What Curt Cignetti Said Before Indiana Football Plays Alabama in Rose Bowl

Indiana football coach Curt Cignetti met with reporters Monday on Zoom to discuss the No. 1 Hoosiers' looming matchup with No. 9 Alabama in the Rose Bowl.

Cignetti answered questions about Indiana's plans to replace injured defensive end Stephen Daley, contract extensions for coordinators Mike Shanahan and Bryant Haines, his time at Alabama and plenty more.

Here's the transcript of Cignetti's 17-minute press conference.

Opening statement

CIGNETTI: "Yeah, two days into our prep, obviously need to have a great two weeks of preparation against a great Alabama football team. And team's excited about it, but focused on the process. Got a lot of respect for Alabama. Coach DeBoer, been following his career for a long time. He kind of started out at a lower level like I did. And ever since he went to Washington, really kind of studied his offense, and I think he's a great coach."

On what's made Indiana receivers Elijah Sarratt and Omar Cooper Jr. so good this season ...

CIGNETTI: "Yeah, well, Sarratt and Cooper have both been starters for two years. Now, when you look at the corps, you got to include E.J. Williams and Charlie Becker in that group as well, who have made a lot of big plays for us this season. Becker, particularly, the last four games. But Sarratt is a guy that just loves football. He's a football guy. He's got great hands. He's really good at contested catches. He's an extremely intelligent football player. He's got good size. And he made a lot of big plays for us. Started out at the Division I AA or FCS level and then joined us at JMU and then came with us to Indiana.

"Cooper, Omar Cooper, is from Indianapolis, was on the team in '23 and played a role in '23, the year before I came, and made big plays for us in '24 and has elevated his game in '25. And he's an explosive guy. He's really good after the catch. And just has a lot of potential and ability and has become more consistent. Still has more consistency, steps in consistency, he can take, but I've seen him really progress and evolve."

On getting through discussions about retention and whether it's given Cignetti a "clear picture" ...

CIGNETTI: "Yeah, it's critical, and it certainly did clear the picture up quite a bit because the emphasis before we knew who the opponent would be was on the '27 team and retention and needs. And we got a few practices in as well to stay sharp and got refreshed and got in the weight room. But we're probably 95% through what I would call the key guys, sort of the guys everybody knows. And so, we're almost home in that front."

On Cignetti's memories from his four years at Alabama and what the Crimson Tide's program means to him ...

CIGNETTI: "Yeah, we had a great experience at Alabama. It was a real important part of my journey. Learned a lot from Coach Saban in terms of organization, standards, stalking complacency. I wouldn't be where I am today without my time under Nick. My family really enjoyed Tuscaloosa. We had great years there. Of course, we took over a team. We were 7-6 our first year and, 12-0 the next year in regular season, fell short in the SEC game to (Tim) Tebow and Florida and Urban (Meyer). And then had a rematch the next year and beat them and won national championship out at the Rose Bowl. So, we had four really good years there and then began another part of our life."

On if Cignetti has enjoyed having more time to rest or if he'd prefer playing the Rose Bowl game sooner ...

CIGNETTI: "Well, it is what it is, so you make the most of it. And the way we approached it until we knew the opponent, we treated it like two bye weeks. And now, we have almost two weeks to prepare for the opponent. So, would I prefer to play earlier? Yeah, I probably would, to be quite honest with you. But that's not the case. So, we're excited about playing. We're off to a good start, and it'll be a tremendous challenge."

On the process of trying to find a replacement for Stephen Daley ...

CIGNETTI: "Yeah, well, Bryant Haines does a great job coordinating our defense. We have a lot of confidence in our players, and we'll find the best solution that gives us the best chance to be successful."

On things Cignetti learned from his time at Alabama that stick with him today ...

CIGNETTI: "I probably think about it every single day, to be quite honest with you, because it had such an impact in my growth and development. And I think philosophically, the program that we run here is probably a lot more the same than different than Alabama. So, there's probably not a day that goes by where I don't draw from those experiences."

On what about Alabama has caught Cignetti's attention ...

CIGNETTI: "Well, I actually did get to watch some of them early in the year, because we had a couple bye weeks, and I'm a film junkie, and I've always enjoyed studying Coach DeBoer's offenses from the time he was at Washington. So, I got to watch their first Georgia game and some of their other things. They do a lot of really great stuff.

"In terms of the Oklahoma game, that was a tremendous comeback on the road in a hostile environment to come back from 17 points down and come out with a win, and I think it tells you a lot about the character of their football team. They got a lot of great players that are extremely well-coached, and so, they're a really good team. It will be a tremendous challenge."

On the process of extending defensive coordinator Bryant Haines and offensive coordinator Mike Shanahan ...

CIGNETTI: "Well, yeah, both those guys have been with me a long time. They both do a great job. Bryant had some calls, had some people very seriously interested in him. We thought it was important to be proactive. We also wanted to lock Mike up, who's very deserving, and I'm glad we did. And at the end of the season, we'll move on to the rest of the staff."

On how instrumental Cignetti was in recruiting Julio Jones to Alabama ...

CIGNETTI: "I mean, I think I played a role, but I think the most important guy when I was there in terms of the recruiting process was Coach Saban, who's a tremendous recruiter. Lance Thompson was a lead recruiter who was a great recruiter as well. Major Applewhite was involved also because he was the offensive coordinator and myself because I was a position coach. So, it was a team effort, but if I had to rank the importance, it would have been Coach Saban and Lance Thompson."

On what the conversation was like with Saban when Cignetti left for IUP ...

CIGNETTI: "He had some questions about whether that would be a very good move for me. I was just ready to kind of run my own show. I'd been an assistant coach. I was hitting 50, and, really, I started my full-time coaching career at age 23 at Rice University when they were in the Southwest Conference, so I had been doing it 28 years, and I was just ready for something different. And I respected his opinion, but I decided to make the move.

"I can't say there weren't many mornings early on where I wondered what I did because it was such a tremendous, radical change, but at the end of the day, it prepared me for where I am today."

On tight end Riley Nowakowski's development both as a run blocker and receiver ...

CIGNETTI: "Yeah, well, the first thing I'd tell you about him is he's a great person. He's a great worker. He's always up. He's intelligent. He's one of the team leaders without a doubt. He's very consistent day in, day out. You know what you're getting. He's a better athlete than a lot of people realize. He went to Wisconsin as a walk-on fullback, was a wrestler in high school as well. And when they made a coaching change and quit using the fullback, they moved him to tight end. And he's made some really big plays for us in the pass game in terms of taking short routes and extending those, breaking tackles and making them big, explosive plays.

"Obviously, he made a real nice downfield catch against Penn State in the two-minute drive, and he gives it everything he's got. And he's not your prototypical 6-foot-6-inch, 260-pound tight end, but darn it, I'm sure glad we got him."

On if there's a better way for the college football calendar to be set up with Indiana playing Jan. 1 and the transfer portal opening Jan. 2 ...

CIGNETTI: "Well, I definitely think the calendar could be improved, and that would be unanimous amongst the coaches. And whether you got to move the start of the regular season up a week and then start playing in the playoffs when the season ends, so there's a little bit better time to devote to high school recruiting and portal recruiting. We're all looking, I think, for that solution. And what you're dealing with in college football is, just, you don't have one guy in charge. If you had one person calling the shots, I think it would be a lot cleaner. So, hopefully we'll make some progress in that regard."

On what playing in the Rose Bowl means to the fans and the team to play on this stage ...

CIGNETTI: "Yeah, the Rose Bowl's got a lot of great tradition. A lot of great players and teams have competed in that game. We went to the playoffs last season, fell short, weren't happy with the way we played. So, we definitely want to improve upon that. Playing a great opponent that has a history of tremendous success, and the Rose Bowl's a great venue to play that game at. We played out there against UCLA last year, so we've been there once before, and it'll be a tremendous environment."

On what's allowed Louis Moore to thrive this year and how big his presence has been in the secondary ...

CIGNETTI: "Yeah, I'm really happy for Louis. Like you said, he had overcome some obstacles to get to where he is today. Actually was a starter on the team the year before I came, went in the portal when I was hired, went to Ole Miss, and then saw what we were doing here and returned for this season. He had that NCAA thing hanging over his head, during fall camp and the first three or four games of the season,so I'm sure that was a distraction. Once he got that behind him, boy, he really came on, and he's got great ball skills and football instincts. And he's been a huge part of our defensive success."

On finding replacments for Stephen Daley, is it a next-man-up situation? Do you consider moving some pieces around? Do you consider shifting some things schematically because you're going to have a little bit more time to work on stuff?

CIGNETTI: "Yeah, I think like you said, it's a little bit of all, and I guess we'll see when we play the game what we decide to do, right?"