NFL News NFL News, Reports and Updates
INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana football coach Curt Cignetti doesn’t plan to name a starting quarterback before the team’s Week 1 game against FIU.
The quarterback competition that started in the spring between Kurtis Rourke, Tayven Jackson and Tyler Cherry will continue when the Hoosiers open fall camp next week.
Cignetti told reporters at Big Ten Media Days on Thursday that he’s sticking to the blueprint he’s used at his previous stops.
It’s the same approach former IU coach Todd Allen relied on towards the end of his tenure. He didn’t want to give his opponents — the Hoosiers opened 2022 (Illinois) and 2023 (Ohio State) with conference games — any kind of competitive advantage.
“I’ve never seen the value of really naming a starter,” Cignetti said. “Our first year in the Sun Belt, Todd Centeio, who came from Colorado State, we trotted him out for the first snap of the first game, never named a starter and he was Sun Belt Player of the Year.”
Insider: IU’s Curt Cignetti charms Big Ten media days with a simple message — why not now?
Cignetti might not make things official until Aug. 31, but that doesn’t mean he played coy when discussing the state of the competition and that’s a key difference from his predecessor.
He actually offered his most revealing comments yet about Rourke — the frontrunner for the staring job given his experience — towards the end of his time in front of the microphone at Lucas Oil Stadium.
“I want to promote competition at every position, I’m not necessarily looking to get him beat out cause he had a really good spring,” Cignetti said. “…We went back and watched all the spring cut ups offensively and the more I watched them, the more impressed I was.”
Rourke was a three-year starter at Ohio where he played in 36 games (33 starts) over a five-year span. He won…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/iu-footballs-curt-cignetti-makes-192522250.html
Author : IndyStar | The Indianapolis Star
Publish date : 2024-07-26 19:25:22
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.
