Notre Dame football keeps 126-year streak alive with win over Indiana
12/21/2024 01:38 AM
Friday night marked the first game of the new 12-team College Football Playoff, and Notre Dame was ready to make a statement. Marcus Freeman’s group came out of the gates firing in an in-state rivalry renewal against No. 10-seed Indiana, and the Fighting Irish quickly ran away with the game. Notre Dame took a 27-3 lead before a pair of garbage time touchdowns made the final score 27-17.
Not only did Notre Dame punch its ticket to the CFP quarterfinals and a Sugar Bowl date with No. 2 Georgia on New Year’s Day, but it also kept a longstanding streak of dominance over the Hoosiers going. Indiana has not beaten Notre Dame in South Bend since 1898, and the 126-year streak will live on after Friday night.
The Fighting Irish were never under duress in this game. From the moment that superstar safety Xavier Watts picked off Kurtis Rourke at his own two-yard line in the first quarter and running back Jeremiyah Love took the next play 98 yards for a touchdown, Notre Dame never looked back.
As it turns out, Curt Cignetti’s incredible turnaround of the Indiana roster in just one season — a year that ended up being one of the best seasons in the history of Indiana football — wasn’t quite enough to compete with the big boys. The Hoosiers ran into similar problems in this game that they did earlier in the season against Ohio State.
Indiana’s offensive and defensive lines got moved around all night, allowing Notre Dame to control the line of scrimmage and the clock all night long. Kurtis Rourke was under duress all evening and Indiana could never consistently establish the run game in this one.
On the outside, Notre Dame’s elite secondary was perfectly content playing man coverage against Indiana’s wide receivers and it worked like a charm. The Hoosiers’ RPO-heavy scheme was completely erased by the man coverage, and Notre Dame was content making Rourke hand the ball off by staying in the throwing lanes since Indiana couldn’t block the run even against light boxes.
Indiana is still on the upswing and will be a force next season and beyond under Cignetti, but those aforementioned problems all led to a dominant Notre Dame victory on Friday night.
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