Cignetti Draws on Past Playoff Experience to Build Plan to Prep for Notre Dame

Written by Sammy Jacobs (@Hoosier_Huddle)

The Indiana Hoosiers will be in the College Football Playoff for the first time in school history. IU earned the 10th seed in the 2025 CFP drawing a road game at No. 7 Notre Dame in the first round on Friday, December 20th. While this is a new experience for the Hoosiers, it is not new for head coach Curt Cignetti.

Cignetti has been to a playoff eight times in his 13 years as a head coach at various levels of college football and knows how to prepare to win.

“I am kind of used to this routine, but I don't think it's a major change for any of the coaches, to be quite honest with you, that are in the playoff. You just have a few more days between games. So I don't think it's anything that anybody can't figure out.” Cignetti told the media on Sunday.

Cignetti took IUP to the Division II playoffs three times in six year, making the second round twice and the quarterfinal in 2012. At Elon, Cignetti took the Phoenix to the playoffs in both years he was there, but fell in the first round. Prior to James Madison transitioning to the FBS, he took the Dukes to the FCS playoffs in all three seasons with two semifinal appearances and an appearance in the championship game.

Attacking the approach to prepare for the CFP has many parts to it. One of the biggest aspects to balance is how to handle the time between games. IU last played on November 30th against Purdue and will not take the field again until December 20th.

“This will be like an off week practice schedule except we'll be a little more aggressive with install. We've got to really make the time count because we've got to balance the recruiting and the preparation part. Then next week will be like game week. It's all about really getting enough practice in to maintain your timing and your fundamentals. Last week that's what it was about, and I thought we did a good job of that and get the players refreshed. Now this week we'll be a little bit -- well, we'll be a lot more specific to who we're going to play, and then we'll ramp that up another level next week.” Cignetti said.

The new 12-team playoff could potentially have IU playing all the way through January 20th, which is in the plans for Cignetti and the Hoosiers.

“January 20th is in my head, not on paper, but like we have our plan. We had a plan for the month of December, which we revised slightly today because of playing Friday instead of Saturday. Then I have a plan on paper through the end of the month, January 1st, which you have to have.” Cignetti said.

Should the Hoosiers win against Notre Dame, IU would head to the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans to take on No. Georgia on January 1st. Cignetti came to IU with a plan to win early, the plan worked. Now he can put his playoff plan into action.