INDIANAPOLIS - Curt Cignetti's first go around at Big Ten Media Days has come and gone, and as is usually the case when the Hoosiers' brazen head coach steps in front of a microphone, there's plenty to talk about.
Joined on day three of Big Ten Media Days by the likes of Dan Lanning (Oregon), Jedd Fisch (Washington) and Sherrone Moore (Michigan), Cignetti -- who up until just a few years ago was coaching at the FCS level -- wasn't starstruck.
Instead, the 63 year old Cignetti spoke and acted as if he was a 10 year veteran of the Big Ten, displaying his direct and blunt personality while discussing a variety of topics ranging from preseason projections, to the transfer portal and even Indiana's week three trip to the Rose Bowl to take on UCLA.
From a whirlwind day three at Big Ten Media Days in Indianapolis, there were a number of highlights from Cignetti's assortment of media availabilities stood out.
CIGNETTI CAUTIONS FANS ON READING TOO MUCH INTO INDIANA'S PRESEASON PROJECTIONS
It took Cignetti all of 90 seconds in his opening statement on Thursday to bring up Indiana's projected 17th place finish in the Big Ten in 2024.
"Normally at these things, I stand up here and we're picked to win the league," Cignetti said. "It's just usually how it's been. I've been picked next-to-last twice. We're picked 17th out of an 18-team league, and I get it."
"The two times we were picked next-to-last, in 2022, we won the conference championship, and in 2017 we inherited an 8-45 team and won eight in a row and played JMU in the last game of the year for the conference championship. Now I'm not into making predictions, that's just a historical fact."
As Cignetti cast doubt on the idea of Indiana finishing at or near the bottom of the Big Ten conference, the Hoosiers head coach understands that his words can only do so much.
Cignetti knows that his team can't begin to dispel any non-believers until he and his team take this field this upcoming season.
"I understand we've got to put it on the field," Cignetti said. "Nothing gets people excited like winning. You string together a couple of wins, all of a sudden, you're on national TV every week. You become the talk of the country."
Until Indiana kicks off the 2024 season on Aug. 31 against Florida International, Cignetti knows the naysayers will continue to discount his Hoosiers.
However, as Cignetti put it earlier this offseason "I win... google me."
TRANSFER PORTAL SUCCESS HAS INDIANA'S ROSTER IN A GOOD SPOT ENTERING THE SEASON
Production, character, coachability and teachability.
All things that Cignetti is looking for when scouting and analyzing what players are fit enough to take on the rebranding and rebuilding of the Indiana football program with him.
"I like production over potential. Production numbers, I think that means something. Guys that went onto the field and have stayed on the field," Cignetti explained. "Character is important to me, it's a tough game and you have to be able to handle success and failure. You have to be a good teammate, coachable, teachable."
Over the course of Cignetti's first couple of days as Indiana's head coach, there was a lot to do.
When Cignetti took over, the Hoosiers had 10 offensive starters in the transfer portal. Not all of them came back, but ones who did, are the right men for the job according to their head coach.
"I knew, when we came in and I started interviewing the old players, that we needed a lot of new faces," Cignetti revealed. "Fortunately they did me a favor by leaving."
"It's a new day and age in football with the portal, where you can change your team real quick. Fortunately, I was given the resources to do that," Cignetti added. "I like our team. We have a lot of experience on our team. We have a lot of guys that have played winning football that have good career production numbers multiple years, and we've got a good core group of guys that are accustomed to winning and are used to winning."
CIGNETTI UNFAZED BY TRIP TO 'OLD STADIUM' IN WEEK 3
When asked about the team's first west coast trip of the season, a week three matchup with UCLA in Pasadena at the Rose Bowl, Cignett offered a fitting blunt response.
"(The players) are all excited for all the wrong reasons. We're just going into an old stadium to kick somebody's ass," Cignetti said with a smirk. "That's not directed at UCLA, that's the objective every single week. We're not going on a cruise or a tour, we're going out to play a football game. We've got a job to do."
When Cignetti takes the Hoosiers back to the Rose Bowl for the first time since the 1967, it will be the first time Indiana takes on a west coast member of the Big Ten.
Despite all the history surrounding the venue and the game itself, Cignetti won't be looking for a beach when he gets to Los Angeles.
His mind is singularly focused on one things, winning football games.
"I'm all about winning."
INDIANA WON'T BE LIMITED BY SELF-IMPOSED LIMITATIONS UNDER CIGNETTI
Gone are the days of the Indiana football program settling for mediocrity.
That's a thing of the past now that Cignetti has taken over the reigns of the program.
"Somebody asked me, how do you define success at Indiana? I was like, well, we want to be the best. I mean, you don't bring your kids up, Johnny, I want you to be fourth best. I want you to be tenth best. Bullshit," Cignetti elaborated. "We want to be the best. So when I talk about no self-imposed limitations, that's what I'm talking about."
"When you compete, you want to be the best," Cignetti continued. 'If we go to a bowl game, it's a great year,' bull shit. That's not the goal. The goal is to be the best."
It's that kind of mindset that has so many players and fans of the Hoosiers bought into what Cignetti is advertising.
For so long, all Indiana football has know is average, or even worse. With a new man in charge, Indiana players and fans must ditch that old mentality.
"I'm not going to tolerate not being successful."
CIGNETTI SHEDS LIGHT ON 'PURDUE SUCKS' COMMENTS
Whenever Cignetti gets in front of a microphone, fireworks seem to follow.
Back in early December, just a few days after Cignetti was hired, Indiana's new head football coach came out during the under-12 media timeout of Indiana basketball's Big Ten opener versus Maryland.
It was then and there where Cignetti's now notorious "Purdue sucks... and so does Michigan and Ohio State" comments were born.
"I just ramped that up a little bit," Cignetti said. "Got 17,000 people in the basketball arena, right? I have to get them excited. The first part was easy, then why stop there? Why set the bar at 6-6, our goal is to go after these two."
It's those types of comments that make Cignetti stand out from most of his head coaching counterparts around the country. It's those types of comments that make Cignetti who he is.
"Now, I've kind of had to speak a big game taking over a job like this because we had to wake some people up and create some excitement, and after all, this is the entertainment business too," Cignetit said with a smile.
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