Curt Cignetti at the Podium: Postgame press conference after Indiana’s win over Northwestern

Following Indiana‘s 29-23 victory over Northwestern in the 2026 Big Ten opener, Curt Cignetti answered questions from the media to discuss his team’s performance against the Wildcats. He talked about the defense’s inconsistent performance, the offense’s resilliance, and much more. See the full Q&A in video form below, as well as a full transcript of the postgame media session. Watch on Youtube! Hit that Subscribe button please! Transcript CURT CIGNETTI: Okay, good win; hard-fought game. I tried to tell everybody Northwestern was a good football team but nobody was buying that. Two years ago if people said Indiana was a good football team people weren’t buying that stock either. Regardless, we got a lot of improvement to make. Bottom line was we found way to get it done. Lost some good players in this game. Was kind of a weird start. We got Pearl Harbored the first two offensive plays, you know, when they called the penalty on the center. Obviously Northwestern must’ve turned something I’m not even — none of us were aware of. Usually you get a heads-up warning mid-week because this happened to Coogan. They wouldn’t talk to me and I had to call a timeout and still didn’t want to talk to me. Who knows how many penalties we would’ve had for something that we’re not even aware of. But then we kind of were sort of frantic offensively. Just we couldn’t settle in. Dominated statistically, but the score was tight. Completely shut them down on defense. They started to move the ball a little bit end of the first half and we started to settle in a little bit, and then we couldn’t really stop them after that. Second half quarterback broke that third and 13 run and couldn’t tackle the guy. But offense really responded after the first series of the third quarter. You know, we got it going and I thought made some nice adjustments and nice plays. It’s always about the execution out on the field. Whoever got it going on the back shoulder to Charlie; Marsh had a nice first half; Beebe started breaking tackles; I thought Josh played well in the second half. Offense responded to the scores; defense couldn’t stop them for the most part, and we found way to get it done.. So it’s a good win. Because you can lose those games very, very easily. I’m sure everybody is disappointed because they still have the national championship hangover, but I can’t do anything about that. Q. This team a lot of players have done a lot of winning. All these new faces, they’re still searching for chemistry. Was that a moment where they learned how to win a tough game? CURT CIGNETTI: Oh, yeah. Being in a game like this, just like not being where you want to be against Western Kentucky. That wasn’t major adversity end of the first half. Being in a game like this and winning, absolutely. No doubt it gives you confidence and belief. Q. I know obviously the injuries to the running back don’t help, talk but about the offense just burning hot and cold a little bit through four games. Can you get a sense for where the rhythm is kind of escaping to like when Josh had a where he is six of six… ATTORNEY2: I’m only going use this game. Not going use those other games. The right tackle has to get better. Tight end has to get better. We’ve got to get our feet on the ground and get settled in when we start. There are plays at every single position there is improvement that needs to be made, but once we settled in we played well. And we’ve had some injuries. Beebe carried the rock how many times tonight? 24 for 206. Most of those in the second half because Turbo is down, Kobie is down, right? Really proud of him. Q. Just the way Beebe did respond, especially in the first quarter, it was like he refused to be tackled, understanding what was happening. CURT CIGNETTI: Yeah, he’s got as much heart as anybody that’s been in this program the last three years. I would compare his heart to Kaelon Black’s heart. He’s a guy that was doing really well and got hurt last year, so he lost the season. Boy, we really needed him and he carried the load. Q. Coach, what’s the injury to Turbo and when do you expect him back? CURT CIGNETTI: We’ll find out. Q. In that respect, the play where Turbo got hurt, looked like a hip drop tackle might have been out of bounds. CURT CIGNETTI: Yeah, late hip drop. Penalty not called, which was consistent early in the game. Penalties on their side not called. Penalties on us, mysterious penalties being called. Regardless, you just hate to see that happen to a good player like that who was playing really well. He’ll do everything he can to get back as soon as possible. Q. Coach, defensively what was Northwestern doing that kind of gave you trouble, especially later in the second half? CURT CIGNETTI: Well, they were mixing it up, blitzing it a bit, defeating blocks. It’s not scheme. It’s winning the one-on-one battles. They’re a good defense. I thought second half we played really well on offense. I don’t know. Maybe we didn’t. Q. Them offensively. CURT CIGNETTI: Oh, we couldn’t tackle the quarterback. Plain and simple. Couldn’t tackle him. We would have pressure on him; couldn’t tackle him. Tyrique Tucker, 315 pounds of him, couldn’t tackle that guy in space. Only way you were going to tackle that guy was bring him on and blitz ’em. Q. Can you go back to the first two penalties that opened the game? CURT CIGNETTI: No. Done with that. I made my comment. Q. Josh ran the ball a number of times, including that designed run on the play-action there at the end. How important is it for him to be successful in a number of ways, especially in a game where you’re trying to respond that way? CURT CIGNETTI: I think him using his legs really adds to our offense. Fernando was able to use his legs and Josh, last week had a 51-yard run called back because of a holding penalty. So it’s good to see him do that. I mean, you know, the first two penalties were be if you had you willing to me. That’s why I had to use a time out. Yeah they’re throwing penalties on you. It’s not like was illegal procedure or holding or something like that, you know what I mean? Q. Are you saying something you saw during the… CURT CIGNETTI: Usually something like that is something they saw on tape and turned in. But normally we will get a heads-up. Somebody we played last year, maybe Alabama or something, Pat Coogan, and we had to make sure he wasn’t wiggling the ball. That’s the protocol on that. Make sure to follow and subscribe to all TheHoosier social media platforms so you never miss any of our content including X, Facebook, YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Pocket Casts.