What Indiana Football Coach Curt Cignetti Said To The Media At Huber's

STARLIGHT, Ind. – Indiana football coach Curt Cignetti is in that cycle where everything that was new a year ago is becoming more familiar to him.

He made his second appearance at the Hoosiers Connect fundraising event at Huber’s Winery, Orchard and Vineyard on Wednesday.

Here’s everything Cignetti said when he met the media before the main event.

On whether Cignetti is happy with what he got out of the transfer portal …

Cignetti: I'd like to have signed a few more. But when we hired (men's basketball coach) Darian (DeVries) and he lost the whole roster, money got a little tight and I felt the pinch.

On having a community event like the one hosted at Huber’s …

Cignetti: This is a fun event. Great people. Had a lot of fun last year. It sold out, 850 people, this is a beautiful venue, great part of the state, and I’m really looking forward to it.

On what Cignetti has learned or sensed from Darian DeVries since his arrival …

Cignetti: We don't spend a ton of time together, but we have been to three or four functions together. He's a man of action. He doesn't say a lot and he's got a plan. He'll get it done. He's going to do real well here. Just give him time. This stuff takes time. You're going to see results.

On what it’s been like this season coming off of a successful 2024 season …

Cignetti: To me it's the same as any season. You’ve got to start over every year. It doesn't matter, especially nowadays with the transfer portal, because you got so many new guys. You're rebuilding the house, so to speak, and starting with the foundation, the winter strength and conditioning program, setting standards, expectations, accountability, how you do things. Developing a collective mindset, a culture, a team identity. It's all about controlling the controllables and maximizing your opportunities and improving as much daily as you can. During the week, getting ready for a game, stacking meetings, stacking practices, being totally prepared so you can play your best individually and collectively. And the most important game is the next is the upcoming game. So my point is, you got to take it one day at a time, one play at a time. It's the only way to do it. And everybody starts the season 0-0. If you want to get all into the noise and the clutter and the BS and social media stuff, you know you can, but it's not going to affect you positively that's for sure. It's hard to turn it off completely. Sometimes you want a sense for what's going on out there. But I think the guys that are able to turn it off for a significant amount of time are putting their best foot forward and putting themselves in position to stay focused on what's important in their development. And when you get a bunch of guys thinking that way, then the team benefits as well.

On whether Cignetti has a preferred playoff structure …

Cignetti: I'm not paid to do that. I'm paid to win football games, graduate students. We got to do our part to be a part of college football playoff next year. We did it last year and didn't like the way we finished. I've been a part of all the different formats, being in D-II and FCS, and at the end of the day, there's one team standing. So whether you start with 64 or eight, there’s going to be one team standing at the end, right? And no matter what the number is, somebody's going to feel bad that they got left out. That's just the way it works. It can't make everybody happy. So we'll see what happens. We know what it is this year. That straight seeding, I think is a good thing. Would have been nice to have had that last year, had home game, 12 and a half point favorite, but we were still in control of our own destiny and didn't get the job done. If you pin me down, I probably have an opinion, but it's not worth stating.

On revenue sharing, the delay of the House settlement and what effect that’s had on recruiting and the roster ...

Cignetti: That part of it (the House settlement delay) hasn't affected anything. And I'm confident it'll get passed, that there's a plan in place and it'll be green lighted. The NIL piece, it will be interesting to see how that plays out. The (NIL) clearinghouse, because obviously there was a lot of front-loading of NIL deals, people trying to make big transactions before the rev share did pass, because the NIL go would have gone into effect immediately. That created a little bit of a different world, and some anxiety, a little more anxiety than normal. Look, we need regulation. We just need regulation. We need rules so that we all can plan and do what we're hired to do. Because right now there's just a lot of uncertainty. How many portal windows are there going to be? When are they going to be? Go on and on and on. We got to get we got to get the industry fixed. The game is great. We got to get the industry fixed.

On confidence in backup quarterback (Alberto Mendoza) …

Cignetti: I'm more concerned about the starter being ready to win games right now, because he's going to play the most snaps, hopefully, right? All these guys have a body of work, but they either get better or get worse. They never stay the same. And then when you bring new guys into your system, everybody's system's a little bit different. So they all got development. Right now, the second team quarterback today, would be the younger brother of Fernando (Mendoza), Alberto. He had a nice spring, he’s got a good skill set. But every day you go out there, you compete for a job. Nobody owns a job. Gotta earn that job every single day.

On whether Indiana’s early Big Ten schedule (Illinois, Iowa, Oregon) has an effect on season preparation …

Cignetti: When you look at last year's schedule, we played the national champ and the runner up, and I believe nine teams that went to bowls. Okay, now at the end of the season, when you look at that schedule, it looked not quite as challenging as it did in the off season. You never know what these teams (will do). Things change. But we'll have a very competitive Big Ten schedule. We’re looking forward to it, some good road challenges for sure. That just puts a greater sense of urgency on getting as much out every day in the summer, August camp, and you that week of preparation. But like you look at last year's schedule before the season started it looked like a real tough schedule, right? Led the country in point differential, second in the country in scoring, first in the country against the run. Second in the country defense, least amount of yards given up. Didn't trail till ninth game of the year. Not bad.

Does Cignetti appreciate the switch from being hunter to being the hunted …

Cignetti: I wasn't upset about (being picked 17th in the Big Ten preseason poll). I just stated the fact that last time I was in charge of a team rated next to last, look where we finished. It wasn’t predicting the future, even though it happened. You got to be ready to go every week. The first three weeks of the season, every team's ready to go. After that, it’s who’s ready to go. We're not going to sneak up on anybody. But that's okay, we want every team’s best. Great competitors do, right? At the end of the day, you got to block, tackle, run, grow, catch, play smart, disciplined, poise, good special teams, good and critical situations. And we got our style of play. Control what we can control. There's certain things you can't control. But I'm looking forward to it. I think we got a lot of nice pieces on this team and now it's time to take these pieces and start forming the team.

Is there a different reception in recruiting guys as there was a year ago …

Cignetti: Yeah. Last year's (high school) class was all put together before your season starts for most part. So that class last year was put together on promises, hopes, vision. This class is being put together on something tangible, what we put out there on the field and the publicity and exposure that we receive. And we've got about 10 commitments right now. I really like them. Some of them haven't announced yet, and I just think it's a higher caliber of guy. If I just knew when the portal date would be and what that portal pool is going to look like, I could figure out whether we're taking 20 high school guys or 17 high school guys relative to what our team needs look like next year. But right now, it's hard to plan, because you can’t get any answers.

On what the process is during the summer …

Cignetti: I've always given the coaches off Friday through Tuesday after Memorial Day, so you get five days, so they're back in today. We're really looking forward to that 8 a.m. staff meeting to talk about opponent prep. Obviously, there's some travel camps and some on-campus camps as well. We'll juggle a lot of balls. We have official visit weekends, the first three weekends in June, and around the 24th we go on vacation, come back, I think, the 16th (of July), and get ready for July camp.

How has in-state recruiting gone in the wake of a successful 2024 season …

Cignetti: I think we're doing well. I really want to do well in our state, to do a great job of evaluating, every guy's got a chance, and I like who we have. The more good players that come out of the high school ranks in Indiana, you should benefit as long as we continue to be successful. It's kind of the old chicken and the egg. but I really like who we have right now even though I'm not allowed to talk about those things.

On the bison mascot …

Cignetti: The bison! I love the bison. I love it.