What Curt Cignetti Said After Indiana Football's Dominant Win vs Oregon

ATLANTA — Indiana football coach Curt Cignetti met with the media Friday night after the No. 1 Hoosiers' 56-22 victory over No. 5 Oregon at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.

Here's what Cignetti told reporters following the Hoosiers' win in the College Football Playoff semifinals, one that secured their spot in the national championship game.

CURT CIGNETTI: It's a great win against a really good football team. Really proud of our players, our staff. It all started with Ponds' pick six, and then they put a nice drive together. Had us off balance a little bit, but we responded with a score and then created some turnovers on defense. We capitalized on offense, and that was the story of the first half.

Scoring early in the second half and distancing ourselves helped. Got a couple guys nicked in some areas we were thin on defense, which was concerning, but it's a great win.

Q. Coach Cignetti, your ability to keep finding guys to make plays, Ndukwe tonight, the way he played and just the number of guys you're getting contributions from now?

CURT CIGNETTI: I think when you have good people and they buy in and they prepare the right way, we have a lot of those kind of guys. They're high-character, smart guys that can play and Coach Haines puts them in position to make plays and put the offense in conflict and attacks.

And on the other side of the ball, too, in special teams as well, we've been very consistent in all three phases.

Q. Coach, what were you trying to negate with their team and execute with your team? What were you trying to negate with their team and execute with your team?

CURT CIGNETTI: To me, every game is the same. You got line of scrimmage. You gotta win the line of scrimmage. You gotta be able to run the ball, stop the run, affect the quarterback, protect the quarterback. And then the turnover ratio, which was huge in this game.

We're number one in the country in that. And those turnovers in the first half led to 21 points, explosive plays, and then you gotta be good in critical situations, third and fourth down, two-minute. And special teams always needs to be a win, or at least a draw.

Q. Coach Cig, I wanted to ask you about defensively obviously you've got players doing great things. How much does Coach Haines' ability to kind of create schematic confusion factor into what your defense is able to do?

CURT CIGNETTI: I think it's a huge part. It's hard to put a percentage on because the players make the plays, but they're well coached, and they've got a lot of repetition, stemming from spring ball fall camp.

But our philosophy is to attack, and we are moving a lot of pieces in the front seven. And we've always been Top 5 in the country against the run, TFLs and sacks and that's just our philosophy on how to play defense.

Q. Curt, can you evaluate Fernando's performance?

CURT CIGNETTI: I thought he was incredible. He was great. I also thought our receivers made some nice contested catches. I thought Sarratt was on fire. Charlie Becker made some big plays. EJ and Cooper got in the act as well. And when he wasn't there, Fernando used his legs. I mean, he was on top of the game, and it was a huge difference his performance in this football game.

Q. Coming off these two playoff performances you've had, what do the next 10 days look like to maintain the level of play you have had in the playoffs?

CURT CIGNETTI: We'll put the best preparation schedule together try to keep it as normal as possible. We'll have an extra day regardless of what we decide to do. And the reason we are where we are is because we're prepared the right way. That's why we've been able to meet the challenge and put it on the field.

We got 10 days. Everybody will be off tomorrow. And then Sunday, I'm leaning toward players off Sunday as well. We'll have a couple of official visits on campus and be back at it on Monday.

Q. Coach, you believed in these gentlemen to come in and be a part of this movement. So, what you can say about believing in each other to the point of getting to the National Championship.

CURT CIGNETTI: Well, I think without question, these are two key cogs in the machine. But we have great people upstairs and downstairs. The assistant coaches do a great job of preparing these guys for game day. And downstairs, we got a lot of veteran guys that have strong character, very intelligent, and they can play.

And the bottom line really in this business is you gotta get everybody to think alike. And if you can get everybody thinking alike, focused on the same thing, you can accomplish anything.

Q. Coach, odds of Indiana winning the National Championship preseason were 100 to 1. What should they be going into this game against Miami?

CURT CIGNETTI: You all have a job to do, and a lot of times you'll piggyback off somebody else's story or belief, and there's pressure to get it nowadays with the internet, get the story out there. And a lot of those, people really don't know our team. They don't know what we're made of, what we got. And I get it.

There was a lot of skepticism after last year, that we were a fluke. That team did a lot of great things and got it all started. That team never trailed until the ninth game of the year, and when it did, 10-0 in the first quarter up at Michigan State, they scored 47 straight.

I think a lot of that negative stuff in the media fueled the guys returning from this team, and we added some real key pieces, the main ones sitting right here on my left, but other ones as well. Great leaders, great players.

And we've just built off our successes, and we've won some big games on the road, and it helps when you have a quarterback play his best football when the game is on the line in the fourth quarter. So here we are.

Q. Coach, do you mind touching on the decision to get D'Angelo the ball on the offensive end?

CURT CIGNETTI: I can actually take credit for that one. I still sit in in the offensive meetings, but I don't call the plays anymore and haven't for about nine years.

It was a play that matched up well against their defense on third and two. We thought we could also use it in medium. And D'Angelo is probably the best start/stop guy and he's got speed and thought it would be a nice little change up pitch.