What Curt Cignetti Said After Indiana Football's 20-15 Win Over Iowa

After shaking hands with Indiana athletic director Scott Dolson and hugging IU President Pamela Whitten, Indiana football coach Curt Cignetti lifted his arms and gave three emphatic "Go IU" chants to a section of Hoosier fans gathered around Kinnick Stadium's southeast endzone Saturday night.

Roughly 20 minutes later, Cignetti met with reporters, rehashing No. 11 Indiana's 20-15 win over Iowa, a victory that sends the Hoosiers into their bye week with an unblemished 5-0 record.

Here's the transcript from Cignetti's 10-and-a-half-minute press conference ...

Opening statement... 

“Okay, that was a really hard-fought ball game. I give Iowa a lot of credit. They're a good football team. They laid it on the line. I give our players and our coaches a ton of credit. We made the plays when we needed to. It was a back-and-forth game. It was a gut-check game. A lot of good, bad, and ugly. More bad and ugly. Except, defense kept them out of the end zone. Got a couple turnovers when we needed to. Partially deflected a punt. Field goal kicker was awesome under pressure.

“And when we needed to make the play, we did. We really struggled on third and short. They came after us with the blitz. But when we needed to make the play, we did. On third down against the house blitz again to Sarratt; broke a tackle. And it's a great road win. So, very proud of the team and the players.” 

Q: On third and short, fourth and short stops on running plays, can Fernando call audibles?

“No, Fernando didn't do any audibling in the day. In the noise, that wasn't the plan. There were not RPOs on those plays. They came after us and we couldn't gain a yard. And on the last play to Sarratt, they had house blitz the play before, meaning they're bringing one more than you can block. So, we went to our seven-man protection. We called that. We had called that three or four times, maybe five or six today.

“Against Indiana State as well, who house blitzed us. Sarratt ran the slant, he won inside, broke a tackle, ball was where it needed to be and he scored. And somebody asked me after the game, I think the TV reporter, what will you remember from this game. I'll remember Sarratt running toward the end zone. That's what I'll remember. But I give our players a lot of credit. It was a great team win.” 

Q: How important is a gut-check win even when the execution wasn’t great? 

CIGNETTI: “You know, I've been in a lot of those games. Like at Elon, we won eight in a row. And, like, almost all eight went down to the last play game. It was like a storybook. The stars were aligned. We haven't had many of those here and we didn't have many of those at JMU either. So, I thought our coaches did a great job and our players when it was game on the line.

“I did what I could do to keep everybody kind of loose, asking everybody if they're having fun. That's what's worked for me, to be honest with you. And when we needed the play to be made, Mendoza made the throw and Sarratt made the catch. And defense stopped ‘em.” 

Q: On Fernando running out of the end zone... 

CIGNETTI: “Well, that was Groundhog Day when we beat App State, our first Sunbelt game at JMU, after they had beaten (Texas) A&M. We have something called victory delay, and I've got to get a clarification from the Big Ten, okay? Iowa had all three timeouts left. I think there were 16 or 17 seconds left in the game. So, in theory, like, if you took a knee, you can only run eight seconds off the clock, because they got three timeouts left.

“So, we have something called victory delay, where he goes back and he delays, delay, delay, before he gets hit, and then takes a knee. You're trying to run four or five seconds off the clock. Well, Iowa didn't even rush on the first one. And he went back, and, you know, and then the ref blew the whistle. And one guy on the sideline gave me one interpretation, and the referee gave me a completely different one. So, the last play of the game, we had to take the snap from the shotgun and run into the end zone.

“He was supposed to go through the end zone, but he got caught. And our quarterback coach, Chandler Whitmer, who does a great job, and I can understand why, said, ‘No, he doesn't need to go all the way to the end zone,’ because there was only three seconds left on the clock. But I wasn't taking any chances. It was a hard-fought game. I give both teams a lot of credit.” 

Q: Take us through Sarratt’s play... 

CIGNETTI: “We've been getting some house blitz this season, started with ODU, Kennesaw a little bit, Indiana State quite a bit early in the game. And, you know, quarterback coaches and offensive coordinators, they hate, like, seven-man slide protection, three-man routes, no running backs on check downs. It just doesn't look real pretty on the blackboard. You know what I'm saying?

“But when you get those kind of blitzes, that's what you've got to be in. And it frees guys up to work one-on-one and gives you time to throw the football. So, we actually had called that play earlier in the game on third down, and Sarratt didn't win on a slant against press. And we had a quick out to the field and a go. And then the X had a quick slant.

“This one, because it was third and seven and not third and two, and it was house instead of blitz one, they were off. They were off. And Sarratt won inside and spun. Big play. Huge play.” 

Q: Curt, you talked about coaching your team on how to win even when they’re up big. How did you see that mentality pay off in a game like this? 

CIGNETTI: “It never goes according to script. There's a lot of variables involved, and there's going to be games like this. And, you know, I think when I was hired, I said, you know, mindset's really important. Everybody's ready to play the first game or two or three. After that, it's who's ready to play.

“At this point, then you're kind of like, you know, when Mendoza got hit on the sideline, they didn't call roughing the quarterback. That really kind of pulled our guys together right there. We've got a lot of new guys, but we've got a lot of good, a lot of the right stuff on this team. And we were tested really hard, and we found a way to pull through it.” 

Q: Is it important to come on the road and struggle like this? 

CIGNETTI: “I think all wins are great. We got a week off. Coaches have a day off tomorrow. We're 5-0. You would much rather win decisively than put this on tape. Because let me tell you, we left a lot of plays out there in the pass game, and there's some bad stuff on that tape. But the defense and (special) teams.

“But I give Iowa a lot of credit. But to go in a hostile environment, this is a hard place to play. They got a great home record. They were juiced up for this game. And come out with a win when maybe you didn't play your best, and a lot of it's because of them, it's huge.” 

Q: On pass game in the first half... 

CIGNETTI: “Well, the first pass we threw, the right guard got beat, got smoked. Four-man rush, sack, third and two and a half. And that kind of spooked everybody a little bit, I think. And the guy's got to trust his technique and not guess what the three techniques is going to do. And we came in at halftime and looked at the stats, we'd only thrown eight passes. I'm like, ‘Holy cow.’ And they'd thrown 17.

“That last drive at the end of the half, 17 seconds or 27, and we found a way to get three points out of that. That was huge. Huge. And then after that, I thought things started well the first drive of the third quarter. I thought, ‘Okay, here we go.’ But then, nope. And, you know, it became what it was.” 

Q: When Fernando threw that interception late in that fourth quarter, what did you see from him on the sideline afterwards? How did he react to that?  

CIGNETTI: “I didn't see him on the sideline afterwards. It was another house blitz, and he did a good job of escaping. I thought he was going to run it, you know, throw it and overthrew Cooper a little bit. Guy made a nice play, No. 6, good player. I'm just glad he didn't score. And he'd come off on the sideline, and maybe there was a play left on the field, and he knew it was left on the field.

“There were a couple times in the third quarter where I noticed in the pocket he had lowered his eyes, which he hadn't done in a long time. But, you know, Iowa was putting some heat on the quarterback, and then he was pulling the ball in the run game too, you know, putting a lot on the guy. But at the end of the day, he passed the test because he made the key play.”