Notebook: The Art of War, Warm Milk, Cookies and Cignetti
Pete DiPrimio | IUHoosiers.com
MIAMI - Sentimentality has no place on a football field, not around Curt Cignetti, not with a national football championship at stake.
Let others focus on hugs and love and players recognizing something special is about to end. Cignetti wants top-seeded Indiana (15-0) focused and feisty when its faces 10th-seeded Miami (13-2) in Monday night’s national title game at Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium.
“We've got to have a sharp edge going into this game,” he says from a Sunday press conference setting. “You don't go to war with warm milk and cookies.”
Cignetti expects a war against a Miami team that beat up on second-seeded Ohio State earlier in the playoffs, a Hurricanes squad that has basically spent the last two months in one-and-done mode while winning seven-straight games.
For Cignetti, the key to victory starts with competitive ruthlessness.
“Leading up to this game, there's been a lot of pro Indiana hype, a lot of rat poison out there,” he says. “This is a close team. I've witnessed quite a bit of sentimentalism throughout the week from some of our seniors who have been with us for a long time. I think it's time to sharpen the saw, throw those warm fuzzies out the door, that sentimentalism. It's time to play a game against a great opponent.”
Cignetti calls it “sharpening the saw.” That importance is magnified when Miami head coach Mario Cristobal, at the same press conference, says, “I don't see us getting caught up in any nostalgic moments. I sense that our team was really focused, that they were really intent on carrying out the rest of the day's processes, knowing the tremendous opportunity that we have.”
Fifty years ago, IU went 32-0 to win the national basketball championship, the last major college team to go undefeated. That the Hoosier football team is positioned to duplicate that unbeaten achievement has Cignetti’s attention.
“I was a big Bob Knight fan as a little kid,” he says. “I liked the shenanigans and the faces at the press conferences and throwing the chair across the court. I thought that was pretty cool.
“But it has no effect on what's going to take place here. It was 50 years ago, and if we're able to climb that mountain, it'll be a unique coincidence.”
Miami began the season 5-0, including a 27-24 victory over Notre Dame that rocketed it into the top-5. Two losses followed, including an overtime defeat against SMU, that seemed to end the Hurricanes’ playoff chances.
It did not. They won their final four regular season games to receive the last bid into the 12-team field.
“I think the entire country expected us not to do well against a great team in Notre Dame,” Cristobal said. “That built our confidence in a big-time way and had us going the right way. And we got field rushed in Dallas over at SMU, and reality hit. Everyone on our team saw that graphic that said Miami has a 5 percent chance to make it into the postseason. That's what galvanized us.
“We realized we had to approach every day with being the most excited, the most energetic team on the field, and that pre-snap and post-snap discipline had to be at the forefront and that ball security couldn't be compromised and neither could ball disruption. That you had to be physical and find a way to out-hit your opponent on every play. It had to mean more to you than it did to the other side.
“I think those principles continued to push us forward so that if we practiced in that manner, then we could earn the right to cut it loose on game day. We have gotten better and better and still have a lot to improve.”
IU’s Fernando Mendoza is the latest in a long line of successful transfer quarterbacks under Cignetti and offensive coordinator Mike Shanahan, especially at James Madison and now IU. Since 2019, every quarterback they’ve had has won conference player-of-the-year honors except for Kurtis Rourke last season, who still earned All-Big Ten recognition.
All of them played only one season for Cignetti and Shanahan, yet still attained such success. It shows, Cignetti says, “that we’re doing something right.”
He says it would be nice to have a starting quarterback for multiple seasons, “but when you've got a chance to get a guy that can play winning football and who has been through the wars, to me, it's an easy decision. You've got to win every year. Now, there's no, ‘Oh, in five years we'll be good.’ That was a long time ago.
“College football is not a perfect world. There are a lot of issues. You've got to improvise, adjust, and be light on your feet if you want to thrive and survive.”
IU has come a long way, Cignetti says, from the team that began the season giving up a 75-yard touchdown run on the game’s opening play against Old Dominion.
“We were down 7-0 just like that,” he says. “I think we've built on our successes. Success brings belief, which brings confidence and more success, and repetition – repetition is the mother of learning. That’s how you get better.
“With some big road game wins, we developed more belief and confidence that we were a resilient team and could overcome any kind of expected challenge. So I think the team grew quite a bit and has put itself in position to be where we are today.”
The Hoosiers’ fast turnaround under Cignetti -- he is 26-2 as IU’s coach after a 9-27 three-year stretch under the former coaching staff – will likely have plenty of other programs and coaches seeking to duplicate that success.
Could that lead to Bloomington visits?
“I'm sure we've got some people's attention,” Cignetti says. “I'm not one to entertain visitors too much in the office. I prefer to watch tape and keep growing and learning.”