What Indiana Head Coach Curt Cignetti said about Michigan heading into Saturday's Matchup

The Indiana Hoosiers debuted in the top 10 of the opening College Football Playoff rankings on Tuesday night.

The Hoosiers have started the season 9-0 for the first time in program history. The last time Indiana won nine games in a season was 1967. On Saturday, under first-year coach Curt Cignetti, the Hoosiers defeated Michigan State 47-10 in East Lansing. 

With all eyes on Hoosiers football they will be locked in on Michigan when the Wolverines come to town at 3:30pm ET on Saturday.

Here's what Indiana head coach Curt Cignetti had to say about IU's upcoming matchup with Michigan.

“All eyes on Michigan,” Cignetti said at his Monday press conference. “Really tough opponent. Obviously, won the national championship last season. It wasn’t much of a game between the two teams last year. And a lot of good players — really stout defense, really good special teams, they run the ball well, good tight end, running backs. Offensive line functions well. Settled in on a quarterback who can spin it. The receivers are more than capable.

Cignetti on the Michigan offense:

“I look at them, and I see a really good defense, really good special teams,” Cignetti reiterated. “And offensively, they haven’t scored points — they’re not in the 40s and 50s. But they can run the ball from 11, 12 and 13 personnel, they’ve got weapons, they’ve got good backs, they’ve got good players.

On Michigan star tight end Colson Loveland, you've got to be aware of him, for sure, down the field and on screens, various things, because when you've got size and speed like that, you can create personnel mismatch. So he's an excellent football player. They've got a lot of really good football players.

On how Wink Martindale can use the pass rush against the IU offensive line:

Well, you know, we're still fairly early in our preparation, but, you know, at this point in the season you've seen most of what you're going to see. They do present a lot of looks, and they do a great job. He does a great job. He's an excellent coordinator. He coordinated in the NFL a long time. And when you put the tape on, you see a defense that's very multiple and tries to create problems for offenses and good players that fly around, play hard. It all starts up front with them. They're good inside and good on the edge. And they're an aggressive defense. We'll have a good plan to be balanced on offense and protect the quarterback and free guys up in the pass game and hopefully good in critical situations, and then we've got to go out and execute it.

"Coach Cig" on the expectations of playing a blue blood like Michigan:

“They’re a good football team coming in here with all that tradition, a lot of history, a lot of pride. It’s part of the reason why it’s on national TV at 3:30. To meet that challenge, we’ve gotta have a great week of preparation.”