Why Indiana football isn’t spending much time in California on UCLA road trip

BLOOMINGTON — Indiana football’s trip out west will be a brief one.

The Hoosiers are scheduled to fly out of Indianapolis at 4:30 p.m. on Friday afternoon and set to return right after the game. They are scheduled to play UCLA at the Rose Bowl Stadium at 7:30 p.m. ET. Some teams like to fly out a day earlier on cross-country trips to get acclimated to the time difference and have a walkthrough on site.

Indiana coach Curt Cignetti talked about the team's travel plans on Thursday night during the Inside Indiana Football coaches show. He told host Don Fischer that he likes to minimize the time away from campus, a strategy he's relied on throughout his career. The origins of it date back to his time as an assistant for Walt Harris on Pittsburgh's staff in the late 90's.

It’s the same one he utilized when JMU visited Utah State last season.

"I like to do everything Friday on your campus, players don't miss class, they eat there,” Cignetti said. “We did that way at NC State and we did it that way at Alabama too. The routine has worked for me, and I'm not changing it."

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Indiana hasn’t played a regular season game on the West Coast since a 2004 matchup against then No. 24 Oregon. The Hoosiers pulled off an upset by opening up a 23-0 lead in the first half and forcing seven turnovers in win.

The team’s training staff spent the week sending out travel tips like wearing compression sleeves to prevent swelling on the plane to prepare players for the longer flight and time difference.

Indiana defensive end Mikail Kamara, who is one of the many JMU transfers that joined Cignetti in Bloomington, said one of the keys will be getting a good night’s sleep before the game.

“It's a long trip,” Kamara said. “We have to try to go to sleep at the east coast time versus the west coast time."

More: The Runout: Previewing Indiana football’s Week 3 game against UCLA

Indiana receiver Elijah Sarratt has played a pair of games out west in his career. He had four catches for 45 yards for JMU against Utah St. last year and played a game against the storied De La Salle program in high school.

“We put it on them boys,” Sarratt said, of the game against De La Salle.

Sarratt also remembers JMU failing to put Utah State away after going up 24-0 in a quarter and change. Utah State came back to tie the game 38-38 in the fourth quarter and JMU scored the go-ahead touchdown with less than six minutes to go.

“We have to stay in the moment every play,” Sarratt 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: Indiana football's travel plans for UCLA trip explained