BORDEN, Ind. – Curt Cignetti addressed the media on Wednesday night at Huber’s Winery and addressed a variety of topics.
Here’s everything Cignetti said to the media at the event:
On driving the pace car at the Indianapolis 500:
“It was a thrill. I had the whole family there, it’s something we’ll remember forever. For me personally, it really was a rush, got a couple practice runs in, hit 166 (mph), 177, but it was going to be like 70 to 80 for two laps, 90 and then on the last straightaway, get out of the way like about 110. Then kind of like an hour or two before the race, a couple of my teachers told me, ‘well no we want you to gun it and go a little faster,’ so I had to like rev up the focus a little bit there. We hit 170 on that last straightaway. It was a great spectacle. Once I got out of the car to watch that race from track level, was just incredible and then it was an unbelievable finish and learned a lot about racing. Really it was great.”
On the event Huber’s and the importance of it:
“Well I’m the football coach, number one, so it’s important I’m here but we got 1,100 people here. A lot of excitement in Hoosier Nation right now and great people. This is a great event I have a lot of fun at this and it’s an every year deal and it makes the calendar every year because it’s special.”
On what he wants the team to get done with the summer program:
“The summer program, I’m pretty hands-off. I put that in the strength and conditioning staff’s hands. We’re allowed to do a little with them and our position coaches do, but not much. So bigger, faster, stronger, keeping healthy, getting more flexible, quick. They’ll get some seven on seven and drill work in but we’ll have a lot of work to do in camp once training camp starts.”
On what he would like to see changed in the current system with college football:
“Truthfully, it’s outside of my control. We all have our opinions and what’s the point? I just hope we get things fixed.”
On whether he’s in favor of a salary cap:
“I know what our people support and I support what our people support. For me to comment on this or that, I got no control over this process.”
On FOX Big Noon Kickoff coming to Bloomington:
“It’ll be good. Looking forward to it. Hoping we’re ready to play.”
On the importance of recruiting weekends they’ve had recently:
“We got another one coming up and it’s … the market is pretty expensive. It’s scary so I guess in relative to your question, I think players should get paid but something’s gonna have to be done in the next 12 to 24 months or universities aren’t gonna be able to handle this. College football won’t exist the way we’re going right now.”
On whether the current system in college football dominated the conversation at the recent Big Ten meetings:
“It’s one of the things that we talk about but there’s a number of other issues, too. I think at the presidential level there’s a little more focus on that.”
On whether he’d like to see the conference title games preserved:
“I’ll tell you what, I’m done on the college football issues. You can’t really win to be honest with you so I will stay in my lane.”
On what he’s focused on this summer:
“Opponent study, official visits, I have some media stuff and we’ve got our camps, our summer camps, high school camps and looking forward to kind of getting out of the office for a few weeks near the end of June.”
On the turnout at the recent event at Carmel and the one on Wednesday at Huber’s:
“It’s been incredible. We had 1,100 in Carmel, 1,100 tonight and just tremendous amount of excitement. Now we got to do our part and keep putting it on the field to keep this thing growing.”
On the impact of not having the spring transfer portal window:
“Well you just don’t have it whereas in the past you did. That window would have been over by now so you gotta do best you can with one window.”
On what he feels confident about with next season’s team:
“I think we got some nice pieces and I think the positive of spring ball was we got to work with a lot of the new guys and the young guys. Now we got to get kind of like everybody on the practice field because we had so many guys out for various reasons and so we can really improve as a squad.”
On if the injuries in spring helped others get reps, particularly on the offensive line:
“We got a lot of guys reps but sometimes guys get too many reps. When you’re going against three groups on defense and you’ve got 10 offensive linemen, no, I’d rather have the starters out there.”
On the challenge of bringing in a new quarterback:
“I mean we do it every year. Standard operating procedure.”
On the defensive line:
“I think that position is talented and has a chance to really be a winning edge for us. But look, we’re coming off the national championship, there’s a lot of feel goods out there and it’s really important we have the edge and get better. Our guys have to be humble and hungry and so much of it’s between the ears and I think that’s going to be really important this summer and fall.”
On the outlook for Josh Hoover and being on a similar track to where Fernando Mendoza was last year:
“I’m saying that all those guys have been similar. Some good, some bad, some ugly. Summer’s always better. August is market improvement and build off early season success so that’s what we’re hoping for.”
See More: Football