What Curt Cignetti Said At His Thursday Press Conference

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - Indiana spring football practice is winding down. Thursday's practice was the 10th of the spring and there are only two left between now and next week's Spring Game.

The Spring Game takes place at 8 p.m. at Memorial Stadium on April 17, next Thursday.

Indiana will have a closed scrimmage on Saturday and one more practice on Tuesday before the Spring Game.

Here's everything Curt Cignetti had to say on Thursday.

Opening statement ...

Curt Cignetti: Practice 10 in the books. It's a race to improve as much as you can, and up to today, I think you know, the effort and the improvement is on track. I think today, we squandered an opportunity to improve as much as possible, and we were inconsistent in too many areas. Probably not mentally prepared to come out and do what it takes to have a successful practice. And improve as much as possible.

It was too much inconsistency across the board at all positions. Whether it's a lack of detail, focus, preparation, which leads to a breakdown in execution. Good players want to be coached. Great players. You can't coach them enough. You can't give them enough. They want more. Inconsistent players want coached on their terms. And today, we had too many inconsistent players that didn't come out prepared, ready to improve and live up to the standard that we've set for each individual and the team and offense, defense, special teams.

I'm sure I'll go in and look at the tape, it's never as good, never as bad (as you think), but that's where we are today. I'm really not worried about what it looks like four months from now. My focus is on, what were we today? What did we put on tape?

On the first scrimmage the team had on Saturday ...

Cignetti: I thought it was typical first scrimmage. Good competition. Penalties, sacks, you know, two twos, turnovers, about like every first scrimmage I've ever been around. So I want to be clean Saturday in all three phases, cut down on missed assignments, getting 11 guys who do what they're supposed to do. Consistently play at a high level, finishing pace, playing win football.

What was the focus there that you mentioned that you lacked a little bit today for the first coverage.

On what concerned Cignetti about Thursday's practice ...

Cignetti: We just didn't have enough juice out there. There were too many coaches yelling to get going. Up to today, I think the practices, they're never perfect, but the effort and energy has been great.

On what Cignetti has seen from the running backs and Khobie Martin specifically ...

Cignetti: I think all the new guys they're improving every day, with every rep. It's really hard to tell until you tackle but I see them being more decisive in the run game, catching ball out of backfield, doing the right thing in pass pro. And I think Khobie Martin's coming along fine. He's got a future.

On spring practice and any concerns about Indiana's talent being seen by other teams before the post-spring practice portal opens ...

Cignetti: We play a half, basically, it's what we do, offense versus defense, and then that's it. So it's really not a game. And in my mind, it's a glorified practice, and it's a third opportunity to get your guys out there in game-like conditions. And it's also going to be the only time we tackle the spring so that's how I look at it.

Actions speak louder than words, the fact that we're going to go through with it, that's what I believe. And I don't really have an opinion about other people canceling their spring games. It's not on TV. It's just another practice.

On simulating tackling in practice ...

Cignetti: We'll do a tackling circuit before practice. And you know, guys coach the fundamentals of tackle. We thought last three or four years, we haven't tackled every scrimmage. Last three years, I think we've tackled the spring game. And last couple we didn't tackle in the fall and still led the country run defense, second in country to least amount of yards. So good players can tackle, ankle, stiff knees, hip stiff athletes, hard contact.

On wide receiver Omar Cooper Jr. and supposedly watching film of quarterback Fernando Mendoza when he was a small child ...

Cignetti: I'm not sure where that came from. I watched this tape from last season, and I saw him his junior the year before, only when I was watching other offenses and concepts and stuff like that.

Omar Cooper's got the ability to be an outstanding football player. He's got to do it day out, play in and play out. He's got to get rid of the inconsistency, set higher standards for himself, and have the discipline and commitment to achieve his goals and become what he wants to be. The talent's there, the flashes are there. Got to see a play and play out, game and game out because I've got very high expectations for him. I've been around some really good receivers. You know, it's year 44 (for Cignetti) and he could be one of those kind of guys. But you got to be able to count on guys, day in, day out, play in, play out, right? Can't be up and down. Can't be a guy that flashes on home games or the end of the game. Part of that is maturity ... growing up. He not a young guy anymore, right? So I think Omar can be as good as he wants to be and 98% of it is between his ears.

On coaching Chandler Whitmer and coaching his coaches generally ...

Cignetti: I coach all the coaches, to some degree, even the ones been with me long time. With Chandler, it's more about this is what we've done offensively. This is the history. With everything on my play as a head coach, I don't quite have much time to spend on all the little details, but he's done a really nice job. That's a great thing about spring ball, you get that trial run. I think the quarterbacks have proven with every rep and with every installation, he learns and improves, and the quarterback right now is where all the other new quarterbacks have been that were brought to this offense. He's the fourth one that's coming from the portal in a row now and they've all been highly successful. But you know, the first half of spring is up and down. The second half of spring, there's a little more consistency, but then in the fall, you really see a big difference.

On wide receiver Charlie Becker ...

Cignetti: I've seen Becker take a step. I'm excited about his future. He gives you good effort every day. He's big, tall, he's made some plays down the field. He's tough.

On the message sent to players ...

Cignetti: That message got sent on the field during practice. I didn't wait until after practice to send it. Sometimes it's a little X-rated message.

More on Chandler Whitmer, who came to Indiana from the NFL, and whether Cignetti can absorb from Whitmer having been in the NFL ...

Cignetti: With Tino (Sunseri, former quarterbacks coach) part of the attraction to me? Well, first of all, I knew the family. He was in the Alabama offense, which I had studied during COVID, because FCS didn't play in the fall, so when they had Mack Jones, all those receivers and I liked what they were doing. And Tino was working under Sark (Steve Sarkesian, then at Alabama, now Texas head coach). I was looking for some new ideas. We implemented some of them, not all, but there was still the coaching of Tino. It was his first full time job. You know, he had been a graduate assistant and other things, and it took him time. It's like coaching a young player.

Chandler has been around a lot of good people. He's older. They're two different people and Chandler understands what it takes. He got a great work ethic in every detail. I'm not a big guy in taking NFL concepts into college football. It's a different game. I learned that lesson long, long time ago I'm not saying there's not some things right. Hashmarks are different. Proficiency of the players are different. The amount of meeting time you have with the players is completely different. So that normally doesn't translate very well down to the college game. What you've seen a little bit of is the college game move up to the NFL. That doesn't mean we won't steal a thing or two, but the focus up to this point, for the most part, has been what have we done in the past? What are we seeing out there in college football right now that we kind of like that maybe we could incorporate?

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