Spring Practice Focus: Improve, Develop, Compete
Pete DiPrimio | IUHoosiers.com
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - A chilly late-morning breeze whipped through Memorial Stadium indicating winter had not yet conceded to approaching spring. The second edition of Curt Cignetti’s Indiana Hoosiers worked under sun-splashed conditions with one major long-term goal in mind -- ensure last season’s first-ever college football playoff berth was only the beginning.
IU’s 27-17 opening-round loss at Notre Dame, which advanced to the national title game, still burns.
“We didn’t finish the season very well,” Cignetti says. “We didn’t play like we wanted to play. We have some things to prove.”
The Hoosiers executed as if they were on Day 10 instead of Day 1 of spring practice -- passes were completed, tight throwing windows threaded (yes, new quarterback Fernando Mendoza has a big arm), catches denied, running gaps exploited -- and if there were mistakes, and there were, it didn’t disguise the potential.
“It was cleaner than last year’s Day 1, which you would expect because it was all new last year,” Cignetti says. “We’ve got a lot of improvement to make. We don’t need to be where we need to be right now. We need to be where we need to be when we run out of the tunnel for the season opener (Aug. 30 at Memorial Stadium against Old Dominion).”
On this day, the Hoosiers were fast, elusive, and efficient -- a Cignetti practice norm -- while maximizing their two-plus hours of work, reflected in this coaching point shouted loud and often:
“Get it right! Get it right!”
For Cignetti in the aftermath of an 11-2 season, it starts with developing players, including 33 newcomers.
“We want to improve daily,” he says. “We want to promote competition. We want to install our offense, defense, special teams, learn about our team. Everybody is going to come out of spring football undefeated.
“The most important thing is you come out healthy with your top-line guys and that you develop players and begin to form your identity and your mindset. Then you evaluate if you have any needs in the spring portal, where you may dabble, and get ready for the fall.”
Readiness on the first spring practice day meant no pads. Cignetti wasn’t a fan.
“We're out there in our pajamas, and we will be the next practice, too. You don't play football that way.
“This was almost like a muscle-memory drill. This is where you go period one, period two, that kind of thing. Once we get into the banging and clanging, things will pick up.”
The high roster turnover, is the norm in this transfer portal era, requires a start over, Cignetti adds.
“You learn about your team every day. You truly do start over every year, but now with the rules the way they are, it's even more so.
“These are a bunch of new guys, a new team. Every team in America is pretty much that way. Everyone is 0-0 right now. It’s all earned, not given, between the white lines.”
Heavy attention comes to Mendoza, one of the nation’s best transfer additions out of the University of California. Last year, he threw for 3,004 yards, 16 touchdowns and six interceptions while completing 68.7 percent of his passes. He won three ACC quarterback-of-the-week awards.
“The big thing we're going to be working on him this spring is getting the ball out of his hand on rhythm,” Cignetti says. “A lot of the concepts he's been exposed to, they were probably called differently. Some of the concepts will be a little bit new.”
Teaching those concepts will be new quarterbacks coach/co-offensive coordinator Chandler Whitmer as well as offensive coordinator Mike Shanahan and Cignetti, the architect of an offensive system that has thrived for more than a decade at four different programs (the others were James Madison, Elon, and IUP).
“Most of the guys in the first two weeks (of spring practice),” Cignetti says, “they're thinking and playing at the same time, and then the last two weeks they're playing more than they're thinking. I suspect it'll be the same way with (Mendoza). We're very high on him.”
Cignetti hopes to provide better protection. Last season, California quarterbacks were sacked 49 times for a loss of 284 yards. By comparison, IU quarterbacks were sacked just 21 times for 159 yards.
“(Mendoza) was under duress quite a bit at Cal,” Cignetti says. “We protected the passer and the pass better, so developing trust and confidence in the pocket, throwing the ball on rhythm, and eye control, those type of things.”
Younger brother, Alberto Mendoza, is in his second season with the Hoosiers. Last year, Alberto played in one game and completed his only pass for 6 yards. Cignetti says he’s never had brothers competing for the same position before.
“I know the young one will push the old one as hard as he can,” Cignetti says. “(Alberto) has got a good future. They are two great kids.”
As far as the quarterbacks coach, Whitmer replaces Tino Sunseri, who left to become UCLA’s offensive coordinator. Last season, Whitmer was the pass-game specialist for the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons. Before that, he spent three seasons in offensive quality control for the Los Angeles Chargers. He also spent a season each at Clemson and Ohio State as an offense graduate assistant. He’s worked with quarterbacks such as Justin Fields at Ohio State, Trevor Lawrence at Clemson, Justin Herbert for the Chargers, and former IU quarterback Michael Penix Jr. for the Falcons.
“He's learning our system, what are our standards, our expectations,” Cignetti says. “He's been in NFL football for the last four years in various roles. The NFL is different than college, so it's a transition for him. This will be a good spring for him.”
The installation process for offense, defense and special teams, Cignetti adds, is well underway.
“The install, I think if you looked at it across the board, offense, defense, would be at least 80 percent of what it was last year. Probably more.
“Our guys have been lifting weights. They've been running, conditioning. But you sprinkle in position meetings there, too, for the last month, month and a half. These guys have had meetings with their position coaches.
“I thought it was pretty clean out there in terms of guys lining up in the right spot, running the right route. It's not rocket science. Most of these concepts these guys have been exposed to in the past. They're just called something different.”