Curt Cignetti 'Not Pleased' with Indiana's Performance in 27-14 Win over Old Dominion

Curt Cignetti stared, and stared, and stared. Nearly 25 minutes after the final seconds of Indiana's 27-14 victory over Old Dominion on Saturday afternoon, the Hoosiers' second-year coach wasn't happy.

His face confirmed it. So did his words.

"I'm not pleased with the way we played," Cignetti said. "So, I can't be any more clear than that."

It's always good, Cignetti said, to get a win. But the result doesn't override the process, especially in a non-conference game where Indiana closed as a 23-point favorite.

And especially when the standard is as high as Cignetti sets it.

"I guarantee you," Cignetti said, "everybody in this organization realizes we didn't play as well as we wanted to. That's just a flat-out fact."

His mind first went to Indiana's defense.

The Hoosiers allowed a 75-yard touchdown on the first play from scrimmage. Old Dominion quarterback Colton Joseph kept a read option, and while Indiana's defense attacked the running back, Joseph stormed to the end zone. Cignetti blamed a missed assignment.

Over their next nine full drives, the Monarchs ran 39 plays for only 129 yards, an average of 3.3 yards per play. Joseph threw three interceptions — the first to Amare Ferrell, the next to Louis Moore and the last to D'Angelo Ponds — and Old Dominion punted six times.

Then, lightning struck twice.

Joseph kept a read option, broke through Indiana's front seven and won a footrace against Ponds, who tackled Joseph into the endzone. Ponds gave tremendous effort, but Joseph tumbled into a 78-yard score after another missed assignment.

Cignetti doesn't want to overcomplicate things. Apart from those two errors, he said, he thought Indiana's defense "pretty much dominated" Old Dominion's offense, which finished with 314 net yards and 218 rushing yards but only 96 passing yards and three turnovers.

Still, Ferrell, who made his fifth career interception Saturday, said the Hoosiers fell shy of their expectations.

"Being a great defense, you always want to make sure you do everything right," Ferrell said. "Leading into this game, (the key) was stopping the run, and we didn't do a great job of stopping the run today with the quarterback. So, we just got to go in, be more disciplined, everyone do their job."

The Hoosiers' offense received harsher criticism from Cignetti.

Indiana had "a number of missed opportunities," Cignetti said. The Hoosiers had first-and-goal from the two-yard line on their opening possession and didn't score. Old Dominion stopped three rushing plays and broke up Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza's pass to tight end Riley Nowakowski on fourth-and-goal to keep its early lead.

The Hoosiers crossed Old Dominion's 30-yard line on their next possession, and redshirt junior running back Lee Beebe Jr. fumbled.

Indiana scored on its next offensive possession — which followed senior Jonathan Brady's 91-yard punt return touchdown to tie the game — but only after being stopped twice from the two-yard line and settling for a 22-yard field goal from Nico Radicic.

Midway through the second quarter, Mendoza placed a near-50-yard pass into receiver Omar Cooper Jr.'s hands, but Cooper dropped it.

At the end of the first half, redshirt senior kicker Brendan Franke's 52-yard field goal hit the cross bar and bounced back toward the field. Primarily a kickoff specialist, Franke had only attempted one field goal in his career — a miss in 2022 while playing at Nebraska.

Despite a plethora of mistakes, the Hoosiers led 17-7 at halftime. Cignetti felt it could've been much more.

"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," Cignetti said, "and we couldn't capitalize offensively. We were up 17-7, (but it) didn't feel like we were."

Indiana started the second half with an eight-play, 75-yard touchdown drive that took less than four minutes. Leading 24-7, Cignetti thought it was the start of an offensive turnaround. But the Hoosiers scored only three more points and were outscored 7-3 the rest of the way.

"We needed a touchdown and we did. We got it. Up 24-7. Then you thought the rout could be on," Cignetti said. "But it wasn't. There will be a lot to learn in this tape, and we've got to get better."

The Hoosiers produced 251 net yards of offense in both the first and second half to finish with 502 yards. They dominated time of possession, holding the ball for 41 minutes and 28 seconds to Old Dominion's 18 minutes and 32 seconds. They rushed for over 300 yards, which they did only once last season.

But Indiana left points on the board. It had six trips inside the 10-yard line and had the same number of touchdowns — two — as field goals and turnovers on downs.

"I thought ODU did a great job. Evidently, we got to finish," Mendoza said. "I think that's just an accountability part for myself. And I think the whole offense, if they were all standing right here, would all take accountability for that. I mean, that's unacceptable. We got to punch those in.

"I think it's a very different game with momentum, and it's just not playing up to our standard, including myself."

Statistically, Indiana dominated Old Dominion. The scoreboard just didn't show it due to those pesky red zone shortcomings.

"We just have to execute a little better," Cignetti said. "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."

Mendoza said players told him in the locker room that Indiana's victory over Old Dominion was similar to the Hoosiers' 31-7 win against Florida International in last year's season opener. Ferrell, who was on the field for both games, agreed.

Indiana responded with a record-setting 77-3 pummeling of Western Illinois the ensuing week. The Hoosiers will watch film Sunday, practice during the week and try to do the same against Kennesaw State next Saturday.

But for now, Indiana faces mixed feelings between happiness about a win, dissatisfaction over its performance and a desire to build toward better, more Cignetti-characteristic performances.

"It was a win, but it wasn't the win we wanted," Ferrell said. "Definitely a lot of things we got to clean up, definitely a lot of things for us to get better — everybody. Coaches, players, everybody."

And that reality was apparent in Cignetti's long, stern stare.