Stone-faced Cignetti vows 'I am happy, at times'

ATLANTA -- Despite what he looks like on the sideline, Indiana coach Curt Cignetti is enjoying the College Football Playoff ride.

Cignetti's demeanor during games -- furrowed eyebrows, steely eyes -- have made the transformative Hoosiers coach into a meme, popularized during the team's postseason run that continues Friday against No. 5 seed Oregon in the CFP Semifinal at the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl. But Cignetti says he is having some fun with Indiana's historic rise, just not in front of the camera.

"There's a lot of times I am happy. I just don't show I'm happy," Cignetti said Thursday at a joint news conference with Oregon coach Dan Lanning at the College Football Hall of Fame. "If I'm going to ask my players to play the first game, first play to play [No.] 150 the same, regardless of competitive circumstances, then I can't be seen on the sideline high-fiving people and celebrating, or what's going to happen, right? What's the effect going to be?

"So that's why I am like I am during game."

He added: "I do smile, and I am happy, at times."

The 64-year-old Cignetti has found moments to celebrate Indiana's success, which includes a record 14-0 start, the team's first outright Big Ten title since 1945 and its first Rose Bowl win. Cignetti, who won the Bobby Dodd Coach of the Year award Thursday, is 25-2 as Indiana coach.

"I'll smile and celebrate later in the coaches room with the coaches, you know, maybe have a beer," he said.

Lanning also has found snippets to reflect on the CFP journey.

"It was pretty fun stepping in that hotel room last night," said Lanning, who traveled to Atlanta with his wife and three sons. "I just kind of joke with our boys and said, 'If your dad was a dentist, you wouldn't be doing this right now.'"

When Cignetti's father, Frank, the former coach at West Virginia and Indiana University of Pennsylvania, was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2013, Curt could not attend because he was coaching at IUP. Thursday marked the first time he visited the Hall of Fame, and he saw a video kiosk that displayed his father's accomplishments before the news conference.

"I learned so much from my dad," Curt Cignetti said of Frank, who died in 2022. "He was a great leader, and he led by example, and he was a role model, and he was a strong man. He had little John Wayne and Clint Eastwood in him."

Lanning also confirmed that running back Jay Harris, who entered the transfer portal Wednesday, will be available for the Ducks on Friday night. Oregon's running back room has thinned out following an injury to Jordon Davison, who leads the team with 15 rushing touchdowns, and the transfer portal entries of Jayden Limar and Makhi Hughes, who are no longer with the Ducks.

Harris, a transfer from Northwest Missouri State, has 116 rushing yards and a touchdown on 26 carries this season.

"I think he's an exceptional back," Oregon offensive coordinator Will Stein said. "He's got great balance, he can run, he can really catch the ball. So I think he's at a spot now to really flourish, given the opportunity."