Curt Cignetti Reviews Saturday's Scrimmage, Updates the Quarterback Race and Team Health

Rich Janzaruk/Herald-Times

Written by Sammy Jacobs (@Hoosier_Huddle)

Indiana head coach Curt Cignetti met with the media in Bloomington on Monday for his weekly Fall Camp press conference. Monday was IU’s ninth fall practice and the first since Saturday’s scrimmage. Cignetti shared his observations on the scrimmage on Monday.

“The scrimmage on Saturday, I liked the energy, the effort, the competition. Still a lot of things to clean up –– assignment wise, pre-snap penalties, turnovers, stuff like that. I thought (Kurtis) Rourke had a good day, he really has separated himself pretty significantly in that scrimmage. We’re still developing players, depth and scheme.” Cignetti said in his opening statement.

Rourke and redshirt sophomore Tayven Jackson have been the two front runners for the position heading into fall camp. While Jackson has shown a lot of improvement it is Rourke who has been more consistent in Cignetti’s eyes.

“I think (Kurtis) Rourke stacks days. He had an off-day or two last week where maybe he wasn’t really good in seven-or-seven but came back and had a really good two-minute drill something like that, but for the most part he’s been playing good football.” Cignetti explained.

“Now, always room for improvement for anyone on this football team, any coaching staff member, never satisfied. But (he’s) consistent, and knows how to play quarterback, a lot goes into that position, he’s an extension of a coach. And he’s got to make good decisions, choices and decisions that are going to lead to give you the best chance of success as a football team.” He continued.

The Hoosiers are still trying to build the depth of the quarterback room and Cignetti touched upon what Jackson needs to do to be ready to see the field when called upon.

“Tayven (Jackson) is capable of making the wild play, but there has to be more play-in, play-out consistency, eye discipline, focus, eyes downfield, making the right reads, securing the football, not turning the ball over, proper footwork and run game so we don’t have fumbles in the run game, things of that nature. And the two freshmen (Tyler Cherry and Alberto Mendoza) are getting better.” Cignetti said.

The head coach also elaborated on how the defense performed in the scrimmage where they played thud (no tackling to the ground).

“Any time you thud the scrimmage it’s really kind of hard to run the football because you can’t take into account broken tackles or perimeter tackles, but put good pressure on the quarterback, pretty solid for the most part against the run, have to contain the quarterback a little bit better when he’s in the pocket, particularly a guy that has some athleticism, we’ll have to improve on that. In the opener, FIU has a pretty crafty, athletic quarterback. Gave up a few explosives, a little bit like the offense, there was good, there was bad, there was ugly. But it’s significantly better than it was in the spring, which the goal coming into fall camp the second time through it, more consistency in performance, play in, play out, high level, we’re not there yet, and we still have things to install.” Cignetti said.

Injury Updates

“We had a couple depth guys had some injuries. (DB) Josh Philistine injured his knee, be out a while. Same with the (Andrew) Depaepe (DL) the transfer from Michigan State. (DB) JoJo Johnson will be out a couple weeks. Other than that, you know, we've got some minor things, but nothing significant.”