BLOOMINGTON — Indiana football coach Curt Cignetti didn’t need the entire off week to decide who would start at quarterback against USC.
He didn’t even need a full 24 hours.
Cignetti picked Grant Wilson to start over Josh Hoover for the No. 5 Hoosiers (9-1, 5-1 Big Ten) within hours of the team’s then backup orchestrating a comeback win over Minnesota.
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While Cignetti didn’t reveal anything publicly about IU’s quarterback plans leading into Saturday’s 27-13 win over the No. 14 Trojans (7-3, 4-3), he spoke more candidly about the situation after the game.
“I kind of made that decision really the night that we beat Minnesota,” Cignetti said. “When I went home and when I woke up, you know, it was kind of confirmed based on how I felt. Wanted to confirm what I was thinking before I went to bed, and supported by everybody in the organization.”
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Cignetti didn’t even have any second thoughts as Wilson had to sit out practice during the off week thanks to a nasty bout with the flu.
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“Not really,” Cignetti said. “It was a bye week so Tuesday was a walk-through and Wednesday and Thursday (practices) were about an hour and ten minutes, and gave us an opportunity to look at Tyler Cherry and Jacob Bell.”
Wilson rewarded Cignetti’s confidence by throwing for career-high 305 yards and two touchdowns. He completed five passes of 20-plus yards, including a 42-yard score to Charlie Becker that put the game out of reach in the final minutes.
“It’s a standard that coach Cig holds all of us to,” Wilson said. “Any time that someone has to step up and play, it’s the same expectation. Just go out there and play, have fun.”
The offense had struggled after Hoover suffered an upper-body injury against Ohio State. Hoover, who started the team’s first eight games, spent the off week resting up. On Saturday, he warmed up as normal and worked with the second-team offense during 11-on-11 drills.
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In a post-game interview with CBS, Cignetti said Hoover was fully available to play.
“What he’s been going through is tough. I don’t wish that on anyone,” Wilson said. “He’s, I don’t know if I’m allowed to say it, but I’m not gonna say it, but he’s gone through so much of the shoulder.”
Cignetti informed Wilson of his decision at the start of the week in a brief conversation the quarterback humorously re-enacted for reporters.
“He pulled me to the side while out there at practice, and he goes, you’re gonna go with the ones,” Wilson said. “And then he turned around and walked away.”
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It didn’t necessarily come as a surprise since Wilson had been getting reps with the first-team offense as Hoover battled through his injury. Wilson worked exclusively with the ones going into Saturday’s game.
Indiana‘s coach offered more extensive words of encouragement throughout the week while Wilson prepared to make his first start in two-plus seasons.
“He just told me to go out there and just do my thing,” Wilson said. “He had confidence in me, and the team had confidence in me.”
Indiana leaned on Wilson right the start by having him attack USC’s secondary deep down field and bring back the explosive passing game that had been missing amidst the team’s recent offensive struggles.
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“We have been kind of playing in a tent so to speak the last two weeks, conservative, and we all hated it,” Cignetti said. “We wanted to attack this team, and we came out early and made some plays and left some on the field, too.”
As complimentary as Cignetti was over Wilson’s performance, he stopped short of naming him the full-time starter going forward.
“My position is going to be we’ll evaluate it this week as we go,” Cignetti said.
Michael Niziolek is the Indiana beat reporter for The Bloomington Herald-Times. You can follow him on X @michaelniziolek.
This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: When did Indiana football’s Curt Cignetti decide to start Grant Wilson against USC?
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