatile this year…
Cignetti: Bryant (Haines) always mixes things up pretty good, finds ways to get to the quarterback, create TFLs. I don’t think anything has changed in that regard. That was probably more about the one-on-one match-ups.
But, look, we have some egregious mistakes on the back end, particularly at safety. We have about five of them in that game. And we only got exposed once because of them. If we don’t clean those up, we’re going to get fractured. And you can’t put that stuff on tape.
On Kaden Wetjen and threat he poses in the return game…
Cignetti: A great returner, great returner. And they’ve always done a good job on kickoff return. And he took that first swing against Rutgers, he was about five yards deep and was really untouched. He’s an excellent punt returner.
He’s in the 30s on kickoff return and punt return. So we’re going to have to do a great job there, be prepared and give great effort and tackle in space, defeat blocks.
On what he’s getting from Amare Ferrell and what he needs from him…
Cignetti: Yeah, all three of those guys, we just need them to do what they’re supposed to do consistently — prepare a little better, see what’s going on, make the proper adjustments, communicate quicker and be where they’re supposed to be.
You can’t play Tampa 2 coverage with a safety that’s supposed to be on the right and he’s on the left and no one is on No. 2 to the field. That’s not necessarily him, okay? So all three of those guys are older guys. They’re all capable of playing great football, and they have in spurts, but we need more consistency.
On dealing with tough road environments and management of silent counts…
Cignetti: We went to something different last year in the College Football Playoff. We didn’t use a silent. We didn’t have a problem hearing. In the offseason you spend time on it, and obviously it will be a big point of emphasis this week in practice. I’m not going to tell you what we’re going to do.
On Isaiah Jones and how he has evolved…
Cignetti: I think what you’re seeing there is just another year of maturity. He was on the team before I got hired. Had a back issue, so missed a lot of the season before. Got to play last year quite a bit. And he’s just, the natural progression of reps accumulating, bigger, stronger, faster, older, wiser, that kind of thing.
On Iowa’s Mark Gronowski and the threat he poses…
Cignetti: Yeah, won a lot of football games, that guy has. He’s a great competitor. He’s a big guy. He’s got good mobility. They’ll run him, design runs. And then there’s somewhere he could give it or run it. And they’ve got good play-action, out-of-pocket game. And in the pocket he can make the throws. He’s got a strong arm. They built the offense around the quarterback. There’s some new design there.
One thing I’m going to say about Iowa, and you guys all know this that have been in the Big Ten a while, is, I mean, they’ve been running basically the same defense for a long time. Now, there’s tweaks. And they’ve always played great defense and they’ve got great special teams.
They’ve always been able to run the ball really well. And this quarterback has been a guy that finds a way to get it done. But the thing about Iowa in general, they will not beat themselves. You will have to beat them. They’re not going to beat themselves and they play really well at home.
On Byron Baldwin Jr.’s return timetable…
Cignetti: I’ll know more today.
On getting off to good starts…
Cignetti: Well, that always helps, but you’ve got to play the first play to the last play. I was proud of the way we approached every play last week, the mental intensity and the urgency we had, regardless of the score.
We’ve traditionally gotten off to good starts. You never are really 100 percent. So it’s a reflection of preparation, I think. And so hopefully get off to a good start and then play well throughout and finish good. That’s always the goal.
On chunk plays from the receivers…
Cignetti: It’s huge. And a lot of those were on RPOs where he’s not holding the ball very long. And you’re only throwing it if you get the right look. And those guys broke tackles. They had an injury or two in the back. They had one guy ejected and had an injury coming in. Our guys did a nice job out there.
Now, I would like to see them block every play, too, because we played the second half. And our Hs, I don’t think they blocked anybody the whole second half.