CFP Round 1 Recap: Notre Dame

Quick summary statistics for Indiana's 27-17 loss against Notre Dame

The magical 2024 season has come to a close in disappointing fashion, as Indiana was downed by Notre Dame, 27-17, on Friday night in South Bend. There are certainly several nits to pick with this one — punting near midfield in the 4th quarter, several offensive playcalls, sticking with RPO for so long, weak tackling, and lack of execution (even when in position to make plays) — but ultimately, what we saw Friday was that Indiana has some ground to cover if it wants to compete in these types of games consistently.

The Hoosiers absolutely earned their way into this College Football Playoff, no matter what you might hear from SEC apologists in the coming days, but there was a clear disparity in talent and size on the field, which was a common denominator in many of the flaws shown in some of these late-season games. This is to be expected for a program coming off a 3-9 season, welcoming a transfer class nearly entirely from the Group of 5 level, and just now beginning to ramp up investment into football. Combing Big Ten-level size and talent throughout a roster takes time with the start Curt Cignetti was given — time for developing young players, time for creating a brand that attracts transfers and recruits, time for established investment, time for coaching experience at this level. They’ve proven it can be done at Indiana; now, they just need to get dudes.

Going into 2024, the goal was, of course, for Cignetti to win games at Indiana, but separate from the results, the goal was to stabilize a program that saw most of its roster jet through the portal each season since transfer limits were removed during the 2021 offseason. Indiana Football needed to be modernized and positioned to leverage newfound resources in ways that matched college football in the 2020s. Cignetti and his staff did this and more, and they did it in one calendar year. The expectation was never the College Football Playoff, but Cignetti made it happen with scraps of an already patchworked roster, pieces from levels many Power 4 teams wouldn’t touch (many of whom were already near their developmental ceilings), and young coaches who’d never performed at this level.

Indiana fans were given a gift this season. That’s not to say it won’t be sustained — the program just gave its assistants massive pay raises and established a competitive assistant salary pool since Week 14 — it’s just to say that 1.) this success happened much earlier than anticipated, and 2.) many of the names and faces on the 2024 Indiana Hoosiers (Kurtis Rourke, Justice Ellison, Mikail Kamara (likely), Myles Price, Ke’Shawn Williams, Jailin Walker, Shawn Asbury, Ty Son Lawton, and more) came to Bloomington for their final years in college football and produced the winningest season in program history. The staff — from on-field coaches, to strength and conditioning, to marketing — really maximized this particular team. Next season’s team will look quite different, but those names will certainly live on, along with names of the past that have continuously pushed Indiana to its next level, standing on the shoulders of the ones before them.

So while Indiana’s performance was maddening and disappointing, it, along with every other aspect mentioned above, was a stepping stone toward a new era of Indiana Football, where the Hoosiers are a competitive brand fighting for these opportunities during most seasons. And where it one day (soon) will have the horses and experience to better battle the next Notre Dame.

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Top Performers

Indiana

• Passing: Kurtis Rourke — 20-of-33, 215 yards, 2 TDs, 1 INT

• Rushing: Justice Ellison — 11 carries, 37 yards

• Receiving: Myles Price — 5 receptions, 56 yards, 1 TD

• Defense: James Carpenter — 7 tackles (6 solo), 1 sack, 2 TFLs, 1 PBU, 1 blocked field goal

Notre Dame

• Passing: Riley Leonard — 23-of-32, 201 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT

• Rushing: Jeremiyah Love — 8 carries, 108 yards, 1 TD

• Receiving: Jordan Faison — 7 receptions, 89 yards

• Defense: Xavier Watts — 10 tackles, 0.5 TFLs, 1 INT

See more at ESPN’s box score.

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EPA (Estimated Points Added)

EPA stands for Estimated Points Added. Before the snap, each play has an estimated points value, depending on field position, down, distance, and other factors, and the result of the play — whether it falls beyond or below the estimated value — determines the EPA for each play. This helps provide insight into the values/execution of plays, given their respective scenarios. Curious about defensive EPA? Use IU’s opponent’s offensive EPA values!