SOUTH BEND, Ind. — The best news for 7 seed Notre Dame on Sunday ahead of its Dec. 20 home College Football Playoff game with 10 seed Indiana was a benevolent forecast of sorts.
An injury forecast, that is. And much more inviting than the 25-to-35 temperature range projected for game day.
Per ND head coach Marcus Freeman on a Sunday Zoom call with the media, the Irish (11-1) will be closer to full strength for the first football meeting with the Hoosiers since the 1991 season opener than they were at the end of this season’s regular-season finale, Nov. 30 at USC.
Sophomore running back Jeremiyah Love (knee) and sixth-year grad nose guard Howard Cross III (ankle) are both expected to be available when Notre Dame hosts Indiana in an 8 p.m. (EST) CFP first-round game, with the survivor advancing to play 2 seed Georgia (11-2) in a quarterfinal matchup Jan. 1 at the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans.
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Love left ND’s 49-35 victory in Los Angeles in the middle of the third quarter and did not return to game action. Cross suffered an ankle sprain in a 52-3 rout of Florida State on Nov. 9 and missed the next three wins over Virginia, Army and the Trojans.
Meanwhile, Freeman said linebacker Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa, a strong pass rusher and a big part of ND’s five-player linebacker rotation, has been ruled out for the Indiana game. Viliamu-Asa suffered a knee sprain early in a 49-14 win over Army, Nov. 23 in New York.
“I don't know when he'll return,” Freeman said. “He'll be out indefinitely [for] right now.”
Love is Notre Dame’s leading rusher with 949 yards on 134 carries. His 7.1-yard average per carry is fifth nationally and his 15 rushing TDs are tied for 12th. Cross was a 2023 second-team All-American and is one of ND’s best pass rushers and run defenders.
Splitting hairs
The AP and coaches polls agreed with each other when it came to where to rank Notre Dame in the final regular-season Top 25s — No. 3, and ahead of Saturday conference championship game losers Texas (SEC) and Penn State (Big Ten). Those two-loss teams were ranked fourth and fifth, respectively, Sunday in those two polls.
But the CFP rankings had the order as Texas at 3, Penn State 4 and ND 5. All three were seeded two spots lower in the bracket because of the commitment to conference champs being seeded 1-4.
In a teleconference on Sunday, CFP selection committee chair Warde Manuel was asked about the discussions regarding Penn State (11-2) vs. ND (11-1).
“Well, very close,” Manuel said of the résumés. “A lot of discussion about both teams and how we saw them both side-by-side and amongst the others as we looked at different groups. The committee was very impressed with both teams.
“Penn State played yesterday. Notre Dame does not have a conference championship, so they didn't play. We had a chance to see another data point on Penn State, and it was something that impressed the committee and had them remain ahead of Notre Dame in the rankings.”
He got a similar question regarding Ohio State at 6 vs Penn State at 4, with both teams having two losses and OSU with the head-to-head win in November.
“What we saw is them [Penn State] playing a very good game, hard-fought game against the No. 1 team in the country,” Manuel said of the Nittany Lions’ 45-37 loss to Oregon. “They were already ahead of Ohio State, because they only had one loss to Ohio State, and we just felt like Penn State was playing very good football.
“They happened to be on the losing end of that game, but we were impressed with how they played on both sides of the ball even though they gave up 45 points. It was hard-fought and there was a lot that went into it. We were impressed with the game and with their performance.”
Playoff path and announcing team
For the “don’t believe in jinxes” and “I want to check out Airbnbs” crowds, should the Irish advance past Indiana on Dec. 20 and Georgia Jan. 1 (8:45 p.m. EST, ESPN), the bracket would take them to Miami Gardens, Fla., and the Orange Bowl for a Jan. 9 semifinal (7:30 p.m., ESPN). The CFP National Championship Game is Jan. 20 in Atlanta (7:30 p.m., ESPN).
The announcing team will be the same for both the Indiana and Georgia games — if the Irish get that far — Sean McDonough, Greg McElroy and Molly McGrath.
Good on good
Among the statistical intrigue in the ND-IU matchup is the Irish bringing the nation’s No. 1 pass-efficiency defense vs. Indiana and the No. 1 team in pass efficiency.
Especially with the success USC had in throwing the ball against ND on Nov. 30.
The Trojans were able to amass 557 total yards, 360 of them through the air, and keep the Irish defense on the field for 79 plays — all season highs. With ND’s backup cornerbacks, freshmen Tae Johnson and Karson Hobbs, still in the training-wheels stage of building depth at the injury-diluted position, starters Leonard Moore and Christian Gray played all 79 snaps against USC.
The Irish did break up nine passes, five by freshman Moore, and got pick-6s from Gray and All-America safety Xavier Watts.
USC typically has more volume in its passing game than Indiana (10th to 29th in passing yards per game), but IU is more efficient to this point with its passing game by a lot (first nationally vs. USC at 70th).
So, might there be some value in having experienced that kind of aerial assault, having survived it and having a chance to fix it?
“USC was a really good offense,” Freeman said. “It did some good things in the passing game, made some plays. I think our guys are able to look at that game and see where some of our mistakes were and some of that you have to take your hat off to that opponent and to those players and that team.
“But our guys will be ready to go. The stats show that this offense has done a really good job at the passing game and a passing attack, and so it'll be a great opportunity for us to come up with a good plan and go compete on Friday.”
Getting to know IU coach Curt Cignetti
Freeman probably didn’t know enough about Indiana first-year head coach Curt Cignetti to know the irony in what he said about the national coach of the year candidate.
When asked how familiar he was with the former James Madison, Elon and NCAA Div. II Indiana of Pa. head coach, Freeman responded: “I didn't know much about him.
“I took a minute and Googled him and looked at some of the things he's done in the past at his other places. I mean, he's won everywhere he's been.”
The most lasting words Cignetti has uttered since becoming IU’s coach roughly a year ago were the ones he said in response to a question on National Signing Day last December about how he was going to go about rebuilding the Hoosiers.
"It's pretty simple,” he said. “I win. Google me."
And Freeman did.
CFP SCHEDULE/TV NETWORKS
All times Eastern
FIRST ROUND (Dec. 20-21)
Friday, Dec. 20: 10 Indiana (11-1) vs. 7 Notre Dame (11-1), 8 p.m. | ABC/ESPN
Saturday, Dec. 21: 11 SMU (11-2) vs. 6 Penn State (11-2), 12 p.m. | TNT
Saturday, Dec. 21: 12 Clemson (10-3) vs. 5 Texas (11-2), 4 p.m. | TNT
Saturday, Dec. 21: 9 Tennessee (10-2) vs. 8 Ohio State (10-2), 8 p.m. | ABC/ESPN
QUARTERFINALS (Dec. 31-Jan. 1)
Fiesta Bowl: Penn St./SMU vs. 3 Boise State (12-1), 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 31 | ESPN
Peach Bowl: Texas/Clemson vs. 4 Arizona State (11-2), 1 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 1 | ESPN
Rose Bowl: OSU/Tennessee vs. 1 Oregon (13-0), 5 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 1 | ESPN
Sugar Bowl: Notre Dame/IU vs. 2 Georgia (11-2), 8:45 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 1 | ESPN
SEMIFINALS (Jan. 9-10)
Orange Bowl: Fiesta Bowl winner vs. Sugar Bowl winner, 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 9 | ESPN
Cotton Bowl: Rose Bowl winner vs. Peach Bowl winner, 7:30 p.m. Friday, Jan. 10 | ESPN
CHAMPIONSHIP
CFP National Championship Game: 7:30 p.m. Monday, Jan. 20 | ESPN
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