IU radio legend Don Fischer asked football coach Curt Cignetti whether the team suffered any heat-related illnesses during last weekend’s game against North Texas.
“I think probably the entire defense was sick at the end of the game,” Cignetti said Thursday on his weekly radio show. “I was sick. I’m sure coach (Bryant) Haines was sick too.”
But Cignetti wasn’t talking about heat related illnesses.
The culprit: Rat poison washed down with tainted Kool-Aid.
Despite an offseason of hype, this did not look like the dominant IU defense we’ve come to know over the last two seasons.
North Texas possessed the ball for 37:22 — five minutes more than any opponent had it in 2025, and four minutes more than any opponent in 2024. On average, opponents only had the ball for 26:30 a game a year ago and 29:18 in 2024.
The Mean Green gained 367 yards against IU’s defense last Saturday. The Hoosiers allowed more yardage in only one of their 16 games in 2025, against Oregon in the Peach Bowl. Michigan State matched the 367 mark last October in Bloomington. The 2024 team gave up more yardage just twice in 13 games, against Maryland and Notre Dame.
On the radio show, the head coach gave a bit more of a blunt assessment of his team’s performance.
“I don’t think you can say a single guy on defense played his “A” game,” Cignetti said. “We had some guys play poorly.
“Were we reading our press clippings about having the best D-line in the last 20 years? I mean, wow. That rat poison was strong when the Big Ten Network came in here talking about a better defense than last year and all that stuff.”
Cignetti is more of a CEO head coach. He coaches his assistants, and only addresses the full team when he feels like it’s necessary.
This was one of those weeks when he has had to step in.
“What it created was a great opportunity for me to send a message,” he continued. “First of all, it was a great opportunity for me to see where we were as a football team. I think I’ve said to the coaches that you’re not a spectator as a leader, but I was really curious to see how we would play in the opener because everybody was saying the right thing. Everyone was saying there is no complacency. Well, it’s easy to say that, and maybe you’re just looking the other way a little bit. You could be drinking the Kool-Aid.
“So, there it is in black and white. This is what it was. It gave me the opportunity to really send a couple of strong messages and get the team’s attention, both individually and collectively.”
Was this the wakeup call the Hoosiers needed?
A disappointing effort in a 36-point win isn’t the worst way to learn lessons.
The head coach intends to micro-manage a bit more until he sees the message resonate.
“Now we have a better idea of who they are, of what our team is,” Cignetti told Fischer. “Last year’s team got to the point where I could just let them run, and every once in a while, I’d step in and put a charge in them. This team? No. You have to be hands-on with this team right now. We have to develop, and I think we took a step in practice this week. I really do. But we need to take steps every single day.”
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