LOS ANGELES — Indiana’s Curt Cignetti and the University of Alabama’s Kalen DeBoer take the podium at the Rose Bowl’s annual UFC-style head coach press conference. As they sit down, the clatter of media members lulls to a hush. After a short delay, the moderator’s voice breaks the silence.
As the two coaches take their respective seats on either side of the prestigious Leishman Trophy perched on a bouquet of roses and a barrage of camera shutters clicked in rapid succession, Cignetti is asked to give his opening statement.
“The last two days have been fairly disruptive, with the travel day and then a first practice on site,” he says. “So, as the leader, the head coach, I feel there's a lot of loose ends we've got to tie together today.”
Indiana was forced to undergo an unfamiliar routine ahead of its New Year’s Day matchup against the Crimson Tide. Due to an onslaught of media obligations, the team arrived in Los Angeles on Monday, three days before the game.
Cignetti’s general philosophy as the Hoosiers’ head coach has been to spend the minimum amount of time away from Bloomington. But Indiana doesn’t have the luxury of a charter flight the night before game day for the Rose Bowl. Instead, the Hoosiers will spend three nights at their hotel before game day finally arrives.
Combine that with the 25-day hiatus Indiana has had since beating Ohio State in the Big Ten Championship on Dec. 6, and it's no surprise that Cignetti is tired of waiting.
“Let's face it, this is a playoff game,” he said. “It's a football game, right? And I think both teams would like to be able to kind of go through their routine and process like they do for every football game and not have this disruption. But it is what it is and we made the best of it.”
If that’s not enough evidence of Cignetti’s growing impatience ahead of the Hoosiers’ heavily anticipated return to “The Granddaddy of Them All,” his body language certainly was.
Indiana’s head coach sat with a blank look on his face when DeBoer fielded his questions, his eyes darting across the room and occasionally to the ornate fluorescent light fixture dangling from the room’s ceiling. The longer the press conference went on, the shorter Cignetti’s answers became.
It was clear Cignetti didn’t care for the meticulous media obligations in the matchup’s lengthy build up.
I can’t blame him. For decades, the Rose Bowl was college football’s premiere postseason game. It signified the end of a successful season for any Big Ten team fortunate enough to earn the much-desired bid to represent the conference on the sport’s biggest stage.
But things have changed. Sure, the name and history of the game remain, but its meaning has shifted. In today’s age of the 12-team College Football Playoff, it’s just the next barrier to both participants’ national championship aspirations — a barrier Cignetti is eager to get past.
“I respect the tradition of the Rose Bowl,” he said. “Been a lot of great players, coaches playing in it. But we're getting ready to play a playoff game.”
When the nearly 30-minute session came to a close, Cignetti begrudgingly posed with DeBoer for a rather awkward duration next to the trophy for a photo opportunity. He then exited the building to return to what he likely wanted to be doing the whole time — coaching football.
Follow reporters Conor Banks (@Conorbanks06 and conbanks@iu.edu) and Dalton James (@DaltonMJames and jamesdm@iu.edu) and columnist Quinn Richards (@Quinn_richa and qmrichar@iu.edu) for updates throughout the Indiana football season.
