NOTEBOOK: Happiness, Focus and Peach Bowl Opportunity
Pete DiPrimio | IUHoosiers.com
ATLANTA - Happy? Of course, Curt Cignetti is happy as his top-seeded Indiana Hoosiers (14-0) prepare to face fifth-seeded Oregon (13-1) in Friday night’s Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl playoff semifinal showdown, and if it never publicly looks that way, don’t be misled.
“There are a lot of times I am happy,” Cignetti said during Thursday morning’s press conference at the College Football Hall of Fame. “I just don't show I'm happy.”
The reason is clear – Cignetti is focused on winning and performing at the optimal level. He expects it from his players, his coaches, and himself. As the program leader, he sets the example and Cignetti never -- ever -- deviates.
It’s why he’s never had a losing record as a head coach, why he is 25-2 at IU after the Hoosiers were just 9-27 in the previous three seasons.
“If I'm going to ask my players to play the same from the first play to the last, regardless of the competitive circumstances,” he said, “then I can't be seen on the sideline high-fiving people and celebrating or what's going to happen? What's the effect going to be?
“So, that's why I am like I am during the game.”
Then there are all the important decisions during the game that require total focus.
“These decisions we have to make in terms of game management, when to use a timeout, when not to use a timeout, whether to be aggressive in two minute,” Cignetti said. “I had to use a timeout on defense that I called against Alabama on fourth and 1, and it ended up being a pretty big sequence (IU stopped the Crimson Tide and went on to dominate the Rose Bowl).
“You’ve got to be dialed in and thinking ahead. I'll smile and celebrate later in the coaches' room with the coaches…
“I do smile and I am happy at times.”
IU won 30-20 at Oregon in October, snapping the Ducks’ best-in-the-nation 18-game home winning streak. The Hoosiers scored the game’s final 10 points as quarterback Fernando Mendoza bounced back from a second-half pick-six.
Cignetti said Oregon, led by standout quarterback Dante Moore, is “as big of a challenge for any team in college football."
“They've got four to five to six inside (defensive line) guys that are 320-pounds-plus, and maybe one of them is 310. And they're good. They are really good.
“They’ve got two edge guys who are outstanding, and they can bring a third and a fourth in also.
“Then they’ve got a linebacker (Bryce Boettcher) that can fly. He’s a great football player. They have a great safety, too. They’ve got a bunch of great football players. Schematically, they do a great job.
“It's going to be a huge challenge. It's going to be a huge challenge in terms of the run game, protecting the quarterback, and that's where it all starts, and they're really good there.”
Ultimately, Cignetti said, winning will come down to this;
“You’ve got to win more battles, play in, play out than they win. You have to do the things you have to do to win games and make sure you don't do the things that lose games. It's all about preparation, having an edge mindset and then putting it on the field and from the first play to the last.”
Oregon has won eight-straight games since its IU loss, seven by double digits. It has blown out James Madison and Texas Tech in its first two playoff games.
“This game is going to be what college football is about,” Oregon head coach Dan Lanning said. “You will see two tough teams, two teams that are really complete.
“(Indiana plays) great on offense, defense, and special teams. They don't have a weakness.
“Ultimately, it's about team football. It's not one player. It's not one individual. It's a group that has collectively made an effort to put themselves in this position. It's an honor for Oregon to be one of the teams participating in that.”
As far as the rematch implications, Lanning said, “Sometimes as coaches, you chase ghosts and you try to overanalyze things that happened before, but ultimately you try to stick to the same process you've used throughout the season. It just so happens you're playing the same team twice.
“Part of the reason Indiana is good is they're able to do the same thing over and over and over again really successfully. That's one thing that's clear about Indiana, they have an identity. They do their job extremely well.
“I would hope you would say thing about us. As you watch Oregon, we do a lot of the same things over and over again really, really well. So, it'll be a combination of those things and certainly some tweaks within that.”
Both coaches said their teams are not the same as the ones that met in October in Eugene, Ore.
“(Lanning) has looked at things that they did well in all three phases and things they didn't do well. I've done the same thing,” Cignetti said. “We've looked at things we did well and didn't do well.
“And then, teams evolve afterward. They improve. Why do they improve? Because of repetition. Repetition is the mother of learning, and then there are some schematic tweaks, but basically when you're successful and through repetition, guys are in the right place, it becomes secondhand. They react quicker and then it's a matter of kind of managing the health of your team and a few other variables.
“I don't have any idea what they're going to do. They don't know what we're going to do. As I sit here right now, I know everything we've practiced, but I have no idea what that (game) tape is going to look like the day after. And that's every game. What's actually going to get called, what will work, what won't work, and what are they going to do different. That's football. There are a lot of variables.”
For the first time, Cignetti got a chance to see the Hall of Fame display for his father, Frank Cignetti Sr., who was inducted in 2013 for his coaching accomplishments at West Virginia and Indiana University-Pennsylvania.
Cignetti said his father, who passed away in 2022, played a huge role in his success.
“I learned so much from my dad. I don't even know where to start. He was a great leader, and he led by example. He was a role model, and he was a strong man. He had a little John Wayne and Clint Eastwood in him.
“I get letters, and I read things on social media about all the people he helped at West Virginia and at IUP; helped them in their lives.
“I had a great upbringing. I knew in third grade I wanted to coach, and he had a lot of pearls of wisdom.”
Cignetti and Lanning were asked to give two keys to the game. Lanning went first and said taking care of the ball and special teams. Cignetti offered more.
“We talk about the same thing every game -- line of scrimmage, run the ball, stop the run, affect the quarterback, protect the quarterback, turnover ratio where we’re No. 1 in the country, explosive plays, runs plus 12 yards, passes plus 15 yards on both sides, critical situations, third down, fourth down, red zone area, two-minute before the half, end of the game,” Cignetti said.
Lanning joked, “I should have named more. I thought we were just doing two.”
Added Cignetti with a laugh: “That was two.”