Curt Cignetti Notes and Quotes Week 4: No. 5 Indiana vs. Northwestern

Notes

• Final Thoughts on the Western Kentucky game
• Northwestern Preview
• Calls for a crowd that stays the whole game
• Aiden Chiles, Northwestern quarterback
• Tight End group
• Cornerback depth

Quotes

CURT CIGNETTI: All right, good win Saturday. I like the way we responded to a little adversity there. Made the play that changed the momentum. Dominated the game throughout afterwards.

You’re going to have those periods during the season. You know, how you respond to it is critical, and I think we showed a lot of the right stuff there, dominating 38-nothing the last three quarters of the game.

And defense, two straight shutouts. Out-gained them about 520 to 180. Three fourth-down stops for the defense. You know, offense had good balance. Ran the ball well. So did a lot of good things in the game.

Going to have to be really on point this week. Northwestern is a really good football team. Coach Braun has done a great job with that program. He’s a really smart, detailed, thorough guy. It shows up on tape.

You know, very impressive in all three phases. You know, they do the things you’ve got to do to win football games. I mean, they’re plus four in the turnover ratio. They’re averaging 38 points a game. They’re running for over 200. You know, 465 total offense; holding teams to one out of eight touchdowns in the red area, which is really good.

They’ve given up six points in the first half, and the quarterback has really developed. They’ve done a great job with him as a passer and designed a really nice offense around him.

They’re an experienced team. They’ve got 19 or 20 fifth and fourth-year starters, so, you know, they got a lot of good players, and we’re going to have to play well and have great week of preparation.

We need to have a great crowd that stays the whole game. We played our three sauna games in the afternoon. I can understand having to leave in the second half, particularly when the game is out of hand, and it’s 152 on the turf. It’s hard to coach in these games, too.

But this will be low 70 weather this week, and it will be a nice, cool football kind of night in Bloomington, and we need to have a great crowd.

So questions.

Q. You talked on Saturday, and you mentioned this before, that there were things in the first three weeks you needed to learn about yourselves. To you, what’s the biggest question you’ve answered through the first three weeks?

CURT CIGNETTI: I like the way we developed and where we are right now. Every team you have you got concerns, whether they be depth issues, you know, upcoming opponent, how to best attack them, preparing your team day-to-day, week to week so we’re ready for Big10 competition.

Q. I recognize this is a small sample size in the offense, but you talked Saturday about Aidan Chiles. You know him; you scouted him. What is different about the way Chip Kelly is using him at quarterback using his skillset?

CURT CIGNETTI: It’s a little different system than Michigan State, so they’re doing a really nice job. He’ll drop back, play-action, out-of-pocket, multiple formations, personnel groupings, spread the ball in the pass game.

Hadn’t thrown an interception yet all season long and can extend plays, tuck it and run, which we saw. I think he broke one for about 60 on us last year. He’s a really good player. He’s a really quality player.

Q. Can you talk a little bit about Preston Zachman, what you’re getting from him? He made a key one-on-one tackle to preserve the shutout.

CURT CIGNETTI: Big-time play he made out there, and he was player of the game on defense. You know, we’ve been moving people around back there a little bit to keep guys fresh. He knows all three positions: free safety, strong safety, and rover, and played a little rover for us too.

Sanks is a multiple-position guy also. Zachman is a really intelligent guy that can handle a lot of stuff in terms of assignment and responsibility, good communicator with adjustments, and played really well Saturday.

Q. Coach, you got Trevor Gibbs back last week. What did you see from him and the tight end group through the first three…

CURT CIGNETTI: Yeah, I thought the tight end group blocked well last week. They’ll have a different challenge this week. Northwestern’s ends are really stout, and they’re all improving. Gibbs got his feet wet, and he’s practiced well, and he has shown good potential.

Q. Do you have any update an AJ Harris? And when he is able to come back, have you thought about how much time he missed and not having that ramp-up time now that you’re in Big10 play?

CURT CIGNETTI: No, I’ve never thought of that.

Q. Coach, with the two young running backs you’ve got kind of competing for that No. 3 spot while Khobie is out, what are your impressions of them? If I’m reading your roster right, you have four running backs right now on scholarship. Do you start making contingency plans with other guys to step in if needed?

CURT CIGNETTI: It’s kind of like the last question, yeah, in the back of my mind I’ve thought all this stuff through, yes. We have a definite one and two. They’re playing well.

Q. Northwestern has forced five turnovers so far this season. How important is that going to be to protect the football, especially Josh hasn’t thrown an interception this year as well?

CURT CIGNETTI: Yeah, I think we put the ball on the ground and fumbled four times in year. You know, we lost one. Put the ball on the ground again Saturday.

These guys have created a lot of turnovers, and so, you know, those equal points. I think we’re plus 14 points with our plus two turnover ratio. They’re plus three or four —four, I think; 17 points. Game-changing plays.

I get asked, why do you have Charlie Becker back on punt return? Well, drop a punt and change the momentum of a Big10 game. That’s why.

Q. Coach, you talked about the importance of what you called the exhibition season getting to know your team. How important is the Big10 slate towards preparing you for postseason goals for this team?

CURT CIGNETTI: Look, we don’t think that way. We developed in fall camp, in the last three games we developed, and I saw a lot of positive things.

You know, our standards have improved, our consistency has improved, our togetherness, better understanding of what’s expected. Some of the returners are now really back into the flow of things where you got to have the edge every day.

We’re playing really, really good football team. That’s my total focus. I think there is too much focus on we are this or we are that and, oh, compared to last year. Well, last year at this time, where were we really, okay?

I’m not thinking about down the road. I know who the next game is after this one and so on and so forth, but like everything is going into this one because this is a good football team. We got to play really well. We got to have great balance on offense, between the run and the pass. Got to protect the football. We had one penalty last game.

Actually, I asked the official for a timeout at one on the last play of the game. He said, Okay, and even said Timeout, and we got flagged for a delay. We had technically on the stat sheet two, but really only had one.

Yeah, I was mad because we like to be one of the least penalized teams in the country.

So, you know, this thing is a journey, and we’re process oriented. That’s the best way to do it to become the best you can be, and that’s the total focus.

Q. You mentioned Northwestern obviously averaging near 40 points a game the first two weeks. Chip Kelly, obviously one of the offensive coordinators, offensive gurus. What makes it challenging preparing for some of the schemes he likes to run? I know his offense has evolved.

CURT CIGNETTI: You got to stop the run number one. They’re about 66% run to pass. We’re about 65 right now, so it always starts there. The quarterback can run it, obviously. When he drops back, he can still run it. You’ve got to contain him.

Got a receiver that averages 25 yards a catch. They spread the ball around really nicely between the receiver, tight end, and running back position. They rotate the backs in, too. The line does a nice job.

So you prepare for what they’ve shown on tape. You do what you do. We always create a few new things defensively. But all starts within this particular game on defense. Got to stop the run and contain that quarterback, and then don’t let him throw it over our head. Tackle in space. Swarm the ball. Dominate up front.

Q. Josh Hoover seems to be kind of a perfectionist in the mold of Fernando. After the game, he was listing off the throws he thought he missed. How much easier from a coaching perspective when you have a quarterback who, when he walks off the field, can pinpoint what he did wrong or is willing to take the blame and say those were my missed cues.

CURT CIGNETTI: Right.

Q. Call the receivers together to say that. Like, make it easier for your staff to help develop him.

CURT CIGNETTI: I think there is too much scrutiny on Josh Hoover right now. Unfair scrutiny. After watching the game tape, he missed one throw. The one he missed to Becker: we did a bad job picking up the blitz at running back, and he had a guy in his face. One he overthrew early. Missed Marsh.

The one to the right, it was the third progression. Didn’t run a good route to the field. Should have been open but wasn’t because of the route. Came back to No. 3, who didn’t run a great route either, and the ball got overthrown.

And the only other one would’ve been the one to Marsh maybe down the sideline, but really that read there should’ve taken him to the field, which was open.

So we had to kind of hash that one out as a staff to make sure we were on the same page what was going on.

So, you know, I’m glad he’s our quarterback.

Q. I know you don’t want the injuries at corner, but to what extent, now you have Jamari back, do you find a little bit of depth when you have to play Ryland Gandy and particularly Jaylen Bell? Just a huge quantity of snaps over the first couple games.

CURT CIGNETTI: Well, he’s been our most consistent corner and started a lot of games. Gandy and Bell have now played quite a bit, which really helps our depth. So it’s a plus.