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'Learn how to do things like championship programs': Friday night brings different type of challenge to Curt Cignetti and Indiana

headshotby: Alec Lasley2 hours agoallasley
Syndication: The Herald-Times
Head Coach Curt Cignetti during the Indiana versus Kennesaw State Big Ten football game at Memorial Stadium on Saturday, Sept. 6, 2025.

Indiana is anything but close to its potential through two weeks of the 2025 season and it’s evident by the standards and expectations coming from head coach Curt Cignetti. Despite a 2-0 start, and improvements made each week, there is growth and progress needed in every facet of the game plan in order to reach the potential this year.

While a significant and season-changing showdown next Saturday against top-10 Illinois looms, it’s a Friday night matchup with Indiana State that has Cignetti’s full attention.

“I told the team on Monday, we’re going to find out a lot about our team and how mature we are in terms of how we handle this week,” Cignetti said during his radio show on Wednesday night. “Because we need to improve.”

Indiana State has never defeated a power four opponent and is 0-7 under the leadership of head coach Curt Mallory.

But, in a matchup like Friday’s will bring, Cignetti is worried about Indiana, and Indiana only. It’s part of the process and details that led the Hoosiers to a College Football Playoff appearance last season.

And through two weeks, Cignetti hasn’t seen the attention to detail that he’s had from his players in years past, and last season.

“We have people that need to learn how to do things like championship programs do things. Day in and day out,” Cignetti said. “This team really — you got to coach the little things with this team even more. It’s a little different than last year’s team. We got a lot of guys that are new that came from .500-type programs and they don’t know what they don’t know.”

Last year’s success was different in terms of a one-year turnaround from a program that won one Big Ten game a season prior, and just nine total wins across the previous three seasons. A large portion of the new faces to the Indiana roster in 2024 came with Cignetti from James Madison and knew what the expectations and standards were.

This year, while there are still a key amount of returners and JMU leftovers from 2024, there are also numerous additional new faces who aren’t used to the emphasis on details.

“It’s how we practice. It’s meeting attitude, it’s consistency and performance in practice. It’s being locked in when you’re not in there,” Cignetti said. ” … when you’re not in there, I don’t want to turn around and see three guys having a BS session. It’s not a social event.”

‘Complacency’ has been one of the key words and phrases in the short time that Curt Cignetti has been at Indiana. While it’s just week three, and no team around the country is near completion in terms of its end of season potential, Cignetti wants to ensure his team isn’t excited by the scoreboard at the end of the game.

“I’m happy with the progress between week one and two, but I don’t want them to be — in terms of the score,” Cignetti said. “I’m happy we made improvements, but the performance was not clean”

Friday night will be the first test for the Indiana team — not in terms of the score, but mentality that this coaching staff wants to start seeing with the entire roster.

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