Dan Lanning & Curt Cignetti Preview Peach Bowl

The Ducks are in Atlanta and so are the Hoosiers. We are one day away from a Peach bowl kickoff and a rematch with these two elite teams.

Ahead of this one, Lanning and Cignetti spent time meeting with media to preview the game. At this point a good portion of the questions are on repeat. But here are a few of the top comments with the video included.

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Lanning: Opening Statement

“Yeah, first off, it’s an incredible honor to be here. I want to thank Gary and his representatives here at the Peach Bowl. One thing that makes this game fun is recognizing how many things that the Peach Bowl actually does. Outside of just this football game, it’s something my wife, Sophie, and I have both been able to be a part of and really grateful for the service that the Peach Bowl provides.

Truly an honor to play a team like Indiana. They’ve obviously done an incredible job. You look at the body of work of Coach Cignetti and his crew and the way his team plays. They’re playing as good as anybody else in the nation. I can speak to it already. We already started off this morning competing. He beat me here a little bit. I walked back there, and they’re having us sign balls, and he got a jump start. So I quickly went into two-minute mode and was trying to catch up. His signatures looked a lot better than mine, but I put some pressure on him at the end. But he still finished signing off. I don’t know how many balls there were, coach. There were a bunch of them, but it was a fun challenge.

This game is going to be what college football is about. I think you see two tough teams, two teams that are really complete. They play great on offense, defense, and special teams. They don’t have a weakness. And ultimately, I think both these teams, as you watch them, it’s about team football. It’s not one player. It’s not one individual. It’s a group that have collectively made an effort to put themselves in this position. And obviously, it’s an honor for Oregon to be one of the teams participating in that.”

Cignetti Opening Statement:

“Well, since Dan’s drawn back on previous experiences in Atlanta and the Peach Bowl, I think my first Peach Bowl experience was 72, West Virginia, North Carolina State, when Lou Holtz laid it to Bobby Bowden, and then 75 when Bobby Bowden got his revenge on Lou Holtz, and then as a player in 81 at West Virginia when we beat Florida. I can’t remember who the head coach of Florida maybe, Charlie Pell. But it’s a great game. Obviously, it’s an honor. It’s great to be here.

I can’t say enough great things about Oregon. I really have a lot of respect for Coach Lanning, their team, what they’ve put on tape, what they’ve gotten done in their recent history. They’re good in all three phases. And they’re a great football team. And people, I know I said it’s hard to be a great team twice. Well, it’s hard to be a great team, period. And so there’s a reason for that. So it ought to be a great game. Looking forward to getting better today. And we’ll see everybody tomorrow.”

Lanning on Enforcable Contracts:

“Yeah, I mean, it would be great. I’ll be honest, my entire focus right now is on this game. I’m sure Coach is no different. But yeah, contracts you’d love to say that they should be enforceable. At some point, we’ll see what that ends up looking like. But I think that’s the secret behind a contract, right? Is it supposed to mean something? Yeah, my focus is on our prep, and the only thing I’m going to say about all this stuff is obviously there’s a lot of loose ends, and it needs to be tied up in terms of the whole recruiting process.
So there’s a lot of work to be done, and that’s one area.”

Cignetti: On the Portal WIndow Calendar

“Yeah, if I’m not mistaken, I think Oregon played the night before we played Alabama, but I could be wrong. I gave the coaches off the next day. We got in at 3.30, 4 o’clock in the morning. I went in the office around 2 in the afternoon because I knew I was going to lose some time the following day, which would have been a Sunday for us. On that Sunday, we had some official visitors in, and I probably lost six hours of prep. And I’m highly involved in our day-to-day situational preparation, particularly on offense, besides being a leader in the program. So I lost a valuable six hours there and probably three or four the next day too.

So I was playing catch-up most of the week. And, you know, you you gotta rely on your people a little bit more. It also stresses you from the evaluation standpoint and the quality of the one on one meeting and on the official visits but it is what it is and you gotta make the best of it.”

Lanning: On Transfer Calendar

“Yeah certainly a juggle. We played the first you know similar to coach but we played earlier in the day than them but traveling back from Miami is a trip, so we got back later on that night and had some guys in. You know, you’re juggling both, but I think it’s really important that you focus as much as we can. We put our focus on this game. And you try to make sure you communicate to the people that you’re recruiting, hey, I wish I could pay more attention to you right now. But the reality is we’re really focused on this game, and if you want to be a part of games like this, this is what you have to look forward to, and you’ll want we’re really focused on this game.

So on the same note, recruiting is something that happens every single day. It happens in season. It’s just a little bit more highlighted right now in this moment. So during football season, you don’t not recruit. You do it all the time. It’s something you always do, and it might be a late phone call. It might be a late Zoom. It might be an late phone call. It might be a late Zoom. It might be an early phone call. It might be stepping out of a meeting to get on the phone with a player. So we try to make those adaptions and still focus on our team and give them our best foot forward.”

Lanning on Motivation:

“Yeah, motivation is overrated. These players got to go play the game, right? I’ve said that consistently. On the same note, I think it’s my job to make sure that these guys are ready to go and give them everything that I’ve got in that moment. But if you can’t get up for an opportunity to play Indiana, especially when they had the better half of us last time, then shame on us.”

Lanning on Big Ten Surpassing SEC in NFL Draft:

“It’s a good league. It’s a good league, and there’s great players that want to come here. You know certainly part of the result of the portal is creating you know it’s tough to keep great players in one place. I think you’ve seen some transition where great players that aren’t getting an opportunity look for an opportunity to go play. That’s certainly taking place in our program you know and ultimately the portal and NIL has probably created a little bit more parity in the sport.

You know, that being said, there’s some really good coaches in this league, and I think people realize you can do it in more than one place. So when you have great teams like you do, academic tradition and things that exist in the Big Ten, a league that people can be a part of and still realize their dreams of NFL success and win games and compete for championships, I think that’s just opened the spectrum to there’s a lot of places that you can have success, and certainly the Big Ten is one of them.”

Lanning on Two Keys to Victory:

“Yeah, I think it always starts with the ball, right? The team that’s able to take care of the ball.
You know, last time we played, we didn’t have to take care of the ball. We were able to create a takeaway as well, but we ended up having to. I think that’s a big piece of this. And special teams and big games always makes a big impact. I think we have to play well on special teams.

Cignetti on Two Keys:

“We talk about the same thing every single game. Line of scrimmage, run the ball, stop the run, affect the quarterback, protect the quarterback, turnover ratio. We’re number one in the country. Explosive plays, runs plus 12, passes plus 15 on both sides. Critical situations, third, fourth down, red area two minutes before the half end of the game. And teams has to be a win. You know, every game, same stuff.

Lanning Response: “I should have named more. I thought we were just doing two.”

Cig: “That was two. “

Lanning on the Defense:

“Well, I think it’s really important we play well tomorrow, especially when you’re playing one of the best offenses in college football. And one of the best quarterbacks. I think one of the things that really stick out with Mendoza is he takes the ball where it’s supposed to go. Everybody says that, and you realize in one high where he’s taking the throw, okay, in two high where he’s taking the throw, in zone where does he take the throw, and doesn’t get enough credit for his feet. He’s an unbelievable scrambler. Was able to do that against us last time. So does a great job of taking off when it’s there, when his first read’s not there. And he has great weapons to throw to.

So what do we we have to do each guy’s got to farm his land and got to have 11 guys playing the same call. You know got to handle the variety that they provide because there’s a lot of variety in this offense I think it starts with what coach Cignetti and I both talked about earlier in this week you have two teams that want to be able to run the ball and control the line of scrimmage. The team that can win the line of scrimmage, that’s a big, big piece of this game. And once the line of scrimmage is determined, it’s going to be about who can win one-on-ones outside with technique. So we need guys to go into this game and play with great technique. If you’re on the field, there’s a standard to play to. And obviously when you’re playing a team that’s as capable as Indiana is, you have to play your best.”