The often fired-up Marcus Freeman has even more reason to celebrate a successful season. Freeman enters the playoffs fresh off signing a lucrative contract extension that will keep him in South Bend through the 2030 season. The third-year head coach said at Monday\u2019s press conference that he is pleased with how preparations have gone leading up to Friday\u2019s contest.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe past two weeks our preparation has been really good,\u201d Freeman said. \u201cWe\u2019ve had some guys that have been able to recover. We\u2019ve also been able to do the physical and tactical preparations once we found out who our opponent was. I\u2019m really pleased.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maintain Motivation<\/h3>\n
By the time the Fighting Irish take the field on Friday night, it will have been 20 days between games for Notre Dame. Following a surprising Week 2 loss at home to Northern Illinois<\/a>, Notre Dame has found itself in win-or-else mode ever since. The Irish responded by running the table, winning 10 consecutive games, many by large margins. Friday\u2019s game against the upstart Hoosiers is more of the same for Notre Dame. The extra time between games has helped running back Jeremiyah Love<\/a> and defensive lineman Howard Cross III<\/a> heal from nagging issues. Freeman indicated that both are active for Friday\u2019s game.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve been in playoff situational games since Week 3,\u201d Freeman said. \u201cWe understand that. Every game that we play is a version of a playoff game in our minds. So, we need to continue to understand that. There\u2019s no added pressure for this one that you didn\u2019t have the previous 10. Our guys understand that.\u201d<\/p>\n Indiana head coach Curt Cignetti has made quite the splash in his first season at the helm of the Hoosiers. The former James Madison head coach has led Indiana to a Top 10 ranking and an impressive 11-1 record. The Hoosiers were 3-9 a season ago.<\/p>\n Indiana senior quarterback Kurtis Rourke<\/a> has had a sensational season. The Ohio transfer and former MAC Offensive Player of the Year in 2022 can sling the football. He has completed 70% of his passes for 2,827 yards this year. He has 27 passing touchdowns to just four interceptions. Enjoying the best season of his collegiate career, Rourke finished in the top 10 in the Heisman Trophy voting. Rourke\u2019s favorite target is wide receiver Elijah Sarratt<\/a>. The junior has 49 receptions this season for 890 yards (18.2 average) and eight touchdowns.<\/p>\n At a press conference on Tuesday, a confident Rourke provided some bulletin board material for the Irish when commenting on Friday\u2019s game.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is one more chance, a great opportunity to play with the guys on this team that has been so successful,\u201d Rourke said. \u201cI\u2019m using it to motivate me even more to go out there and have fun, enjoy it. We can talk about my last college football game in four games.\u201d<\/p>\n With the Irish and Hoosiers renewing their rivalry on such a grand stage, the Notre Dame faithful should create a raucous environment Friday night. Despite what is at stake, Notre Dame must rise to the occasion again, as it has done for 10 straight weeks. When the Irish have the ball, offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock is likely to stick to the run-first formula that has worked so well this season.<\/p>\n Having a healthy Love in the backfield is key for the Irish. Notre Dame\u2019s leading rusher, Love has racked up 949 yards (just over seven average) on 134 carries and scored 15 touchdowns. He has scored a rushing touchdown in each game this season. Love is the only FBS player to have scored a rushing touchdown in each game this season.<\/p>\n Quarterback Riley Leonard has been an effective game manager for the Irish. His passing game has improved throughout the season, and he is dominant on the ground. He has thrown for 2,092 yards. But more importantly, he has proven nearly impossible to stop on the ground. Leonard has rushed for 721 yards and 14 rushing touchdowns. He has added 16 scores through the air to just five interceptions. Leonard\u2019s go-to target this year has been wide receiver Beaux Collins. The Clemson transfer boasts 34 receptions for 427 yards and two touchdowns.<\/p>\n Notre Dame\u2019s vaunted defense did not face many elite offenses this season outside of the unique triple options of Navy and Army. The Irish, however, closed out the regular season with a high-scoring win over USC\u2019s high-octane passing offense. A pair of late pick-sixes sealed the victory in that hard-fought matchup with the Trojans<\/a>. Notre Dame\u2019s secondary could miss Benjamin Morrison facing a Hoosiers team that likes to air it out and push the ball downfield. While the Irish still have All-American Xavier Watts<\/a> in the secondary, it will be up to Cross, Rylie Mills<\/a>, and the Irish\u2019s aggressive defensive front to pressure Rourke and keep the explosive Indiana offense off the field.<\/p>\n Despite the concerns about Indiana\u2019s vertical passing game, Notre Dame is expected to successfully navigate the Indiana bowl in the first round of the CFP. The Irish are favored to defend their home field in front of what promises to be a raucous crowd on Friday night and advance to the Sugar Bowl on New Year\u2019s Day to face Georgia. In this inaugural playoff matchup, expect the established Irish powerhouse to prevail over the ambitious and rising contender in Indiana. A Notre Dame victory over their in-state rival would be an appropriate hat tip to the Fighting Irish\u2019s resilience and determination, traits that have been crucial to their 2024 success.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A new era in college football kicks off on Friday with No. 3 Notre Dame (11-1) playing host to No. 9 Indiana (11-1) in South Bend. The highly anticipated in-state battle is getting the star treatment as it is the first game of the expanded 12-team College Football Playoff. The winner of the prime-time matchup […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4854,"featured_media":70572,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,5,7361,11,35676],"tags":[34494,5144,641,6850,6781,259],"class_list":["post-70566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-bigten","category-bowl-games","category-independents","category-notre-dame-fighting-irish","tag-2024-college-football-playoff","tag-curt-cignetti","tag-indiana-hoosiers","tag-marcus-freeman","tag-mike-denbrock","tag-notre-dame-fighting-irish"],"modified_by":"Michael Kovacs, ADMIN","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4854"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70566"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70566\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":70573,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70566\/revisions\/70573"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70572"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Turnaround Season for Indiana<\/h3>\n
Run-First a Formula for Success for Notre Dame<\/h3>\n
The Echoes of Legends Will Overcome the Ambitious Upstart<\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2024\/12\/USATSI_24883012_168400542_lowres-300x200.jpg\")