SOUTH BEND, Ind. — There are still too many steps left to take on Notre Dame’s walk into history to put into perspective yet where all this could lead.
And too many sidebars.
From the stench of Indiana coach Curt Cignetti’s relentless pregame self-promotion to the fault lines in the composition of Notre Dame’s offense that still trigger angst among those who so want to believe, but have seen too many crashes off college football’s biggest stages.
Yet what was clear on a picturesquely perfect frigid Friday night at Notre Dame Stadium, in a 27-17 College Football Playoff first-round win over 10 seed Indiana, was the vision.
Marcus Freeman’s vision.
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The one he spoke about when he was elevated from defensive coordinator three Decembers ago to succeed a head coach in Brian Kelly, whose parting shot on his way to LSU was to imply dreams and talk of a national title at Notre Dame were no longer grounded in reality.
Freeman’s reality was to chase those dreams anyway, and with an offensive-line/defensive-line-driven program.
And on Friday night, in the biggest game to date of the 40 he’s coached in, that team showed up for all the college football world to see.
“That's what I'm always going to believe in, an O-line/D-line driven program,” Freeman said with a big smile. “Being able to run the ball on offense and to be able to stop the run on defense with your guys up front.”
Even when an important piece of each unit had to leave the game early due to injury — right offensive guard Rocco Spindler and defensive tackle Rylie Mills, the nature and severity of those injuries still to come. They were replaced by Sam Pendleton and Gabe Rubio, respectively.
Where and how far that identity will coax the first 12-team College Football Playoff’s 7 seed (12-1) is still conjecture beyond a Jan. 1 quarterfinal date with bye-receiving/2 seed Georgia (11-2) at the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans.
But on Friday night it was best exemplified by Notre Dame’s 193-63 command in the running game. With the Irish averaging 5.5 yards per carry against the nation’s No. 1 rush defense and sophomore Jeremiyah Love landing an early haymaker with a 98-yard TD run the play after All-America safety Xavier Watts snuffed a promising Hoosier offensive drive with his sixth interception of the season.
“I came into this game battling a few things,” said Love, who left ND’s 49-35 win at USC on Nov. 30 early with a knee injury and wore a knee brace that appeared large enough to have its own zip code at a Monday practice session that the media got to peek into.
“I probably sound pretty terrible. But I came off of a little injury. I'm sick.”
And still resilient enough to shed the brace and give the Irish an early 7-0 lead with 10:57 left in the first quarter.
From that point on, the battle between the nation’s second-highest scoring offense (IU) and third-highest (ND) was largely dictated by the defenses.
“Our offensive line had a huge challenge,” Freeman said. “That was a heck of a rushing defense. One of the best I've seen as I prepared for a game. Some of the unique things they do, some of the players that they have, and our offensive line did a heck of a job of finding a way.
“I know [we] had the big run, but the rest of the yardage was ugly. You had to claw and scratch for every yard you got, and they battled, and they battled, and they battled, and they battled.”
And so did Notre Dame’s defensive front, holding the Hoosiers’ to 2.3 yards a carry and putting the nation’s leader in pass efficiency, Kurtis Rourke, constantly in ugly third-down situations.
“Defensively they pretty much suffocated our offense until the last minute and a half of the game,” Cignetti offered.
The Irish matched a season high with 10 tackles for loss, and while safety Watts was the dominant force on defense, with a team-high 10 tackles, the defensive line produced three sacks — two from freshmen, ends Loghan Thomas and Bryce Young.
Sandwiching a successful onside kick, Indiana amassed 126 of its modest 278 total yards in the garbage time of the late fourth quarter after a good chunk of a raucous Notre Dame Stadium crowd had emptied out, with some resuming with tailgating way after dark.
Both of the Hoosier touchdowns came in the final 87 seconds of the game, an encouraging puff of defiance for Cignetti, and a welcome wart for Freeman.
“We've got to learn from some of those situations that happened in this game, because we have to be better because of it,” Freeman said. “I'm actually kind of glad it did happen, because it's going to be a chance for us to humble ourselves and get back to work and work on ways to improve as we get ready for this next opportunity.”
Where did the Irish make strides in improvement on Friday?
Kicker Mitch Jeter, who had struggled mentally and physically since suffering a mid-October hip injury, nailed field goals of 49 and 33 yards Friday before a 37-yarder was blocked late.
And sophomore Jordan Faison emerged as an outside receiving threat the offense has been searching for since training camp. The two-sport star, who helped the Irish men’s lacrosse team to a national title last spring, battled a recurring ankle injury during the first part of the season.
Against the Hoosiers the 2023 Sun Bowl MVP had a career-high seven catches for a season-high 89 yards. That included a 44-yard connection from QB Riley Leonard that saw him tackled one yard shy of the end zone.
Leonard ended up covering the last yard of the drive himself, scoring his school-record 15th rushing TD (by a QB) with 4:50 left in the game for a 27-3 Irish lead.
“He's a guy for us offensively that's got to touch the football,” Irish offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock said of Faison.
Faison and the other wide receivers, incidentally, decided to make a pregame fashion statement, coming out for “warmups” in 29-degree weather with no shirts on.
“We were talking about it,” Faison explained. “We weren't really going to go through with it because one of our practices during the week, it was a little too cold.
“Then someone in the locker room was like, ‘Don't go out with shirts on.’ Like yo, it's a little too cold out there right now. But no, if one person does it, we've all got to do it, so we went out there.”
And Freeman’s reaction?
“They must not have been cold. because as I told you, there's no such thing as cold tough guys,” Freeman said, shaking his head but smiling. “They'd better not have been cold. They'd better not have been out there shivering. I'm glad they put some clothes on for the game.
“It got kind of cold out there at a certain point, but man, when you're into that game and you're enjoying that moment, you don't really think about the weather. You just think about enjoying this thing. And that's what I'm going to think about the rest of the game. I'm going to enjoy this thing.”
And enjoy knowing that even though his team has its flaws, perhaps so does every other team left in the playoff field.
And at least Freeman’s team is moving forward and doing so in the image he hoped to build three years ago.
“We're going to continue to be an O-line/D-line driven program through recruiting, high school recruiting,” Freeman said. “And if we've got to supplement in the portal, we will. But we are going to be an O-line/D-line driven group.”
And that they are, and on a mission to make history.
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