Curt Cignetti Gave an Eye-Opening Glimpse into His In-Game Thought Process After Nebraska Win

Indiana Hoosiers head coach Curt Cignetti is 33-2 in his three seasons at Indiana and is regarded as one of, if not the, top minds in the sport. So when Indiana’s head man trotted out his offense on fourth down on his team’s first three drives, only to call time out and run out his special teams units, it turned heads.

When asked about the situations in the first half, which led to a field goal and two punts. The temptation was their to go for it in each situation. However, Cignetti’s common sense prevailed.

“A lot of them were maybe, ‘God I just wanted to go for it’ but my common sense you know we weren’t getting
anything done and the clock’s running down and let’s just survive it. You know let’s stop the bleeding, punt the ball.” Cignetti said postgame.

Nebraska had stirred Memorial Stadium into a frenzy early on Saturday and Cignetti was not going to chum the waters more than they already were. On the Hoosiers first drive of the game, trailing 3-0, they were faced with a 4th-and-3 from the Husker 24-yard line and kicking with the wind. Cignetti ran the offense out, but the play clock was running down and he did not want to make an early fatal mistake, so he trusted his kicker Nico Radicic to tie the game up and he did.

The Huskers would score a touchdown on the next drive and Memorial Stadium could smell more blood in the water. IU again moved the ball into Nebraska territory, but with the quarter change occuring on IU’s next drive, the Hoosiers were now headed into a stiff wind.

Facing a 4th-and-9 in no man’s land at the Nebraska 38-yard line, Cignetti again trotted the offense out only to burn his second time out and punt. It is very tempting to force an issue make a mistake that could have ended the day early.

The Hoosier defense got their first stop of the afternoon on Nebraska’s ensuing drive, but IU’s offense was pinned inside the 20-yard line. While they moved it out to the 35-yard line, the Hoosiers could not muster much. Facing a 4th-and-1 from their own 35-yard line, IU once again ran the offense out. Like a kid playing a video game with no sense of real risk, the urge to just go for it was pushed to the forefront. Then common sense kicked in. Cignetti used his third, and final, timeout of the half and punted the ball.

Some will say he chickened out, but Cignetti knew the sharks were circling and did not want to throw more blood in the water for a starving crowd to feast on.

“I decided to go conservative in the first half. There was too much time left in the game. We weren’t playing well, they were playing well.” Cignetti said.

He played to live another half. Indiana stopped the bleeding and entered halftime down only 10-3 when everyone thought the hole should be deeper. Instead of panicking, Cignetti (maybe) took a deep breath and let his common sense overpower his urge to go for it. It wasn’t because he chickened out or coached scared. It was because he knew he had to survive.

Many armchair coaches would have pulled the trigger like they do in their video games and that probably would have ended with them throwing the remote and rage-quitting. Cignetti let cooler heads prevail, bandaged the wound and allowed the threat to dissipate before rallying his team for a come from behind win.

“I think the biggest thing is we just settled down. We got them settled down at halftime
and took deep breath. Forgot the first half except for the corrections and adjustments and committed to one play at a time and I told them, I said ‘good teams find a way to win a game like this at the end,'” Cignetti said.

Indiana found away to win, because common sense won out in the first half.