Curt Cignetti emphasizing ‘consistency of performance’ as fall camp opens for Indiana football

Indiana football is one step closer to the official start of the Curt Cignetti era in Bloomington.

Fall camp got underway on Wednesday and it marked the third installment of the offseason development for Indiana under Cignetti’s guidance.

The biggest emphasis from Cignetti and the rest of the coaching staff has been consistency and discipline — tying the two together to create a winning culture.

That was the theme ever since he took over and all throughout spring practice. And once again the message from Cignetti on Wednesday was just that.

“Day one’s in the books,” Cignetti said. “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.”

Thinking faster coincides with repetition from spring and summer. The terminology is no longer ‘new’ or different.

So while players may have been robotic previously, it’s about taking the thinking out and being what they are at the end of the day — football players with an identity.

“I think we want to get these guys playing football like the way we want them to play,” Cignetti emphasized. ”We have a certain style — smart, disciplined poised.”

Discipline and consistency in turn allows for more freedom on the field in terms of game flow.

Indiana lost numerous one-possession games over the last few years and have also had its fair share of two score games that then resulted in blowouts.

All because of a lack of discipline and mental toughness. That’s something that Cignetti has tried to instill in his team since December.

”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,” Cignetti said. “Or, if you’re down 14 points in the second quarter you’re not affected or up 14 points.

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

Indiana has less than a month to solidify that mindset and keep improving.

Week one will be here quicker than expected and because of that it’s critical to keep doing the one thing Cignetti has stressed all along — improve the consistency and build on it each day.

“I think the big thing — it’s one of my primary goals, is we have to improve in our consistency of performance,” Cignetti said. “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.”