Indiana football head coach Curt Cignetti addressed the media after the Hoosiers’ 27-14 win over Old Dominion on Saturday. Here’s what he had to say:
CIGNETTI: Always good to get a win. Wins are hard to get. 1-0. But I guarantee you, everybody in this organization realizes we didn’t play as well as we wanted to. That’s just a flat out fact. We had a missed assignment on the first play the long touchdown run. And then we collected ourselves on defense shortly thereafter and pretty much dominated them.
Didn’t give them anything.
Then we had another missed assignment on a similar play on the weak side again at the end of the game which led to another long touchdown run. Aside from that, they didn’t get a whole lot done.
I thought we had them in position near the end of the second quarter where we could have stuck a fork in them and really jumped on them, and we couldn’t capitalize offensively.
We had a number of missed opportunities offensively — first-and-two on the 2, couldn’t get the ball in the end zone. Get down there the next time and fumbled the ball. Got open for a touchdown, make a nice throw and he drops the ball. Hit the crossbar on a field goal. Overthrow a guy for a touchdown in the second half.
And so from that standpoint, you know, we have to get better, gotta get better.
Obviously Brady’s punt return was a big play because there was a point in time there they had the lead and they were moving the ball. And, so, that was a huge play. And before you knew it we were up 17-7. Didn’t feel like we were.
And we’ve got the ball first in the second half, we needed a touchdown and we did. We got it. Up 24-7. Then you thought the rout could be on, but it wasn’t. There will be a lot to learn in this tape, and we’ve got to get better.
Q: You’ve talked a lot about just a sense of urgency the last two weeks, that’s what you stressed every time you spoke to us. Did you guys have it today or feel like just those miss accuse were just some things that happened in the game? Or do you feel like maybe lack sense of urgency at times?
CIGNETTI: I thought the preparation was good. I thought we had their attention. I think everybody was probably in shock on the first touchdown run. And I thought the kids didn’t panic and rebounded from that.
We just have to execute a little better. When you have opportunities to score touchdowns, you’ve got to score them. That’s what we did really well last year. When we had the opportunities, we made the plays.
Q: You talked a little bit about the defensive performance. You have the two big busts. On the other hand they didn’t snap the ball on the plus side of 50 the entire day. How do you pick apart a game like that where you have really obvious busts but on the other hand the vast majority of the game goes —
CIGNETTI: I wouldn’t overcomplicate it. I think you just picked it apart. In fact, they were running clock in the second quarter trying to shorten the game there the last seven and a half minutes of the second quarter. So they didn’t get much done except for two missed assignments which led to big plays. And the quarterback’s fast.
Q: How would you say your team lived up to the standard of your program, your team?
CIGNETTI: I think this is a great learning tool for us. And they scored that first touchdown. And to our team’s credit, you know, we rallied back.
But the mistakes, intercept a pass and get a penalty. You know, there was just a lot of things like that that the teams — my teams in the past haven’t done. When we had open guys for touchdowns, we made the catch or made the throw. And so we’ll see it on tape.
Q: You talked about the missed opportunity, missed scoring opportunities — four trips inside I think it was their 10 that didn’t yield a touchdown. Anything in particular you look at say this was the main issue?
CIGNETTI: I would start with the plan. Maybe it wasn’t a very good plan. We do it on Thursdays and it was the low red and goal line. And I was really concerned about it leading up to the kickoff.
And there wasn’t a lot of go line on tape because people were scoring explosive touchdowns. We certainly had those opportunities to do that and didn’t — ended up on the goal line.
So I’d start with a plan. And I’m sure I’ll put the tape on, the execution isn’t very good. I hear comments on the headset about this guy was supposed to do this and that guy was supposed to do that.
Q: I know you’ll see a lot more when you watch the tape, but as far as Fernando, seemed a little out of sync and rhythm. Your thoughts on how he managed the game and his play today?
CIGNETTI: I thought he made some good plays. He left some plays out there. He got off rhythm a couple of times. And that’s the thing we’ve been trying to clean up with him is speed up his process, and once the ball is snapped, keep him on rhythm.
Q: You talked about the punt return. With Jonathan Brady, I know you said I think last week at fall camp that job was still up for grabs. I guess when did he win that job? And what set him apart from the rest of the pack that led you in that direction?
CIGNETTI: I think we have some good candidates there. And I think for the past two to three weeks we’ve been leaning Brady stronger every day because he catches the ball well, he makes good decisions.
The punt returner is different than the kickoff returner different decisions whether to field the punt or not; be a good communicator on the Peter call; when to play the bounce, when not to play the bounce; and how to play the 10. And he’s an intelligent football player with good ball skills.
Q: When you mentioned “mistakes,” how much of it worries you and how much of that is just it’s early in the year and clean up?
CIGNETTI: I’m not pleased with the way we played. So I can’t be any more clear than that.
Q: The running game was a good look today, the new revamped offensive line. Roman Hemby goes for over a hundred and Kaelon Black had a lot of yards as well. I know you have to watch the film to grade it out, but was that a positive, something you took away from today so far?
CIGNETTI: Seemed like we pushed them around and we were opening up some holes, yeah. And unless they brought (indiscernible) splits — but sure seemed that way, yeah.
Q: The three interceptions today, what did you make and what do you take away from the play of your secondary today?
CIGNETTI: I think I’ve got to see those on tape again, but we’ve got guys back here that have good ball skills, and a couple of those were deflected balls, too, I think, right, and they were big plays in the game. So Ponds, Sharpe, Ferrell — Ferrell is a really good player. And we got Boykin from NC State, and Louis Moore — we’ve got a lot of experience.
Every week’s a new challenge. That was a different offense because of the way they spread you out and the ability of the quarterback to run the ball, but those plays were game-changers, there’s no doubt.
