Indiana was no match for Notre Dame.
The No. 7 Fighting Irish cruised to a 27-17 win over the No. 10 Hoosiers in the inaugural game of the 12-team College Football Playoff on Friday night. The game was effectively over when Notre Dame’s Jeremiyah Love tied a school record and set a College Football Playoff record when he ran 98 yards for a TD in the first quarter.
Of course, nobody watching knew at the time that Love had ended the game. But as it went on, it became clearer that Love’s run was the great example of how the night was going to go for Indiana.
Love’s TD gave Notre Dame a 7-0 lead and the Fighting Irish led 17-3 at halftime. Indiana’s three points came when the Hoosiers decided to kick a field goal with less than five minutes to go in the second quarter after spending a timeout to make the decision. You could understand why Indiana would have chosen to go for it; the difference between 11 and 14 points is still a two-possession game. Had Indiana somehow cut the lead to seven, there might have been a plausible path to a win.
Instead, Indiana kicked the field goal. Notre Dame responded with a field goal of its own before halftime.
Any chance of an Indiana upset disappeared in the third quarter. Notre Dame got the ball first and returned the kickoff past midfield. The Hoosiers were able to quickly force a punt, but went three-and-out once they got the ball back.
Indiana appeared to have Notre Dame stopped on the Irish’s next drive, but James Carpenter got flagged for hitting Notre Dame QB Riley Leonard as Leonard went out of bounds. The third-down penalty gave Notre Dame a free first down and the Irish extended their lead to 17 points and three possessions.
It was definitely over from there. And if that wasn’t enough of a clue, Indiana’s decision to punt the ball while trailing by 17 with less than 11 minutes to go should have given many neutral observers enough of an incentive to change the channel before Indiana got two late touchdowns to make the final scoreline respectable.
Notre Dame gets Georgia
The win gives the Fighting Irish a matchup against No. 2 Georgia in the Sugar Bowl on Jan. 1. It’ll be the fifth Sugar Bowl appearance for Notre Dame and the school’s first since 2007, when Notre Dame lost 41-14 to an LSU team led by JaMarcus Russell. In 1981, Georgia beat Notre Dame in the Sugar Bowl to (unofficially) claim a national title.
This Notre Dame team is capable of beating Georgia on the first day of 2025, especially with the questions surrounding the Bulldogs at quarterback. Gunner Stockton looks set to start for the Bulldogs after Carson Beck’s elbow injury in the SEC title game. Beck could miss the entirety of the College Football Playoff.
However, Notre Dame will need to be better on offense than it was on Saturday night. Riley Leonard threw an interception on the Irish’s first drive and the run game didn’t do much outside of Love’s 98-yard run. Notre Dame was clearly the better team on Friday night, but it would have been a much closer game if not for Love’s big play.
The Irish could also have an injury concern on the defensive line. Rylie Moss limped off the field following a sack of Indiana QB Kurtis Rourke when his right leg whipped into a teammate in the second half.
Don’t call Indiana a fraud
Blowouts happen. Especially in the College Football Playoff. Indiana is far from the first team to not have a chance in the postseason. And all of the previous blowouts came in a four-team playoff.
But it’s fair to look at Indiana’s season and consider it fortunate. In fact, it’s perfectly acceptable and pretty accurate.
After years of being in the same Big Ten division as Michigan, Ohio State and Penn State, the Hoosiers didn’t get the Nittany Lions on their schedule in 2024. In exchange, they got Washington, the team that lost to Michigan in the national title game nearly a year ago.
Yes, both Michigan and Washington were far worse than they were in 2023 thanks to player departures and coaching changes. But that’s not Indiana’s fault. The Hoosiers beat both of them as well as everyone else on their regular season schedule outside of Ohio State. That game didn’t go well. The Buckeyes won, 38-15.
Ohio State overwhelmed Indiana’s offensive line in that game and the mismatch was clear again on Friday as Notre Dame was by far the better team against Indiana’s offensive line. The Hoosiers were one of the highest-scoring teams in the country, but it’s clear from its games against Ohio State and Notre Dame that they occupied a space in college football above most teams but below the best.
That’s OK. Not every team that makes the 12-team playoff is going to be great and there are myriad teams throughout the history of college football who posted double-digit win seasons thanks to fortunate schedules. And at 11-1 in the Big Ten, Indiana more than deserved a chance to play for the national title. Unlike a certain team in the SEC, it didn’t have two regular-season losses to .500 teams.