Dan Lanning and Curt Cignetti Preview Peach Bowl

Later this week Oregon will face Indiana in Atlanta in the Peach bowl. This is a rematch of a very competitive game in October in Eugene. As we know Indiana won handing Oregon its only loss on this season.

Now the two will meet again at a neutral site with a national championship berth on the line.

On Saturday the two coaches held a joint press conference. Here are those top comments and the video included below.

—————————————————-

Lanning: Opening Statement

“Got an unbelievable amount of respect for Coach Cignetti and the job that he’s done at Indiana.
You watch this team on film. Obviously, we got to experience it firsthand. This is one of, if not the best, coach teams in college football. They play with unbelievable technique. They challenge you in every facet in special teams, defensively, offensively. They’ve got great quarterback play, which I think is a secret to being in this position that they’re in. And you watch this group, they play together. They’ve got great answers. They do what they do extremely well.

And on defense, they challenge you in every way. They give you a lot of different looks. But this is just a group that’s obviously playing their best football now. You saw that in their most recent game.
And again, just honored to get the opportunity to go share a field with coach and the job that he’s done there.”

Cignetti: Opening Statement

“Yeah excited uh to be a part of the peach bowl great cause it’d be great venue, playing a great opponent Oregon, coach Lanning. Like I said so before we played earlier in the year one of the young superstars you know in the coaching profession. I think they’re 26-2 the last two years.

And, you know, really an excellent football team, offense, defense, and special teams. Do a great job of coaching. Be a big challenge. We were fortunate, you know, to win the game out in Eugene. It’s hard to beat a great team twice. You know, very difficult. So, edge to Oregon there. But tough to be a great team twice. Looking forward to the challenge.”

Lanning: On where his team has improved

“Yeah, I mean, in a lot of different facets. I won’t get into every detail, Zach, but you watch both these teams. Neither one of us are the same team that you saw earlier in the season when we played each other. I think we’ve grown in a lot of different ways, found different strengths. As your team changes, you change and you adapt to your strengths of your team, and you see the same thing with Indiana.”

Lanning: On What Indiana’s Defense Does Well

“Yeah, in a lot of ways you’d call it an illusion defense. They show you one thing and they take something else away. They’re really good at post-snap movements, which makes it difficult for the quarterback. Their defense of line plays with relentless effort. They’re tough to block up front. And then the technique, you know, continues to show up. They’ve got, you know, a guy basically playing quarterback there, linebacker that’s able to get them lined up and execute. They’ve got, you know, a strong corner there in Ponds. They fly to the ball and they attack it in the air. Probably the best zone vision break defense I’ve seen this year in college football.You know, they do an unbelievable job there and they get hats, you know, and obviously it all starts with stopping the run. They do a great job with that.”

Cignetti: On Playing Oregon Twice

“Yeah, I think it’s more of a psychological edge, maybe, you know, the one team that came up a little short, a little added edge, so to speak, but at the end of the day, it’s determined by what goes on between the white lines. It’ll be a tremendous challenge because Oregon, they’re very well coached, and they’ve got good players. They’re explosive on offense. They run the ball really well. They’re very balanced. The line does a good job, and then they spread around the pass game, use all 52 yards, and defensively, great speed, fly the ball, multiple hats. They’ve got a scheme where they keep you off balance with your pre-snap reads.

They’re huge inside, and the edge guys can really rush a passer. And their teams are good. So second time around, we’re both going to watch the tape of the first game, see what we did well, see what we didn’t do well. And maybe some wrinkles. Both teams will have some wrinkles, obviously, and both teams have sort of morphed since that game because it was a while back.

And, you know, you put the best plan together you can, but at the end of the day, you know, it’s which team executes the best play-in, play-out.”

Lanning: On Getting Dante Ready for IU

“You know I think when when games don’t go your way you’re always trying to look for answers and reasons why and it’s really simple you know they block better they tackled better they they moved the ball and controlled the clock. They converted third downs. You know, it was all, you know, relatively close going into the fourth quarter. And then we turned the ball over. So you try to find all these moments that, okay, this was the difference. It’s every play, right? Every play added up and every play mattered. When you’re playing a team with great technique that has great scheme, like Indiana, you know, that’s the edge.

But but again, I know Dante’s trying to find, okay, what are the things that didn’t go right, and how can he be better, you know, I have a lot of confidence in Dante, and the way he preps, and you know, knowing he maybe felt like he forced some things in this first game, he’s not the same guy, like I said earlier, at this point in the season.”

Cignetti: On all Four Coaches Having Ties to Saban

“Well, yeah, four for four. You know, I think everybody learned a lot from Nick. He was a great mentor, very organized, detailed, had a plan for everything, managed lead, how to stop complacency, game day, recruiting, recruiting evaluation, player evaluation. I mean, he had it all.

And, you know, if you were serious about your career and wanted to be a head coach one day, you know, you took great notes or great mental notes. So I felt like after one year with Coach Saban, you know, I’d learn more about how to run a program that maybe did the previous 27 as an assistant coach and stay with him for three more years.

So there’s a lot of disciples out there doing well. And that’s why he’s the greatest of all time.”

Lanning: Same Question

“Yeah, I just echo that. You know, in my time, I was I was working in at Sam Houston State before I went to Alabama and was going to take a pay cut to go be a GA there. And when anybody asked me why, I said, I’m going to get my doctorate in football. And that’s what I feel like working for Coach Saban. Just like Coach said, you learn so much. Things I thought I knew, I realized I didn’t know anything. And I got to really carry that over with the opportunity to work with Coach Smart, who built off of that as well at Georgia. And that was an unbelievable experience for me. And obviously it shows here as we enter the semifinals.”

Lanning: On Talking to Transfer Players about staying or leaving

“Yeah, each one’s different. You know, there’s some guys that come in, and, you know to do with the portal? Each one’s different. You know, there’s some guys that come in and, you know, I share the same sentiment as them, you know, and that they might have an opportunity to be able to make an impact somewhere else. Some guys come in and you hate to see them go. We’ve been really fortunate to be able to hang on to the players that we really want to be here and, you know, have success.

And then some of them, you see them walked out the door and you just hope that they have a better opportunity wherever they move next. You know, the grass isn’t always greener and that’s something that you have to figure out in life at times, but that’s, you know, one of the life lessons that exists right now in college ball, but every conversation is different.

You know, the one thing I expect from our guys is to have that conversation.”