Why Indiana football coach Curt Cignetti followed a new trend during spring practice

BLOOMINGTON — Indiana football coach Curt Cignetti told reporters that the spring game on Thursday night at Memorial Stadium was the first time they went live during spring practice.

Quarterback Kurtis Rourke, who spent the whole two-quarter game running with the first-team offense, threw a go-ahead touchdown to Andison Coby with 45 seconds left to help the offense close out a 34-25 win over the defense. The offense scored five touchdowns and the defense scored points with an interceptions and seven stops.

It might be the only time the Hoosiers go live with full tackling (minus the quarterbacks) until their Week 1 game against FIU on Aug. 31. The other two scrimmages IU had during spring camp were thud practices — defenders make contact at full speed, but don't bring opponents to the ground.

"This was the first practice we tackled, which is kind of a trend across the country," Cignetti said. "I watched some other people, even their spring games, they're thudding."

Cignetti used a similar approach at James Madison last year.

He also didn't have the team go live in any of the scrimmages during fall camp since they played Bucknell in the season-opener. Cignetti hasn't made a decision about how the Hoosiers will handle the scrimmages during the fall.

"I'm sure there were some missed tackles tonight," Cignetti said. "When there's missed tackles, that can be a lot of different things -- athleticism, balance, body control, want to, toughness, things like that."

One point of emphasis for Cignetti was making through the spring without losing any players to significant injuries. Indiana had no injuries on Thursday night and it was the first thing he mentioned during his opening statement at the podium.

Cignetti is especially careful with his quarterbacks who never go live in the offseason.

Indiana had a number of key defenders limited throughout the spring while recovering from various injuries including defensive tackle James Carpenter, linebacker Jailin Walker and defensive end Lanell Carr. They all sat out on Thursday night.

Cignetti is eager to get them all back in the fold.

"We'll look different with four or five key injured guys back in the fall and with a great summer, second time through the offense, defense, special teams, and hopefully a few roster additions in some areas we could use some help," Cignetti said.

Michael Niziolek is the Indiana beat reporter for The Bloomington Herald-Times. You can follow him on X @michaelniziolek and read all his coverage by clicking here

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: IU football's spring game was first time players went live during camp