IU Football Head Coach Talks Old Dominion, Preparation
BLOOMINGTON, Ind.–The 20th ranked Indiana Hoosier football team opens up the regular season this Saturday at home against the Old Dominion Monarchs. Hoosier Head Football Coach Curt Cignetti said Monday that the Monarchs will present challenges that his squad cannot overlook.
“They’re going to spread you out with big wide splits and force you to defend the whole field, they’ll get the run game going. They’ve always been high in the (Sun Belt) Conference in rushing,” said Cignetti.
Cignetti says he’s watched the Old Dominion quarterback on film quite a bit.
“He can beat you with his legs and his arm. The touchdown to interception ratio was good,” said Cignetti. “They also try to create space through their alignments and take advantage to put themselves in the best play.”
All but one of Old Dominion’s losses last year were by one score or less.
“Like I’ve told you in the past, they’ve beaten Virginia Tech twice in recent history, so we’ve got to be ready to go,” said Cignetti.
That’s all part of the reason Cignetti says he’s not looking past this team just because they went 5-7 last year. Indiana finished the season 11-2 and made the College Football Playoff where their season ended with a loss to Notre Dame.
“Like I’ve said before, we’ve got a lot of nice pieces. We’ve got a lot of new guys that will be playing their first football for us. So anxious to see how we respond and react, but it’s my job to get us to play the way we’re supposed to play, my job and the assistants, play in, play out until the game is over from the first play to the last play,” said Cignetti.
Kickoff is set for 2:30 pm on Saturday at Merchants Bank Field at Memorial Stadium.
