What Curt Cignetti said after Indiana beat Notre Dame 27-17 in the CFP

SOUTH BEND, Ind. – When Curt Cignetti entered the press conference room at Notre Dame Stadium after Indiana’s 27-17 loss to Notre Dame in the first round of the College Football Playoff, he said, “All good things come to an end.”

In fact, they do. Cignetti was honest in his assessment of the loss, citing Notre Dame’s dominance throughout most of the game.

Here’s everything Cignetti had to say during his press conference…

Opening speech…

Cignetti: All good things come to an end. And when you’re my age, you’ve seen it all. And I have a lot of people who are miserable, but part of life is learning how to properly deal with disappointment and come back a stronger person because of the experience. In life you never get everything you want. That’s life.

But it doesn’t take away from what these guys have accomplished, certainly this season, and everyone in this room can detail what this team has accomplished. Many firsts.

I’m so proud of her. It’s easy to say we didn’t play our best game, but that was probably largely due to who we were playing. I thought Riley Leonard was great at handling pressure and getting rid of the ball.

Defensively, they pretty much stifled our offense until the last minute and a half of the game. And their talented guys made good plays. They played well. And they beat us.

And I’m glad that our boys didn’t give up and ended up scoring the two points in two-minute drives. You just never know. You make that two-point play and recover another shot, that’s just a crazy play, right? I mean, the way it went, you look at the game and say, well, it’ll probably end up being about 40-3 or something like that. I’m not saying that, but you’re probably thinking that.

Here you have the score at 27-17, with the opportunity to score a two-point conversion and hit another onside kick to end the game. So Notre Dame is a good football team. I wish them good luck for the future. And I’m proud of our boys.

Whether the team never lost its temper…

Cignetti: Absolutely, we perfected that long pass to Sarratt at the start of the game. Went there and made the interception on a tempo play. They came out, a 98-yard guy, in the wrong gap. You know what I mean? We can’t catch them – bigger, stronger, faster. It was tough sledding.

For missed tackles…

Cignetti: When you play good people who move faster and change direction faster, it’s harder to fight them. I think that was the case a lot tonight.

On Notre Dame’s third down win…

Cignetti: To be honest, I can’t remember every single game off the top of my head. I remember Riley Leonard, we had Riley Leonard under control and he was still able to complete the throw while the receiver made a nice catch to extend the drive. I think they made a number of nice catches from what I can remember – low, here, there.

There was a point in the game where it seemed like we were putting some pressure on Riley Leonard, towards the end of the first half we were getting closer and closer. But here too I give him great credit. He’s a really good athlete with a quick release who has played a lot of football. He has body speed and twitches. And he is able to get rid of the ball, throw the checkdown to the running back and make a positive play. Not everyone who plays this position can pull off this play.

I’m not sure if this really answers your question, but they made plays and we didn’t.

How this team should be remembered…

Cignetti: You are what your file says. So 11-2. He finished second in the Big Ten. Reached the College Football Playoff. And the stadium was full. Made a lot of people proud. And had a historic season. So lay the foundation for what is hopefully to come.

What is the biggest difference between Notre Dame and Indiana right now…

Cignetti: They probably have more depth than us. They probably have some guys on the front lines who are just a little bit bigger, stronger and faster than our guys.

When I decided to punt at the start of the fourth quarter…

Cignetti: I didn’t want to punt, but I also didn’t want to end up 4th and 10th. It’s like wishing and hoping for something. You have no basis upon which to convert quarters and tens at this point. And if you win the game, there’s still time to punt. So that was the reason for it. I didn’t want to do it. But I felt like it was the best move.

What was the main problem with the offense and a comment on Notre Dame’s defense…

Cignetti: I think they played well. There were probably some pretty common things that we would normally do that we didn’t do particularly well.

I remember Miles Cross being completely open on a curved route. We overthrow them. There were things like that. But they are putting pressure on us. They have good players. And they won the line of scrimmage. They won the one-on-one duels on the perimeter. They influenced the quarterback and swarmed the ball.

How can this stage that Indiana has reached be achievable again…

Cignetti: This team deserves it – the right to be here. I’m not sure we proved it to a lot of people tonight. Repeat your question again.

(Why are such heights achievable in the long term?)

Cignetti: It’s all about recruitment and development and now retention. Now in college football you have to start over every year. It’s not quite the NFL, but it’s closer.

So you can change a lot in a year. The only thing about the way the calendar is set right now is that if you make it to the College Football Playoff, you’re kind of penalized in the recruiting section of the portal because, for example, we didn’t have any official visits this week , because I wanted 100 percent focus on preparing for Notre Dame. So that’s the time we spent on the portal last year. But we have a good core coming back and we will be fine.

About the plan for the portal…

Cignetti: We come back at 3:50 in the morning. We have seven recruits on campus for official visits tomorrow morning. And we can have them on Saturday and Sunday. Monday is dead; It’s a dead time until January 5th. And then we have a week in which we can invite the portal people for official visits from January 6th to 12th.

But understand that probably 80 percent of the portal people who are good players have already made their decisions. This is exactly where we are.