Indiana Football Notebook: Takeaways from the start of Spring Practice

Indiana Football officially began spring practices on Thursday, signaling the beginning of the Curt Cignetti era.

It was an extremely eventful first offseason for Cignetti as Indiana brought in over 20 transfers and several recruits since he took over as head coach. Thursday was the first time Cignetti was able to get on the field and work with his new team.

Cignetti shared some of his thoughts when he spoke to the media following the conclusion of the first practice.

‘Pajamas’ Practice

There is only so much you can do without pads, but learning the new offensive and defensive schemes will be the biggest goal this spring for Indiana football.

“We have to install our offense, defense, and special teams schemes, and teach the way we practice,” Cignetti said about measuring success. “We have a certain way we practice, a certain way we play the game, and things that we emphasis that we think are important in being successful. And practice should emulate the game a little bit.”

A culture change has been one of the biggest focuses since Cignetti took over the program. Now he finally gets the chance to implement his culture.

“I thought the flow was good today. Players tried to do the right thing,” Cignetti said about the first practice. “… The most important thing is that we are ready to go when we run out of the tunnel for the opener.”

He will be the first to tell you that there is only so much you can do without pads.

“You play football with pads on, and I always call it pajamas when we go out [and practice] like this,” Cignetti shared during his opening statement. “Some people think it’s safer that we go out two days like this. It’s really not, but just tell me the rules and I will play by them.”

While he would much rather practice with pads, Cignetti is committed to making the most of every opportunity ahead of the season.

Cignetti also mentioned the differences in years past as there is a new focus on retaining players during the spring due to the transfer portal.

“I was fairly pleased with day one, the flow of day one. We want to develop players and find out who can do what,” Cignetti said. “Then, come out of spring, it used to be recruiting and development, now it is recruiting, development and retention, see who is on the bus and who is off the bus and put the best roster together that we can for August.

Position Competition

Cignetti has also emphasized the importance of positional competition and he reinforced that point Thursday.

A big area of focus will be the wide receiver room which includes standouts like Donaven McCulley and new additions like JMU transfer Elijah Sarratt.

“There is a lot of production, and we want to promote competition,” Cignetti said about the wide receiver depth chart. “Everything is earned, not given, and no one has a job. Some guys have a body of work, and I’m talking about all positions right now. Everything is earned on the field. There is no entitlement, nor can there ever be. That room has a lot of older guys that have made plays in game, and I am excited about their potential to help us win football games.”

The wide receiver room is one of the most exciting parts of the Indiana football roster heading into the season. While it is expected that both Sarratt and McCulley will start, there is still the question of who will be the third receiver in the offense.

While Cignetti’s message was directly about the wide receiver room, it is equally true for the other positions as well. Nothing will be given and everything will have to be earned on the field in his eyes. His only goal is to start the best lineup on opening day in September regardless of position.

“You want to put your best team on the field, and you have strengths and weaknesses. If that guy can be a starter over here, I think we all do that as coaches. I have a history of [position changes],” Cignetti said about building the best possible team. “We have had some offensive guys that weren’t first teamers go and play [defensive back] and a couple of them had pretty lengthy NFL careers. So, we are trying to put the best 11 on the field, but we don’t have to do that today.”

We have seen players be successful in new positions, like McCulley’s move from quarterback to wide receiver. It is nothing new to college football, but Cignetti is very willing to experiment to put the best possible team on the field.

Quarterback Room

A huge story this offseason for Indiana football has been the quarterback room. After losing Brendan Sorsby to the transfer portal, Cignetti added Ohio transfer Kurtis Rourke and two freshmen highlighted by Tyler Cherry’s commitment.

It was expected that Rourke would be the starter and Thursday’s practice reinforced that expectation.

“Every year has been a little different, but there was a year at [James Madison] where we had three guys – my first year there – that we thought were fairly equal and we gave them all a day,” Cignetti said about the quarterback room. “The second year, we did the same thing. [Kurtis] Rourke went with the ones today, Tayven [Jackson] with the teams, and [Tyler] Cherry with the threes.”

Rourke’s past success and experience make him the clear choice at quarterback for Indiana this season. Rourke threw 50 touchdowns and only 16 interceptions in five years with Ohio.

The other big thing we learned was that Tayven Jackson is running with the second unit. After he started multiple games a year ago it is not a complete surprise, but shows he is ahead of the freshman on the depth chart. Jackson passed for 914 yards and threw two touchdowns and five interceptions last year.

Barring injuries it seems unlikely we will see Cherry play as a freshman despite being a highly touted prospect. He ran with the threes for his first practice as a Hoosier, as he starts behind two guys with experience at the college level.

Cignetti likely will not name a starter until close to the season and it’s important to remember that it is only March. A lot can and will change between the first spring practice and the start of the season.

SEE ALSO: Coach Q&A: Indiana football head coach Curt Cignetti speaks with the media Day 1 of Spring Practice

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