IU's Cignetti: Stoic sideline presence about setting example - ESPN

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 — has 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."

The 64-year-old coach added: «I do smile, and I am happy, at times.»

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