Curt Cignetti spoke to the media on Monday at his weekly press conference.
The Hoosiers had a bye in Week 10 and are preparing to play USC this Saturday at Memorial Stadium.
Watch Cignetti’s full media availability below:
A full transcript of Cignetti’s comments is available below, via ASAP Sports:
CURT CIGNETTI: How we doing? Feels like it’s been a while.
Great to have a week off, players and coaches. I think everybody will be refreshed, ready to go. Big challenge this week, USC. Really good football team. 7-2 coming off an impressive win at home against Ohio State. A lot of good players. Coach Riley obviously has done a tremendous job throughout his entire career. They’re very talented. Couple freshmen Mosley and Bowman, tight end and receiver, really making an impact on offense; quarterback is sensational. Offensive design is always good.
They’re playing good defense right now, rolling a lot of guys up front, a lot disruptive players, good team speed, good special teams. It will be a big challenge.
We’ll have to play well and obviously can’t do a lot of the things we did against Minnesota, which looked like we had played 19 games in a row instead of nine. You know, just a very uncharacteristic game for us in so many different ways, but really good defensive performance.
So questions.
Q. Curt, are you anticipating Josh Hoover getting the start at quarterback and is it a matter of him getting healthy now at this point?
CURT CIGNETTI: We’ll see how the week plays out and we’ll see who we trot out there.
Q. Similar question for AJ Harris. We saw him come off, appeared to be injured late in the Minnesota game. Where is he at? And if he can’t play, how do you anticipate shuffling?
CURT CIGNETTI: He’s day-to-day.
Q. With McAteer, what intrigued you about him when you brought him in? Based on the length of his field goal would you consider a 67-yard field goal?
CURT CIGNETTI: Well, we’ve always had a long field goal guy. Last year that came in handy obviously against Oregon where we hit two 58-yarders in a row.
Paddy has been knocking them home in practice. We usually give him a 57 or something. He’s had plenty of distance to spare. I had no doubt in my mind he had plenty of leg. It was just a matter of swinging easy, don’t try to overhit it, and it was a clutch kick.
Q. How have you seen USC’s defense improve with getting used to Gary Patterson’s defense?
CURT CIGNETTI: I think you see game to game improvement, and certainly the last three to four weeks. It shows up in their production numbers and third down efficiency. It always grins up front with disruption up front, but really impressive what they do.
Q. Coach, what have you seen out of your punt return game since Charlie took over, and how would you like to see that improve?
CURT CIGNETTI: What have you seen?
Q. You seriously want me to answer?
CURT CIGNETTI: Yeah.
Q. Seem like a lot of fair catches.
CURT CIGNETTI: Yeah, lots of fair catches and possessions of the ball. Would like to get more out of that unit. Myles Price obviously was a really good returner doing it in the league. The guy we had last year.
Q. Brady?
CURT CIGNETTI: Brady, was really good. Charlie, foreign to the position, has done a good job. I can see the progress every week, and the big thing there is catch the ball first, because nothing can turn a game around like put one on the ground.
So our special teams in general have really been a winning edge for us over the past two years, especially last season. We were sloppy to say the least against Minnesota. We’ve had some down moments throughout the course of the year.
We got field goal kicker that never missed and we’ve had a few misses there. Some of that is, you know, there is a lot of people involved in that, the snap, the hold, et cetera. At the end of the day it’s on the kicker.
So we have got to get better there if we want to be the best we can be.
Q. What’s your approach to watching tape during the bye week? Obviously with that extra time is there anything you noticed watching tape that you want to emphasize throughout the rest of the season?
CURT CIGNETTI: Yeah, we’re onto the opponent. We’re in the office maybe an hour later and not staying until 10:00 at night. Maybe going home at 7:00, 7:30 at night. Couple hours to catch up on some sleep and getting to know the opponent.
Then also taking a look at what else is going on in football and seeing maybe what you can apply to help yourself. So I would say this in general: A lot of our problems are — while we were always looking to improve schematically and you’re always going to see something different every week, the average fan may not notice it.
A lot of our problems have been general execution. We were averaging 42 points after the first four, five games, and then the next four I think it was, we were averaging 18 points. For the most part it’s been missed opportunities. Last week was combination of six offensive penalties on the offensive line.
So it’s stuff we got to clean up. Before you win it you can’t lose it, and got to make sure we do that.
Q. Coach, you said Jayden Maiaiva was a really talented quarterback. He is; he has a lot of experience as well. As you watched his tape, what stands out about his game?
CURT CIGNETTI: Quick release. Very accurate. You can tell he’s really smart, heady. He can have his eyes over here and get them over there and get rid of the ball real quick and accurate.
Probably see him playing for a few years at least after his college days are done. Just very impressive at that position. Has a natural feel.
Q. I know you’re focused on the season, but it was announced this morning the Playoff is expanding to 24 teams, and with it the conference championships are going away. Do you have any thoughts on how quickly the sport has changed over the past couple years?
CURT CIGNETTI: I’m really focused on this game. You know, I didn’t see that announcement but anticipated the expansion.
There will be a lot more changes before we kick it off next year. I’m sure the next few years.
Q. Coach, what did you see from Jaylen Bell early in the season when AJ Harris was out, and what’s your confidence level in filling that gap in AJ Harris in unable to go Saturday?
CURT CIGNETTI: Yeah, he did a nice job at field corner and I got a lot of confidence. He’s a good young player and he’s played well.
Q. You guys have been table rotate a lot more up front defensively than in the last couple years without drop off. You talked about your team needing the refresh during the bye-week, but how much has it helped being able in-game to keep that front as fresh as you have been able to?
CURT CIGNETTI: Helps a lot getting guys playing hard every play, play fast, physical, relentless. We are deep on the defensive line and that’s where it all begins, wrecking havoc up front. If you want to have a really good football team and got a really good D-line you got a shot.
That’s where it all starts, on defense up front.
Q. A bunch of teams have used their off week to kind of negotiate with players for next season, kind of key guys that have eligibility left. Did you do any of that? Do you feel like you have enough time?
CURT CIGNETTI: No. We keep the main thing the main thing. When the regular season is over, or if there is a Big 10 Championship game involved, we’ll do it after that.
