Video, Quotes: Curt Cignetti reacts to win against Michigan State

Curt Cignetti addressed the media following IU football’s 38-13 win against Michigan State on Saturday at Memorial Stadium.

Watch his postgame comments below:

A complete transcript is available below via ASAP Sports:

CURT CIGNETTI: Good win, coming off that big road win last week. We all are aware of the potential issues you’re dealing with there, and I thought the team and the staff did a good job really focusing in on this next opponent and the challenge that it could present.

I thought Michigan State played really hard, and offensively they’ve got some weapons. Our offense was sharp. We were throwing the football. Fernando was on point. Protection was good. Receivers were separating, making plays.

The defense held them to a field goal there at the end of the second quarter, drive before the two-minute drive. Stopped them on the two-minute drive, and then we punched that first drive in in the third quarter, which I felt like if we did that, that would be a real blow to them.

The defense really shut them out until the end where we kind of emptied the bench a little bit, so to speak, but it’s a good win. Enjoy it. We’re going to enjoy it and get ready for the next one.

Q. You talked about Fernando, and I know every quarterback will always have things to clean up, but I don’t think he took a sack today, was 24 of 28. Was that, when you watched film of him, what you thought he’d be capable of once he cleaned up some of the things that you talked about in the off-season, the timing, the comfort, the trust in protection?

CURT CIGNETTI: Well, I think it was a really good performance by him. Michigan State has given up some points this year; let’s face it. He had time, and our guys were separating, and he was throwing the ball on rhythm.

There’s other games like Oregon you don’t have nearly as much time, and you’re not always separating as much. So it’s all relative sometimes.

But I would say this is the sharpest we’ve seen him up to this point in a game. But he continues to improve. He continues to prepare like nobody I’ve ever been around, and he’s getting better and better.

Q. In terms of Omar Cooper and Elijah Sarratt, from an offensive coaching perspective, you know that defenses are going to try to game plan on them, focus on them. They accounted for nearly 60 percent of your targets. The difficulty level for them as receivers to still get open, to counter those game plans, how difficult is what they’re doing right now?

CURT CIGNETTI: Well, you can kind of focus in on one guy, but it’s hard to focus in on two because if you’re three by one, that guy might be number three, number two, number one on the field or into the bench. So you can focus in on one guy, but it’s really difficult to focus in on two.

But there’s other guys that make plays, like Riley Nowakowski. How many big plays has he made in the pass game? And EJ Williams obviously is a threat.

Then some of the — Charlie Becker has made plays. Hemby has made some big plays in the pass game. Then you’ve got to deal with Fernando’s feet if he works up into the pocket.

So you can’t really focus on one guy.

Q. Assuming I am doing math correctly, Mendoza 21 touchdowns, two interceptions. The guy’s ratio is like that. The reason for it is what? And you know quarterbacks; you see that level of play and you think what?

CURT CIGNETTI: Well, I think he’s done a good job. He’s smart. He understands how to play quarterback. Before you win any game, you’ve got to make sure you don’t lose it, right? He protects the ball. He checks it down when it’s not there. He knows when he can take a sack, when he can’t take a sack, and he’s accurate and he’s making good reads.

You know, that only puts him a little bit behind Cole Johnson, my second quarterback at JMU who I think was 44 and 4 touchdowns-interceptions, which would be 22 and 2. You said 21 and 2? But he keeps building, I think, on his previous performances, and I can’t say enough about things about him.

Q. Coach, early on their offense had you guys a little bit on your heels. They were getting the ball, running those screen plays, got some yards, but you kept them off the scoreboard. What did you like about the adjustments your defense made as the game went along?

CURT CIGNETTI: I thought near the end of the second quarter we really tightened up, and then in the second half except for that last drive and started putting pressure on the quarterback.

I’ve always thought they’ve got good design at Michigan State offensively. They can protect with eight, seven, six, five. Out-of-pocket game, good screen game, great play action game, and the quarterback is extremely talented and so is No. 6.

I’m sure our defense will put the tape on tomorrow and they’ll be displeased with some things early in the game.

Q. The way Lou Moore has continued to play; right now he’s led you guys in tackles. Just the way he’s played.

CURT CIGNETTI: Yeah, played a lot of football, leading tackler, interceptions. Left us, came back. He’s a veteran, got a nose for the ball, instinct, and I think he’s having fun.

Q. When you say Fernando prepares like no one you’ve been around, what does that look like?

CURT CIGNETTI: I think it’s time, organization and smart use of time, proper preparation, smart use of time. He wants to be a great player. I’ve never seen anybody really quite jump into it like that before.

Q. On a mentality point, at what point in the week were you confident that you had your team in the right spot?

CURT CIGNETTI: I think it was starting to flip a little bit Thursday after practice. I sent them a good message. I thought it was flipping our way Friday.

Look, you can’t be a real nice guy when you have a job like mine; you know what I mean? Sometimes you know when they’re going to be ready to play, and then sometimes you know the entire organization — what did Mike Krzyzewski say when he retired? He said, toughest opponent he’s ever faced was human nature.

Well, human nature after winning against Oregon is to be happy and relaxed, support staff, coaches, players, trainers. My job is to make sure they’ve got the right mindset ready to play. It’s not always fun, but you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do.

Q. You’ve talked a lot about battling through adversity. With the uniqueness of the slightly longer halftime and the weather, how do you think your team handled that and came out in the second half?

CURT CIGNETTI: I thought we handled it really well, and the staff had experience with it at Virginia when I was at JMU my last year. We were down 10 with eight minutes to go and that happened. We ended up utilizing it, I thought, really well and came back and won the game.

Q. You talked about the defense might see some things on film, especially early in the game they didn’t love from this game, but I think it’s seven avenue touchdowns you’ve allowed in eight games. What is it about that group that whatever the challenge is, they just kind of outlast opponents? Obviously sometimes you get a lot of sacks, sometimes a day like today it takes a little longer to figure it out, but what is it about that group that they constantly solve that problem?

CURT CIGNETTI: I think, first of all, they’re well-coached and they attack people and we’ve got a lot of veteran players and we’ve got great leadership and we’ve got good players, and the leaders are really good players. We’ve had young guys sort of develop for us. Look up front inside and look at Isaiah Jones’ development at linebacker and Hardy, besides Fisher.

I think the secondary is really — outside of Ponds, who’s an All-American, you’ve seen Sharpe really step up and start to make plays and the safeties, too. There’s a lot of pride there, and we’ve got to get better from this last game because the challenges are going to get tougher down the road.

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