Indiana football head coach Curt Cignetti addressed the media on Monday as the Hoosiers opened Fall camp ahead of the 2026 season.
Here’s everything he had to say:
CIGNETTI: All right. Back at it. Day one, nobody got injured, the flow was good, the ball wasn’t on the ground. Watch the tape, make a few critiques, assessments, and move on to day two.
I think it’s a really important camp for us because we haven’t had the opportunity to get all of our people together. Had a lot of guys out in spring ball.
The continuity, the guys that we think we’ll be counting on — now, there’s going to be a lot of competition. Anybody that can play winning football will play, but we need to get the guys out there working together.
Then with some of the new guys, the older guys, and a few of them were hurt, kind of get them assimilated into how we do things.
The goal is being to develop players, develop position groups, individually, collectively, develop the intangibles as we get closer to Game 1, and the team mindset and identity so that we’re ready to play football and play the way we want to play. So today was a decent start.
Q: With Stephen Daley coming back, obviously the courts kind of opened the door for players like him to return. What was that process like from your side to bring back a player like that, and what do you feel his timeline is to return from the injury he suffered last year?
CIGNETTI: I think that it’s a potential opportunity to get better. Nobody really has a crystal ball and knows what the future holds. Stephen would have been cleared for camp. He’s in pretty good shape. We’ll have a plan for his return to play. We’re not in a hurry, in a rush. We’ll bring him along, evaluate it day by day.
If it works out for him long term, I think it’s a great thing because here’s a guy — you talk about helping people and opportunities. Here’s a guy that played at Kent State and then came to us last fall. It really took him three to four games before he started to get the hang of it, wasn’t playing a key role, then became the most dominant defensive lineman in Big Ten, led the Big Ten with TFLs at 19, suffers the injury, so ends up not getting drafted and so on and so forth.
If it all works out and he can participate and help this football team, then his life could change. I know one thing about him, he’ll give it his best shot, he really will, and we’ll just see what happens.
Q: Just to follow up on just the idea of you talk about having a plan — and I know you’d never rush a player prematurely in general. But for him, how advantageous is it going into what looks like a pretty deep room so that he is going to have time to ramp up. He has a lot of depth around him, a lot of impact players and experience around him. You don’t feel like anybody’s ever got — even he’s got to press to get back too soon?
CIGNETTI: Whether we had really good depth there or not, I think the return to play doesn’t change a whole lot because you don’t want to throw a guy out there until he’s ready to where he gets hurt. There will be competition. Guys that can play winning football, they’ll play.
Q: Just for clarification on Daley, we saw him out there. He looked like he was going through all the drills. Is he 70 percent, 80 percent, what is he right now?
CIGNETTI: I don’t think I could put a percentage on it. He looks pretty good. He’s on a modified program where he’ll dress out for practice, participate in some individual right now, no 11-on-11, and then get with the strength and conditioning staff, who will bring him along until they feel confident he’s ready to go.
That could be — who knows? Practice four, next week, I don’t know. I don’t think it’s going to be real, real long because he was training to be ready for next year in the league, so it looks like he’s in pretty good shape.
Q: Is him playing in the opener, is that even a possibility?
CIGNETTI: I haven’t even thought of that. I’m really focused on developing this team and getting up there and watching today’s tape and putting tomorrow’s practice schedule together and taking this team as far as we can in fall camp. I haven’t thought that far ahead.
Q. Last one from me, your thoughts, just the defensive line overall, how dominant can they become in time?
CIGNETTI: We have guys that have played football that are experienced guys. You get better, you get worse, you never stay the same. You get out what you put in. I’ve got two really good coaches there in Pat Kuntz and Buddha Williams, and Bryant does a great job. So there’s a lot of TFLs and sacks returning, tackles, things of that nature.
Look, humble and hungry is the only way I know.
Q: What were your thoughts coming out of summer with the summer program under Tyson Brown. Do you like what you see, and how do the guys look?
CIGNETTI: Yeah, most definitely. I think we made some very significant strides. When you look at the numbers — GPS, body fat, vertical jump, things of that nature — the results really speak for themselves. Very pleased.
Q: What’s your opinion of going into a season not having to think about redshirts anymore? Does that kind of — how does that impact like your roster management?
CIGNETTI: I haven’t really thought about that either. I will say this, I didn’t think a lot about it last year either because if a guy could help the team win, ready to play winning football, you’d better play them because they could go in the portal year two or year four, year three. Now it’s five for five, so it’s a little different ballgame. It’s a good rule.
Q: Josh Hoover, what did you see out of him in day one, and what’s the trajectory for him going forward?
CIGNETTI: I was watching so many different guys, but it appeared that he finished practice well. I saw him make a few nice throws at the end. I saw Marsh make a couple plays too.
Q: On A.J. Harris, what made him desirable coming out of the portal from Penn State? What’s the outlook for him throughout fall camp?
CIGNETTI: Yeah, D’Angelo Ponds going out early, so we needed another experienced player there. I’m high on Gandy, who will be full go next week. Jamari Sharpe has really done a great job. He’s our number one guy. And A.J. Harris has the abilities. Looking for the day in, day out consistency, play in, play out consistency.
Q: With the amount of guys that were out, starters that were out in the spring, trying to reintegrate them this fall, does that change how you approach how much time you want to give the ones and how much time you get to rotate with the twos and different things like that?
CIGNETTI: Not a lot, I don’t think. Now, our overall numbers by position do affect that rep count. Right now it appears that we’re in pretty good shape numbers-wise. So we always increase the reps with the ones as we go and start to decrease the reps with the threes.
No, I don’t — I think right now it’s identifying who can do what, and by the end of camp, what we think the roles are going into the first game and making sure we have enough quality depth and that we’re utilizing our best 11 as effectively as we can.
Q: I recognize the broadness of this question, but how do you judge what a good practice is? Because sometimes the nature of competition is one guy does well and another guy struggles, offense beats defense, and things like that.
CIGNETTI: I kind of look at the first practice as just the flow. Did we have any major organizational snafus? Was the ball on the ground a lot? A lot of times early in camp, spring ball, working new centers, center snaps can be an issue, six, eight balls on the ground. We didn’t have that today. The flow was good. The competition was good.
I thought the guys did a decent job of sustaining practice. I didn’t think they got overly fatigued, but I think it was a very manageable practice. And nobody got hurt.
Q: Kind of a positional question. I know it’s early, but you had three linebackers you felt really good about last season, you’ve got two of those back. Who are you maybe looking at — I know you’ve got some depth at safety too, but who are you looking at behind Rolijah and Isaiah as players that you’d like to see?
CIGNETTI: We’re looking at a lot of them. We’ve got some older guys and some younger guys, so we’ll see who steps up. I thought Jacob Savage did some nice things at the end of spring and had a pretty good summer. Henry Ohlinger got hurt. Ja’Dyn Williams had a nice summer. We got Utzinger and Turner and PJ Nelson and McConnell all back. So we’ll see.
Q: Have you noticed a difference between Charlie Becker between this time last year and now? You’ve mentioned kind of the body of work that he has now, he put together, but how has that impacted him? How have you seen him kind of take a step forward and build on that? I know he was limited in the spring, though.
CIGNETTI: Yeah, he’s playing with more confidence and belief. I thought he had a pretty good camp last year. Maybe the biggest change is how we look at him. He was just a guy and he had an opportunity. He was a special teams demon for us in ’24, and early in the year when he got in the games, he took advantage of his opportunities.
When Sarratt got hurt, the guy was our leading receiver seven of the last eight games. Had a great summer too.
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