Coach Q&A: Indiana football head coach Curt Cignetti discusses first practice of fall camp

Indiana football head coach Curt Cignetti spoke with reporters on Wednesday and discussed his main takeaways from the first day of fall camp practice.

The Hoosiers are looking to usher in a new era of the program in the 2024 season under new head coach Curt Cignetti. Indiana football comes in as the only team to win less than two league games last year and just three Big Ten games in the last three years

Indiana football is currently picked to finish 17th in the conference in the preseason poll.

Trending: ‘He’s a winner’: Mike Katic saw a clear vision under Curt Cignetti. Now he’s part of the new era bringing ‘swagger’ back to Indiana football

Indiana takes on FIU in Bloomington in the season opener on August 31st.

Below is the full video Q&A from Indiana football head coach Curt Cignetti.

CURT CIGNETTI: Day one’s in the books. We want to develop players, develop more consistency in performance day in, day out; play in, play out. It’s the second time through the offense, defense, special teams now. Guys ought to be playing faster, thinking less. And we want to promote competition.

So the weather cooperated today. It was really humid and hot. It was a lot different than the first day of spring practice, where it was about 45 degrees and everybody felt great being out there. It forced us to think and play football on day one. So that was good. Day one’s in the books, and day two tomorrow.

Q. Recognize there’s a lot of stuff that until you put pads on you can’t quite be sure what carried over from the spring, but are there some young linemen you saw in the spring that maybe you hope can kind of give you some depth, maybe even compete for starting spots, guys that don’t have a ton of experience but will step up?

CURT CIGNETTI: Kidwell was out there. It was good to see. He was one of the best 2 linemen in the Sun Belt had he stayed healthy last year. And then, yeah, we’re looking for depth on the offensive line. And we’ve got some guys returning — Drew Evans, Bray Lynch and Tyler Stephens — and we’ll see if any of those young guys are kind of ready to provide some depth as well.

Q. With the secondary, Amare Ferrell had a prominent place in the spring game. Where does he fit into things? And one of a few freshman that got playing time. What do you think of him?

CURT CIGNETTI: Solid spring, big future, expect big things from him. And looks like he’s picked up where he left off. So excited about him.

Q. You mentioned level of retention from spring ball to practice. And you mentioned some of the things you already mentioned that you wanted to see. Anything just in general else that you want to see in terms of retention level from what you taught in the spring to today? And what did you see in that regard?

CURT CIGNETTI: I think we want to get these guys playing football like the way we want them to play. We have a certain style — smart, disciplined poised. Always been one of the least penalized team in the league. Number one in turnover ratio and very highly ranked in key statistical categories which lead to success.

And kind of develop that relentless mindset and resilience where you’re not affected by the circumstances of practice or a game by a good play or a bad play, or you’re down 14 points. In the second quarter you’re not affected or up 14 points.

It’s like our first conference game at JMU. We went to the Sun Belt to play (indiscernible) the year they beat A&M about a week or two later. They’re perennial champs. We’re down 28-3 down there. Nobody flinched. Came away with a win. Two, three weeks later, happened again.

So it’s kind of a mindset and an identity, those intangibles that we want to develop in camp as well.

Q. Compared to the spring or summer, is there anything different about the fall in terms of the way you coach or structure practices?

CURT CIGNETTI: I mean, we’re getting ready to play games. So the first eight to 12 are similar structure, practice structure. There may be some schematic tweaks based on our summer study. And then as we get closer to the opponent, some game-specific type of things.

Q. One of the guys you picked up in spring, Cedarius Doss, a lot of success at the FCS level. I know you talked at media day about how you identify Group of Five players that might translate to this level. What do you see in him and what sorts of things do you look for in guys that, the FCS or JUCO level, that might be able to translate to this level?

CURT CIGNETTI: He’s a real competitive guy. He’s impressed our strength and conditioning staff this summer with his competitiveness. And he’s one of those guys out there getting reps, and we’ll see how the dust settles and where he fits in terms of defense and special teams.

Q. CJ West, how is he looking to start fall camp? If he’s having a great year for you down the road, what are key things he’s doing well?

CURT CIGNETTI: Well, I mean, this is the first practice. I haven’t seen the tape. He was a good player at Kent State. We’re excited to have him.

And if he’s having a good year, that means he’s doing what he’s coached to do, with great effort and tenacity, and we’re freeing him up to make plays.

Q. You mentioned you’re looking for guys in the receiver room to kind of separate themselves away from the rest of the pack. What in fall camp are you looking for specifically from a handful of guys to separate themselves from the rest?

CURT CIGNETTI: Separation from defenders, making plays.

Q. Can you talk about the job that Derek Owens has done in the weight room, the way he’s developed your players?

CURT CIGNETTI: He’s a guy I have a lot of trust in. He’s got a lot of knowledge. He’s got a great work ethic. Fully committed. He’s always working to improve. The players like what he does. They respect him.

But the big takeaway today is, you know, you can’t replicate football. No matter what you do in the summer, football is just a set of different movements. A lot of start/stop, and then you throw the heat in there and it was a real test and a challenge. So we’ve got to get into football shape now.

We took off weight. We put on good weight. We got stronger, quicker, faster, cut down on body fat, all that good stuff. Now we’ve got to get into football shape.

Q. You mentioned at Big Ten Media Days you had gone back, obviously watched all of spring camp and cut-ups and work that impressed you. Were there things that stood out when you rewatched everything from spring and took a big picture view of specific players or anything that you noticed from rewatching and diving into the film?

CURT CIGNETTI: I think, yeah, because what happens is, you end spring, you jump right into recruiting. And then you get the staff back mid-July, late July, before camp, and it gives you another perspective of what happened in the spring. It’s a great evaluation tool, and I think we all learned a lot from it.

Q. Anything specifically, anybody else that you maybe didn’t see?

CURT CIGNETTI: I think the big thing — it’s one of my primary goals, is we have to improve in our consistency of performance. Play in play out, rep in, rep out, day in, day out, week in, week out, getting 11 guys doing what they’re supposed to do at a high level, every single play. And now the second time through this we can start to coach the little fine details in the finishing a little bit more than in the spring when we were introducing a lot of concepts.

SEE ALSO: IU football RB Justice Ellison reached out to an old friend — Xavier Johnson — during his recruitment, which ultimately led him to Bloomington: ‘They are a community that is desperate for wins.’

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