Making Progress – Football Hoosiers Building for a ‘Big Jump’
Pete DiPrimio | IUHoosiers.com
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - The pads are out; hitting has begun and head coach Curt Cignetti is getting a sense of where this Indiana football team is, and where it might go.
It starts with this -- the Hoosiers push a fast, physical, and relentless approach.
“We are going to bang,” Cignetti says. “It’s a contact sport.”
Contact comes with caution. No one wants to lose players to needless aggression or bad technique.
“We do everything we can to monitor the rep count and keep guys healthy,” Cignetti says. “We emphasize practicing the correct way. A lot of times a guy gets injured, it’s because somebody didn’t do something quite right.”
Cignetti is all about getting it right, a process honed by decades of coaching, most recently while running the James Madison program, and there’s much to do given the Hoosiers are just three practices into their 13-practice spring run, and not every player is available due to injuries.
This much we know.
“We want to get the team through spring (healthy) so we can get the reps, so we can improve, so we can put our offense, defense and special teams [schemes] in, and guys can develop and get better,” Cignetti says. “Then we can assess who the players are, how best to utilize them, possibly utilize them, and what the needs are coming out of spring practice.”
Cignetti continues to see overall team progress.
“There’s good energy and competition. We are throwing a lot at these guys.
“I think we probably took a little step forward, but when we put the tape on, we will see enough mistakes to cost you every game you are going to play.”
Translation: more progress is needed.
Blending in returning IU players, James Madison transfers, and other college transfers remains a work in progress, but not an overly complicated one, adds Cignetti.
“Football is football. You get what you demand. We have a lot of smart guys on this team who want to be good and who are willing to pay the price.
“What we’re asking them to do in terms of effort and how we practice, is not rocket science. I’m pleased with their effort.
“I know what the James Madison guys can do. Is there a little bit of an unknown on how they’ll compete in this (Power 5 Conference) setting? Some, but I have a pretty good idea.”
Consider the offensive line, which under Bob Bostad last season showed significant improvement, which is what you’d expect from one of the nation’s best offensive line coaches.
“There’s room for improvement like any other position,” Cignetti says, “but it has the potential to be one of the strengths of our team if it develops like I think it will.”
Tyler Stephens started 31 games for James Madison and earned second-team, All-Sun Belt Conference honors last season. Nick Kidwell has 34 starts and also has all-conference accolades.
Cignetti says injuries have limited IU to working mostly with eight offensive linemen, although he hopes one or two return in the next few days.
“They’re working well together. There’s a lot of experience there. Coach Bostad does a good job with those guys.”
Secondary play is high on the must-improve priority list.
“We work with everybody the same way,” Cignetti says. “We have standards and expectations. We won’t compromise or lower our standards. The guys are doing everything they can to be the best they can be and improve. I expect us to keep getting better.
“Sometimes you go into the spring expecting one thing and come out thinking something different. The tape doesn’t lie. At the end of the spring, we’ll see where we are.”
Then there’s graduate student Jacob Magnum-Farrar, who started 12 games at linebacker last season, his first as a Hoosier after transferring from Stanford. He’s now listed as a weak-side defensive end, although in Cignetti’s 4-3 defensive scheme, it’s a hybrid role called “Stud.”
“He’s about 70 percent end, 30 percent linebacker,” Cignetti says. “We bulked him up a hair (he’s listed as 252 pounds; last year he was 240).
“We thought he had a skill set that he could be good at that position. He’s picked it up well.”
So are all the Hoosiers in this pivotal transition designed to bring consistent winning to a program?
“We’re looking to get it all in schematically,” Cignetti says. “For the Indiana guys, the Troy guys, the JMU, Texas Tech, Wake Forest, North Carolina guys. It’s all new. It’s an adjustment period. They’re thinking a lot.
“In the last half of the spring, we’ll see improvement in execution, and then you’ll see a big jump.”