What Curt Cignetti Said After Indiana Football's First Scrimmage

Indiana football coach Curt Cignetti met with the media Monday, which came two days after Indiana's first scrimmage of this phase of the offseason.

Here's the transcript from Cignetti's 10-minute press conference.

Opening Statement

CC: Practice 10 tomorrow. Making progress, improving, still got a long way to go. Be back at it, important week.

On the first scrimmage on Saturday...

CC: Too many penalties; like every first scrimmage we've ever had. Too many missed assignments. There was good, there was bad, there was ugly. The effort and competition was good.

On Lebron Bond's progress...

CC: It's really important to him - football. He has picked up where he left off [in the spring] and gotten better. Still [need to see] a little bit more consistency, but he is in the position to help us this fall.

On Lou Moore's waiver, if he's frustrated with the NCAA and if he supporters Moore...

CC: I think the issue with Louis and a lot of other guys across the country right now is the Vanderbilt quarterback was still within his five-year clock. There's a group of guys at five and a half years. I do support Louis, but it's a legal matter and that's all I can say about it.

On the running back room and Roman Hemby’s impression…

CC: (Roman) Hemby’s a veteran, he’s done it for a number of years in the Big Ten Conference. He’s had a solid camp, he’s got to improve on his pass protection. Kaelon Black has had a good camp. (Lee) Beebe was back out there today. I thought (Solomon) Vanhorse really ran well in the scrimmage and pass pro’d well. Older veteran guy, interesting story on him is when we first went to JMU in ’19, he had been a walk-on the previous season, was a walk-on still. We open with West Virginia, third series of the game he’s in there, played well and he started the next six, seven games and then hurt his ankle. He then had some injury problems from there on, but I thought he ran well Saturday and Khobie Martin’s getting better. It’s good to get Beebe back, he was out there today, first practice.

On Kellan Wyatt’s help to bolster the defensive line…

CC: Well, I think it’s really important because you got to have 11 good players doing their job. Outside of what it does for Mikail (Kamara) you’ve got to have two book ends when you’re in a four-down front. We’re very multiple, but Wyatt is a high effort, high energy, intelligent guy. Like Bryant (Haines) said, he’s very versatile, he could do a lot of different things, he’s had a really good camp. He’ll be a big addition for us.

On quarterbacks coach Chandler Whitmer's adaptation...

CC: "I think anytime, his primary experience was in the NFL, and college as a graduate assistant, so there was a learning curve in the spring. He's doing a great job, terrific job. He's doing a great job mentoring the quarterbacks, he's got good ideas. I'm very pleased -- he's going to add a lot to the staff. He's got great work ethic, he's a film junkie, a really smart guy, got a great demeanor.

On Indiana's receiver room...

CC: "We had pretty good offensive success overall last week in practice, but still a lot of mistakes, and there's a lot of areas we've got to get better. Now, what I would say to that is the defense was really shorthanded. (Rolijah) Hardy returned to practice today, but had a groin, missed most of last week. Amare Ferrell had a personal matter -- mother passed away, was gone most of the week. He's back today. Ponds went out of the scrimmage early, tweaked his ankle. He practiced today -- he's fine. And then you've got to put other guys in different positions, so the defense was a little shorthanded. I think we have a chance to be a good offense. Got to be balanced running the ball, throwing the ball, do a good job of protecting the quarterback, separating, getting open.

But there's not an area on the team right now, offensively, where we're ready to play a game. We're still installing, going over situations. Low-red, high-red, all that stuff, one-minute. But I think we're progressing, and where I see the progress, aside from the scrimmage, as the week went on, I thought the competition picked up, the speed and tempo picked up and the execution was starting to improve. Now, I think one of the biggest things we got to do now is we can't let mental fatigue precede physical fatigue. When guys start to get a little gassed, they can't give in -- 98% of this game is between your ears. It's amazing if you run the team at the end of practice, you run them on 10 10s or 10 40s, and make them do it again, start at zero if they're not perfect by everybody, how on that 10th one, they run faster than they've ever run. And it's all between the ears. I think we've made good progress, but we've got a long way to go yet."

On specialists ...

CC: "Well, it all starts with Langston, who's as good as there is in the country at short and long snapper. Nico, who's been money as a field goal kicker. Franke, who, about 80% of his kickoffs have been non-returnable in his career. And then McCarthy, who gets the ball off really fast and has a strong leg, great hang time. I really like our specialists. I think we have a chance to do some special things this year."

On Indiana's tight ends...

CC: "Yeah, well, I think Riley is a lot like (Kellan) Wyatt -- just a real smart, hard-working guy. You know what you're going to get from an effort and preparation standpoint day-in, day-out, consistency. He's going to be a valuable member of the offense.

"Holden Staes is improving as a blocker, has really good, soft hands. Big, long body, can get down the field in the pass field.

"Bomba, this will be his senior year, and hopefully we keep him healthy for the whole season and afterward."

On Indiana's injuries in the secondary opening roles for younger players

CC: "Well, it gives them an opportunity, yeah, to work with the ones or the twos. So, we're still looking at building quality depth back there."

On how he tells if the offensive line is trending in the right direction...

CC: "I mean, I wouldn't focus in just on the offensive line in the two games where we fell short. I think you can look at all the positions where we need to play better. Now, we had some protection issues against Ohio State -- some of it was communication and missed assignments. And Notre Dame, you can't say we won the line of scrimmage in that game.

"I think we've improved ourselves, potentially, with the guys we've brought in, and I think we're in a good place right now: Starting to gel, but not ready to play a game."

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