Video, Quotes: Curt Cignetti reviews North Texas win, previews Howard matchup

IU football cruised to an easy 52-16 win against North Texas on Saturday at Memorial Stadium.

At his weekly press conference on Monday, Curt Cignetti reviewed the win against the Mean Green and looked ahead to Saturday’s matchup against Howard in Bloomington.

Watch the full Q&A with Cignetti below:

A full transcript is available below, via ASAP Sports:

CURT CIGNETTI: Game one in the books. Some good. A lot of improvements to be made. But did some good things in this game. Started fast. Won the first quarter, 14-0. Won the fourth quarter, 21-0. So offense scored seven out of eight possessions. Six touchdowns, 4-for-4 in the red area.

Defense had a hard time getting off the field. And the opponent had the ball 37 minutes, a combination of some critical missed assignments, poor tackling. So gotta get better there.

Obviously it was hot. I was told they measured it at 152 on the turf.

Made some big things happen on special teams. Opening kickoff return, another long return, a really good punt return. Field goal, PAT was really good. Won the turnover battle, 1-0, which resulted in seven points.

Improvements to be made and looking forward to making those this week.

Q. You mentioned after the game and just now, the critiques that you’d have. Anything stood out to you more than the rest when you watched the film?

CURT CIGNETTI: I think some critical MAs, more on the bench than to the field, but there were some to the field. I think the heat got to a couple of the guys, maybe. Obviously both corners went down in the first quarter.

A.J. went down play eight and Jamari Sharpe, last play of the first quarter. Jaylen Bell played extensively to the field and I thought did a nice job. And Ryland Gandy played on the bench. And got a tackle a little better in space, the missed assignments.

We weren’t real disruptive up front, but it was a little bit of a space game, too. So you go out in the first game, you’re not exactly sure what the opponent’s going to do. They gave us a lot of different looks, to their credit, but we overcame it.

Q. You mentioned the two corners. I guess also you mentioned Khobie Martin on Saturday. Where are those guys? Did anything else crop up in the game?

CURT CIGNETTI: I think the corners are day to day right now. I talked to our trainer yesterday. I have not spoken with him yet today. Khobie Martin will be out for a little bit. And expect him back sometime around midseason.

Q. On Brunner and Ajani, kind of flipped positions from what we saw in Kansas. Take us through kind of like what went into them playing the spots that they did in the opener. And is that a game one decision, or is that a, this is where they’re gonna be all season decision?

CURT CIGNETTI: Yeah, well that’s the way we’re committed to heading right now. And Bob felt near the end of the camp, you know, that would be our best unit. So we’ve got about a week in before the first game, a little bit more than in a week doing that.

Q. If you could, now that you’ve looked at the film, assess the way Hoover played? I think of his three incompletions, one was a throw-away. Assess the way he played.

CURT CIGNETTI: Yeah, I thought obviously it was a good start. Four touchdown passes, great catch by Marsh on the first one. He made some nice throws, some good decisions.

He got away with one that he’s not gonna get away with in Big Ten play. And the one long touchdown to Charlie, he’s got to step into that throw better and get it out there and get it up and down.

The one he got his helmet ripped off, he flipped the protection and really shouldn’t have. So he became unprotected to the side of the blitz.

But then he responded and threw a touchdown pass shortly thereafter. But even then, a hair late and made a little tougher catch for Charlie than it needed to be. Great catch by Charlie.

He played well. There’s no question about it. It was a good start.

Q. Two young tight ends on Saturday in Brock Schott and Andrew Barker, not just in the pass game, but obviously they were heavily involved. But just your thoughts, your tight ends are so valuable blocking the last couple of years. What did you guys see from them?

CURT CIGNETTI: Yeah, and we need to continue to develop there and get better. We’re not where we need to be yet. And Gibbs was out, not available. He might return this week. We’re going to take it slow. We need him long term, but he’s close to returning, as is Blake Smythe, who wasn’t available for the game on Saturday.

Q. Looking at your next opponent, Howard, what stands out to you about — their quarterback threw for over 300 yards in the opener and struggled last week — what makes them a little difficult?

CURT CIGNETTI: He’s their leading rusher, and obviously the quarterback, too. He’s a really good athlete. They’ve got good team speed. I mean, they’ve got skill. Even on defense, they’ve got quickness and speed. So the quarterback, he’s played a lot for them and he’s a dual guy.

Q. Compared to the last couple of years, Josh’s, at least, numbers in week one were kind of better than the prior quarterbacks. How much should we read into that? Are you seeing that in practice that he’s ahead of where the other guys were?

CURT CIGNETTI: I think we won our one-on-one match-ups. They had a hard time covering us. They were committed to trying to stop the run best they could. Came out in five down linemen. That was their goal coming in. They were going to try to do as good as they could against the run and take their chances against the pass, and we won our one-on-ones.

Q. You just mentioned the run game. What was your assessment overall? And what would you like to see improve given maybe a different game plan from the opposition in that regard?

CURT CIGNETTI: I think based on the way we were being played, I mean, it was fine. I mean, there were some little things up front that have got to be improved. But the call on Bray on the long touchdown run, you know, they called it. I thought the guy kind of tripped. So it is what it is. And we’ll be fine.

Q. You played some young guys defensively, a couple true freshmen. Looking at Cam McHaney in particular, what stood out to you about him with his increased snaps in week one?

CURT CIGNETTI: He was the fourth guy in that inside rotation with Blake Smythe not available. Blake’s been pretty impactful for a freshman. And there was some good and some bad with him. But he’s going to be a good player.

Q. You started the game with Joe Brunner at right guard and then Ajani at right tackle. What went into that decision and how far along till you —

CURT CIGNETTI: That question was just asked a little while ago. Bob Bostad thought about eight, nine days before the opener that we’d be better off going in that direction, so we did.

Q. Isaiah Jones led with 12 tackles Saturday. How have you seen him evolve as a leader and embrace that kind of role defensively?

CURT CIGNETTI: Yeah, there’s no question he’s a leader on defense and kind of taking Aiden Fisher’s role over and just an instinctive player, good player, had a good game, had a couple snafus, but he’s always around the ball.

Q. An extension of that, Jones came off the field and basically said to us, like, it wasn’t good enough. The accountability in that locker room, carrying over kind of from last year, you saw that a lot. How important is that to kind of hear your guys just know — you know, he doesn’t need Bryant Haines to tell him, he knows that it’s not that to your standard. I mean, do you feel like — you’ve talked about kind of the veterans you guys have, but they’ve met kind of what you’ve wanted from them?

CURT CIGNETTI: Yeah, I think all the ones that have been here on that side of the ball felt that way during the game and after the game. And it’s got to get better. There’s things we have to do better. And I’m sure it will.

But yeah, we’ve got good leadership, and there’s no doubt he’s number one over there.

Q. There were some moments, seemed like, when Nick Marsh really showed up blocking, either downfield — I think there was one where he kind of had a trap block inside and short yardage in the red zone. Just what does it show your younger guys when a guy like that — I know you’ve had guys like Elijah in the past that have been good in that area too — are willing to kind of do the physical side of that position?

CURT CIGNETTI: Well, there’s a big point of emphasis going into the game. I didn’t think we blocked very well at receiver the first two openers here. You know, explosive runs become touchdown runs with great downfield block, and so it was a point of emphasis, and I thought all the receivers responded.

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