Head Coach Curt Cignetti sat down with “Voice of the Hoosiers” Don Fischer for another episode of “Inside IU Football.” Over the course of the hour-long show, Coach Cig spoke about the Hoosiers’ incredible comeback victory over Penn State and what he wants to see from the team heading into their matchup against Wisconsin on Saturday.
Coach Cignetti started by breaking down Indiana’s game-winning drive against Penn State last Saturday. “There’s no doubt about it. 2nd and 17 on your own 13 [yard line], 1:30 running clock, no timeouts. They’ve got all the momentum in the world, they’ve scored 17 straight points, the crowd’s going crazy, all 105,000 of them… it wasn’t looking real good for the Hoosiers, but to our guys’ credit, they stayed composed, they were resilient there, and they made it happen.” Cignetti said.
Cignetti continued, “2nd and 17 hit Cooper on the seam with 4 verts for a first down. It was a great throw by the quarterback; soon as he hit his back foot, he got crushed, but he put the ball right on a dime. Then we hit E.J. Williams on the sideline; he got out of bounds, so now we’re approaching midfield. Now there’s probably 48 seconds left… we come back with kind of the same play we hit Cooper on, 4 Verts… and [Fernando] hit Riley Nowakowski on the seam for about 28 yards or so, and now we’re humming.”
“We called the same play; simplicity is divine, and it’s working, so we don’t want to get too complicated. Make them stop it. They come out in a different coverage, and Charlie Becker beats his guy down the sideline and makes a great catch, and a tremendous throw by Fernando.
Now we’re down to about the 8 [yard line]… They went house blitz two plays in a row and tipped the ball. The second time the ball got tipped pretty high up in the air and thankfully wasn’t intercepted. So third down… they brought another house blitz; quarterback is gonna get hit; he just has a little more time to get rid of it. He did a nice job there and Cooper made one of the all-time great catches. I agree; I think it is probably one of the all-time great drives in college football history. There’s no doubt in my mind about it.” Cignetti said.
In true Cignetti fashion, he is not going to let this team rest on the laurels of their past victories. “Sunday we go in as a staff and critique [the game], and then the players don’t come in until 5:00 PM Monday when we have a team meeting. At that point my total focus is on the next opponent, so whatever message they’re getting, they’re not getting any pats on the back; they got those in the locker room, and they got a lot of pats on the back on Sunday from fans, and their buddies, and family, and everybody else. So they’ve had a lot of pats on the back by the time I get my hands on them.
So my job at that point is to get them focused on the next opponent, what we could have done better, what we need to do next time, and make sure we have a great day in our meeting and our walkthrough.” Cignetti said.
Coach Cignetti then turned his attention to Indiana’s matchup with an injury-ridden Wisconsin Badgers team. “On offense I think they have two guys starting who were in the same position day one of fall camp. They’re on their fourth quarterback, who is a true freshman, finished the game at Washington, played quite a bit. Now we don’t know exactly who the quarterback’s gonna be… But they’ve got a plan, and they executed their plan against Washington and they beat Washington, who is a Top-25 team. The last two games they have really flown around on defense… I’m really impressed with their front, and their two freshman linebackers are tremendous.”
Regardless of Wisconsin’s injury situation, Cignetti is going to make sure that his team is prepared for a tough game. “So they’re coming off of a Top-25 win, and it’s like I told the team on Monday, we’re gonna get everybody’s best shot. The days of sneaking up on people are over. So just count on it. We got Iowa’s best shot at Iowa, we got Penn State’s best shot, and obviously the Oregon game was a big game. So Wisconsin’s gonna come in here, and we’re gonna get their best shot.” He explained.
With that, the show came to an end as Coach Cignetti highlighted the Bloomington community’s embrace of the football team, saying, ““Lot of great leadership, lot of great production, lot of people that helped put Indiana on the map. Lot of guys that I’ve known a long time and recruited out of high school, but I don’t think anybody’s really reminiscing right now, to be quite honest with you.”