How Indiana football coach Curt Cignetti’s film study in one area paved the way for CFP berth

Posted by Admin December 18, 2024 Football

Spread the love

BLOOMINGTON — Indiana football coach Curt Cignetti dedicates a good portion of his free time to studying film, and one of his most recent projects was retooling his red zone offense.

“You’re always trying to gain the edge in this business because all these coaches can coach, all these teams are good despite the records,” Cignetti said, on Monday. “The margins for error are very slim every game, and you’ve got to always work toward finding the edge.”

Why focus on the red zone area? He described it as simple math — ”it’s three field goals to overcome one touchdown.” Cignetti, who had a projector installed in his office on the first day he was hired, started the work before he even arrived in Bloomington.

“That’s a couple years of low red, high red work,” Cignetti said, of his film study. “Nowadays you can PFF every touchdown pass, from the 1 to the 4, from the 25 to the 5, and then you kind of go through those and seeing what might fit and pull up something, depending on who you’re playing, that scheme-wise might match something.”

The research paid off this season with Indiana going into its first-round CFP game against Notre Dame ranked No. 3 in red zone scoring percentage (93.9%) out of 134 FBS teams and No. 1 in red zone touchdown percentage (81.2%).

Those are the best numbers for Cignetti’s offense in both categories going back to his first season at Elon in 2017.

The Hoosiers were the first FBS team since 2021 (Coastal Carolina) to score on more than 80% of its red zone attempts and one of only nine teams to reach the mark over the last nine seasons.

According to Indiana offensive coordinator Mike Shanahan, the staff also dedicated more practice time in fall camp to red zone work than they had in recent years. He said another big change came from simply being more aggressive with his play calls.

“We added a few things that I think have helped us, but we want to be aggressive when we get down there,” Shanahan said. “Sometimes that means throwing the ball into the end zone on first or second down when typically teams might be expecting you to run the football.”

One constant for Cignetti and Shanahan has been finding ways to adapt their scheme to the talent they have.

This year they had success leaning on their slot receivers Myles Price and Ke’Shawn Williams — they have combined for 13 catches for 122 yards with seven touchdowns inside the 20-yard line — and primary running backs. Justice Ellison and Ty Son Lawton have combined for 20 touchdowns in the red zone.

Indiana starting quarterback Kurtis Rourke has been effective in the red zone as well. He’s thrown for 297 yards on 72.7% passing (32 of 44) with 19 touchdowns and no interceptions.

“I really like Coach Shanahan’s mindset and the way he approaches different plays and, you know, one of the reasons why I wanted to come here in the first place,” Rourke said, on Tuesday night. “Definitely the way that he calls plays and our red zone success is attributed to that.”

Michael Niziolek is the Indiana beat reporter for The Bloomington Herald-Times. You can follow him on X @michaelniziolek and read all his coverage by clicking here.