Indiana football head coach Curt Cignetti pled his case Saturday evening on CBS.
In an interview prior to the Big Ten Championship, a game that featured two teams, Oregon and Penn State, Indiana didn’t play as part of its conference schedule, Cignetti was displeased that his team wasn’t projected to host a College Football Playoff game.
“How are we not, right now, seeded for a home game?” Cignetti said after listing the losses of all the one-loss teams heading into Saturday. “That’s what I want to know.”
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Cignetti even mentioned Notre Dame's loss to Northern Illinois by name, which could become bulletin board in the coming days.
What Cignetti learned Sunday was his 11-1 Indiana team, ranked No. 8 by the College Football Playoff committee and seeded 10th, will play at Notre Dame Stadium on Friday, Dec. 20 (8 p.m. EST on ABC/ESPN) against fifth-ranked and seventh-seeded Notre Dame (11-1) in the first round of the first 12-team College Football Playoff.
Cignetti, who took over Indiana at the end of last season after spending the previous five at James Madison, didn’t want to rehash his argument in Sunday’s press conference following the playoff assignments.
“That’s all in the past,” Cignetti said. “Our eyes are forward right now on what we've got to get done in terms of preparation for the next opponent and also handling the other things that coaches have to handle nowadays in December.
“This team's accomplished a lot. I'm proud of what they've accomplished. I think the coaches have done a great job, players have done a great job. But in saying that, no one's satisfied. No one's satisfied. The players are hungry for more, the coaches are hungry for more.”
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With the early signing period running Wednesday-Friday of last week and the transfer portal entry window opening this coming Monday, Cignetti made sure it was known that he didn’t have the past week off even though his team didn’t play.
“I think I've been busier this past week than I was in season,” Cignetti said. “I really still haven't had a chance to reflect and let it all sink in. I did walk outside my office this afternoon for about 30 seconds and looked around the stadium between interviews, and it kind of hit me, and it was like, wow, we've accomplished a lot in 12 months. But that's all in the past.”
Notre Dame and Indiana last met on a football field in 1991, which was a 49-27 victory for the Irish in Notre Dame Stadium. Notre Dame holds a 23-5-1 career record against Indiana since the teams first played in 1898.
The teams will be the participants in the first College Football Playoff game at the FBS level played at a home venue. That the game is being played in Indiana of all places with two teams from the same state is certainly an unlikely outcome.
“I think it's a great game for the state in general for Indiana and Notre Dame to be playing in the College Football Playoff,” Cignetti said. “I think the series began in 1898, and Notre Dame has pretty much had the upper hand. I don't know the series records.
“But regardless of who we play, this is the playoffs. You win or go home, and we're in it to win it. I mean, our odds of probably making the College Football Playoff at the beginning of the season, I don't know what they were, but they were pretty darn low, I'm sure. We were picked 17th out of 18 teams in the Big Ten.
“Our odds of winning the next four games are probably significantly higher than they were of making the college football playoffs in the first place. So, we've climbed that mountain. Regardless of who we were going to play in the first round, the objective is the same.”
Familiarity with Notre Dame
Notre Dame and Indiana shared one common opponent this season: Purdue. Notre Dame drummed the Boilermakers, 66-7, on Sept. 14. Indiana did the same with a 66-0 win over its in-state rival on Nov. 30.
When preparing for Purdue, Cignetti was able to learn a little bit about the Irish.
“They've won 10 in a row. Coach [Marcus] Freeman has done a tremendous job with that football team. I've looked at their stats, haven't had a chance to watch them today with all the media stuff going on, but I saw enough of them against Purdue to know that they're an excellent football team, and when you look at their scores, they haven't played in very many close games.
“So, I'm sure they'll be quite the challenge, but we're looking forward to it. We're a good football team.”
Cignetti later added that Notre Dame’s “a really good football team that's very disciplined and very well coached and executes at a high level.”
Cignetti highlighted Notre Dame’s running game, which is ranked third in the FBS yards per carry (6.30) and No. 10 in yards per game (224.8) as a primary concern.
“We're going to have to be able to stop the run this week in the next game,” Cignetti said. “Notre Dame's got an excellent running game, and the quarterback alone has rushed for about 750 yards. So you add that to it, and it will be quite the challenge.”
Dealing with crowd noise
Indiana’s lone loss of the season came at the hands of CFP 8 seed Ohio State in Columbus, Ohio. Crowd noise in Ohio Stadium impacted Indiana in its 38-15 loss to the Buckeyes on Nov. 23.
Notre Dame Stadium might not be as loud on Dec. 20, but Indiana has worked to learn lessons on how to handle that kind of environment.
“I do think, having been in that environment and coming out individually and collectively, you benefit from the notes taken,” Cignetti said. “I think where it affected us most was offensively, having to go to a silent cadence the third play of the game.
“Didn't affect us the first series of the game, but once Ohio State had a chance to get their guys on the sideline, this is what they're doing, they started to tee off on us pretty good. There are some things we can do and incorporate, which we've already begun to do.
“Then we did some uncharacteristic things in that game. We dropped a punt snap. We had poor location on a punt that resulted in a punt return for a touchdown. Still got to get the guy on the field. We had some communication errors on pass protection, and a couple critical missed assignments.
“I think we're going to be a lot better the next time we're in that environment.”
Indiana quarterback Kurtis Rourke, who’s helped the Hoosiers lead the FBS in team passing efficiency (179.08), completed just eight of his 18 passes (44.4%) for 68 yards and was sacked five times against Ohio State. Indiana finished with only 83 net rushing yards due in large part to all the sacks on Rourke. The Hoosier gained 158 rushing yards without subtracting the losses on other carries.
Rourke said Indiana’s offense will be better prepared to operate on a silent count if needed.
“We've been repping it ever since that game even though we might not know if we have to use it or not,” Rourke said. “It's going to be an afterthought for us if we have to go to it just because we repped it so many times, and it's going to be — yeah, I don't see it being an issue.
Extra points
► Though no one has played in the current 12-team format used by the College Football Playoff, Cignetti has quite a bit of experience at leading a team through a playoff field. He has an 11-8 playoff record as a head coach at Indiana University of Pennsylvania (Division II), Elon (FCS) and James Madison (FCS) in eight playoff appearances.
Cignetti went 7-3 in three playoff runs at James Madison before the program transitioned to the FBS level. His team lost to North Dakota State in the FCS national championship game at the end of the 2019 season and lost in the semifinal rounds the next two seasons.
“Well, I am kind of used to this routine, but I don't think it's a major change for any of the coaches, to be quite honest with you, that are in the playoff,” Cignetti said. “You just have a few more days between games. So, I don't think it's anything that anybody can't figure out.”
► Like Notre Dame defensive coordinator Al Golden, Indiana defensive coordinator/linebackers coach Bryant Haines is also one of 15 semifinalists for the Broyles Award given to the top assistant coach in college football. Haines followed Cignetti from James Madison and made an instant impact with the Hoosiers.
Indiana ranks among the top 12 teams in the FBS in the following defensive categories: first in rushing yards allowed per game (70.8), second in total yards allowed per game (244.8), second in first downs allowed (172), second in fourth-down conversion percentage allowed (31.3), sixth in points per game allowed (14.7), eighth in third-down conversion percentage allowed (31.0) and 12th in team passing efficiency allowed (111.07).
“Bryant's done a tremendous job as a coordinator and has every year since he's been a coordinator,” Cignetti said. “… We play with that edge — fast, physical, tough, run to the ball, swarm the ball, pressure the quarterback. Just like every defense I've had since really I went to JMU in '19, and that's when that philosophy of being disruptive up front was put in place and a premium put on those front guys and linebackers.”
► Indiana quarterbacks coach/co-offensive coordinator Tino Sunseri will be leaving the Hoosiers to become the offensive coordinator at UCLA after the season.
“Coach Tino has been awesome,” Rourke said. “I've developed so much as a quarterback since working with him in January. It's been awesome to see my personal growth as well as the rest of the quarterbacks in the room. I know all of us can say that we've learned and become a better quarterback this year, and a lot of that attributes to Coach Tino.”
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