Postgame Quotes: Oregon

Postgame Quotes
Indiana at Oregon
October 11, 2025

Curt Cignetti | Indiana Head Coach
Opening Statement:
CC: Great win. I'm really proud of the team and coaches. We are very grateful for our fans and supporters, and we are the number one largest alumni base in America, with over 800,000. This was a great road win.

On what this moment is like with the players that followed him to Indiana…
CC: Well, you've got guys like (Mikail) Kamara and (Amare) Fisher and others who were at JMU, and a lot of the staff have been together all along. They can relate to this game because this is a great win on the road. I've had three or four wins of this magnitude at my prior places. You go play (Appalachian) State, first year in the Sunbelt, and they just beat (Texas) A&M early in the year, and we're down 28-3 in the second quarter. We talk about being resilient and having an indomitable will that can't be subdued or defeated. Same thing at Elon, second year. You go play JMU, number one in the country. They've outscored the first three opponents, 180-6, and you ask the same thing of your guys. We were able to overcome big-time adversity in the first half, at the end of the game, and win with 30 seconds to go.

I'm really proud of the guys. We couldn't stay onside for a while, and then for a while we had a bunch of guys lying on the ground. I was like, "What's going on here?" But they would return a play or two later. I thought they were starting to get some good run chunks, and we weren't getting rhythm on offense. I thought Frankie's field goal was really big, just like last week against Iowa. That end-of-the-half score gave us momentum going into the locker room. Our defense was tremendous in the second half, and our kicking game was really good all day. Offense made plays when they had to. (Fernando) Mendoza extended plays and made plays with his legs. The play to (Elijah) Sarratt, obviously, was huge. That's a one-on-one ball, third and long inside the ten. Those are hard to convert. I'm really proud of everybody.

On how significant this win is in terms of taking the program to the next level…
CC: Well, it depends on what we do with it from here. This is a great win against the No. 2-ranked team in the country, who had an 18-game home winning streak. It puts us in position if we can continue to be successful which means we have to show up to work on Monday as a team, humble, hungry, and ready to go against Michigan State. We know the challenges that this team is going to have this week. But this is a great win.

On out-gaining Oregon by 104 yards in the 4th quarter…
CC: I thought our defense really took it to them in the second half: won the line of scrimmage, run game and pass game, and we put pressure on the quarterback. The offense made plays when they needed to. Oregon has a good defense. The false starts were obviously an issue, but we just took it to them in the second half. Our guys played one play at a time like we asked them to. Our guys wanted it, showed on the field they wanted it, and they did the things they had to in order to be successful.

On seeing the comments about Indiana prior to this game and how it feels now…
CC: Last year, I was the way I was because I thought I needed to be while taking over this program. I knew early on in December that I needed to lead this charge. I thought we established credibility last season and I didn't need to be that way, and I could focus on what I do best and that's coach this football team this year. You have to understand that some people are always going to be for you, some people are always going to be against you because they need to be, and then there's a group in the middle. We played Illinois, who was ninth in the country, and we played Oregon, who was second in the country. We won at Iowa, which is a really hard place to play, which a lot of people would have called it a 'trap game.' Now the key is how we respond to Michigan State.

On the team's confidence level coming into this game…
CC: I really felt like our team was in a good place. The most important thing to me was our mindset going into this game: that we believed, expected, prepared to make it happen, and could handle the ups and downs of the game without flinching or showing frustration and anxiety. That was the only thing we don't know until we play the game, and we passed that test. I think every game we try to put the best game plan together. Our defense really got after them in that second half, and many times in the first half, too. Offense made enough plays. I have a lot of respect for this team that we beat. I have a lot of respect for Dan Lanning. This is a great win for our program."

On this being the second game in a row where Mendoza threw a fourth-quarter interception and immediately responded by throwing a game-winning touchdown…
CC: That is resiliency right there. That is like being the rubber ball. You don't want to be like a crystal chandelier when you drop it, and it breaks into a million pieces. We want to be like a rubber ball that bounces right back into your hand. That is what (Mendoza) did when he threw that interception on third and two. The receiver could have flattened that thing a little better. The guy undercut it. But (Mendoza) came right back and made the plays and wasn't affected by it. In this game, if you want to play the best, you have to always play like this: never too high, never too low. Not affected by success, not affected by failure during the course of the game.

On hearing the noise outside and what he means to him to get this win…
CC: I'm really happy for our fans and our supporters. We have great supporters, and I'm looking forward to, once I'm done with all of my media stuff, enjoying this win a little bit.

On whether he thinks this Indiana team is better than the previous years…
CC: I really don't want to compare teams. I don't want to go down that road. Ohio State won a national championship. Notre Dame was second in the country. There is a lot of football left to be played. A lot. How are we going to respond from this game? How is Oregon going to respond from this game?

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