What did Notre Dame’s win over Indiana mean? Marcus Freeman’s biggest game yet is next

SOUTH BEND, Ind. – Ten final thoughts on Notre Dame’s 27-17 opening-round win against Indiana in the College Football Playoff, which was a reminder that talent matters and the Irish are still getting better, even 13 games into this one-of-a-kind season.

1. If Indiana had a chance to upset Notre Dame, it needed to win on first down and put Riley Leonard into uncomfortable situations where the quarterback needed to pass. It didn’t really happen. But it wasn’t like Notre Dame blew Indiana off the ball, either. Notre Dame averaged 8.6 yards on first down but only 3.7 after removing Jeremiyah Love’s 98-yard touchdown run.

Holding the Irish to 5.5 yards per carry (just 2.9 after removing Love’s highlight) might have been good enough to win if the Hoosiers could have done anything offensively. But Al Golden locked that down.

Indiana averaged 1.07 yards on its 15 first downs until Notre Dame went up 27-3 in the fourth quarter (removing a 6-yard run that ran out the first-half clock). Four of those first-down plays went for negative yardage. Just four of them went for more than 2 yards. Basically, Notre Dame’s defense shoved Indiana in a locker on first down. And that gave the Hoosiers no shot.

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2. Notre Dame needs to prepare for life after Rylie Mills, with the defensive tackle ruled out Monday for the rest of the Playoff after getting leg whipped by Jaylen Sneed on a third-quarter sack. That injury be enough to rethink Notre Dame’s shot at Georgia in the Sugar Bowl. If the Irish had a healthy Mills, maybe Notre Dame is a slight favorite. Without Mills, the Irish defense may be mortal. It’s been a brutal year for injuries for one of college football’s best defenses. But losing Mills for Georgia feels like a potential game-changer.

3. That was the best Notre Dame’s receivers played all season, at least in a game that mattered. Jordan Faison made a competitive catch on the deep shot from Leonard. Beaux Collins broke a tackle for a first down in the first quarter. Jaden Greathouse made that catch through traffic in the second half. Jayden Thomas stepped up in the end zone a game after that disastrous fumble at USC.

It’s been a long year for this position. Some of that is its own doing. Some of it is not.

But when Indiana sold out against the run, Mike Brown’s group made the Hoosiers pay for it.

Jordan Faison had a team-high seven catches for 89 yards. (Justin Casterline / Getty Images)

4. Welcome back, Mitch Jeter. Notre Dame missed you.

That 48-yard field goal just before halftime was the second-biggest play of the game for the Irish.

5. Curt Cignetti. Big mouth. Small game plan.

If you’re going to get one shot at the CFP, at least go for it. His plan felt like hitting iron off the tee. Notre Dame was better. I get it. This felt like Notre Dame-Alabama from the CFP in 2020. Except the Irish had Najee Harris. But at least go for it if you’re Indiana. Because you’re probably not getting back to this stage anytime soon.

6. Bring Shane Gillis to all the games. Not only did the comedian get copious time on the video board, but he notched Notre Dame’s first win over Alabama since 1987. Yes, we’re counting Gillis flustering Nick Saban on “College GameDay” as a win over the Crimson Tide.

Shane Gillis calls Nick Saban ‘Alabama Jones’ while saying SEC never paid players before NIL

“That’s how we cheated, we developed players”- Saban 😂pic.twitter.com/db28YlnwcD

— Trey Wallace (@TreyWallace_) December 21, 2024

7. We already documented the environment for the first home game of the 12-team CFP era. But it’s worth repeating: The buzz throughout Notre Dame’s win was incredible from start to finish. And after all the discussion about red invasions (Indiana got more red in than I’d expected) and what Notre Dame could show on the video board or not (it felt like a home game, mostly), the biggest part of the home-field advantage didn’t have anything to do with videos or music or towels.

Notre Dame’s fan base showed up in a way it hasn’t since Ohio State last year. Understandably so, considering this year’s schedule. But this time the opponent on the receiving end didn’t know how to cope. It was a reminder that for everything Notre Dame can do to inject home games with energy, nothing works without a fan base willing to get loud. On Friday night, Notre Dame’s fan base did.

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There aren’t a lot of firsts at Notre Dame. This was one of them

8. Could get used to Sean McDonough and Greg McElroy calling more Notre Dame games. McDonough’s pitch on Love’s 98-yard touchdown run was perfect. McElroy presents as the smartest guy in the room who doesn’t need to make you think he’s the smartest guy in the room. And yes, I get it. If they’d called the Northern Illinois game, few Notre Dame fans would have cared about any of those takes. But they got the CFP. And they nailed it.

9. I’m still not sure how well Leonard played against Indiana. He made some good throws. He didn’t make many bad ones. Indiana took him away as a running threat with numbers. If you’d told me Leonard would finish with almost as many passing attempts as Notre Dame had rushing attempts (32 pass attempts, 34 rushing attempts) and Leonard would average less than three yards per carry … I’d have said the Irish were in trouble.

Credit Leonard for finding ways to win beyond just putting his head down and bowling over linebackers.

10. We do this silly thing with “big games” for college coaches and which game is the biggest.

But what’s coming against Georgia is the most consequential of Freeman’s three-year tenure at Notre Dame. He’s played two teams the Irish are trying to chase in the college football food chain. Notre Dame lost both to Ohio State, outmanned in Columbus and playing the Buckeyes even in South Bend. Now comes Georgia. And even with backup quarterback Gunner Stockton forced into the lineup, this feels like as good of a shot for Notre Dame to win a game like this in the postseason in … 30 years?

Notre Dame doesn’t get chances like this on a national stage like this very often. You remember how Alabama (2012), Ohio State (2015), Clemson (2018) and Alabama (2020) went. This one shouldn’t go that way. It can’t go that way for Freeman.

It might be years before Notre Dame gets this good of a chance to beat one of the sport’s elite programs with everyone watching. Nothing would draw a line between the current coaching staff and the previous one more than beating Georgia.