SOUTH BEND, Ind. — For all that will feel new as No. 7 seed Notre Dame kicks off the first on-campus College Football Playoff game against No. 10 seed Indiana on Friday night (8 p.m. ET, ABC), Irish head coach Marcus Freeman has at least some experience with the setting.
Freeman’s first three years on the job have been a volatile ride, but he has shown a skill for getting Notre Dame to peak in its highest-profile home games. Whether it was blowing out Clemson in his first year or taking Ohio State to the wire and beating USC last fall, Freeman has Notre Dame in the right headspace at the right time. Now he will get his next shot to show he has big-game DNA, something Notre Dame will need for as long as its CFP run lasts.
“That’s what we’ve got to continue to focus on is how we prepare, and they’re going to be ready to roll there,” Freeman said. “What an honor and a great environment is going to be on Friday. They’ll be ready to go, but I just want to make sure we continue to finish these last hours with the right preparation.”
Notre Dame has been building toward this for more than three months, ripping off 10 consecutive wins since that unthinkable loss to Northern Illinois in early September. The consistency in performance during this win streak might be more important long-term than the Irish’s record in meeting big moments under Freeman.
But on Friday night, Notre Dame will need to summon another big-game performance.
“Every week, I challenge this group, and I challenge myself to elevate, right? We’ve got to get better, but what I don’t want to do is do all something this week that we’ve never done before,” he said. “And so they’ve done a good job. They’ve heard that message every single day, but I think every person, every individual, has to make that choice to continue to turn down the noise and focus on the things that are going to give us the best chance possible to have success on game day.”
Here are three keys and a prediction.
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Can Howard Cross and Rylie Mills set the stage?
When Howard Cross suffered a high ankle sprain against Florida State, the All-America defensive lineman figured it would end his regular season. He’d endured a similar injury before and understood the rehab process before it started. If that meant the sixth-year senior would miss his final home games at Notre Dame Stadium and a last shot at USC, so be it.
“I talked to my dad and my coaches and wanted to make it where I didn’t want to come back at half speed,” Cross said. “I wanted to be in the mode where I could produce. Not just like, I can come out and hold my own and hold up on the field.”
Six weeks later, Cross believes he’s ready to produce. And his return next to Rylie Mills could create the kind of interior pass rush that Ohio State used to blow up Indiana’s offense in a 38-15 loss in Columbus, when the Hoosiers managed just 153 yards of offense and Kurtis Rourke, the nation’s most efficient passer, finished 8 of 18 for 68 yards.
The Cross-Mills tandem totaled 71 total pressures a year ago, the second-best of any pair in the Football Bowl Subdivision. This year Mills has 33 total pressures on his own, which ranks fourth. As talented as All-American safety Xavier Watts and the deep group of linebackers are, it’s that interior pass rush that makes Notre Dame’s defense go.
Cross believes he will be at full strength on Friday night, enough to take a starter’s share of reps (50-plus snaps) despite the long layoff. That’s the expectation of defensive coordinator Al Golden, too.
“I’m not anticipating (slowly) working him in on Friday,” Golden said. “I don’t need him standing next to me.”
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On paper, Indiana’s run defense is unlike anything Notre Dame has seen. And on paper, Notre Dame’s rushing attack is unlike anything Indiana has defended. But if the Irish ground game plays to type on Friday night, the Hoosiers will likely wear down in the end, even acknowledging Indiana’s elite defensive statistics: No. 1 in rushing yards allowed, No. 2 in yards per carry allowed and No. 1 in 10-yard runs allowed.
“They do a great job, the little nuances that make their scheme so effective and they execute them at a really high level,” said offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock. “They do a good job of kind of messing with your combination blocks in the run game and force you to kind of block them one-on-one. And then they do a good job of getting off blocks and running to the football.”
The last time Notre Dame faced a statistically elite rush defense was the Army game. The Black Knights had hardly been tested all season, and the Irish rolled to 275 yards rushing while averaging 9.8 yards per carry. While it’s unlikely Notre Dame would duplicate that, it probably doesn’t have to in order to advance. The Irish are third in the FBS in yards per carry (6.3) and have more explosive runs than any program outside of Boise State.
Some of that success is down to Jeremiyah Love, Jadarian Price and Riley Leonard the runner, although Love’s status feels less than 100 percent. But much of it falls on Notre Dame’s offensive line, which has been steady in personnel and production the past five weeks. Since Billy Schrauth returned from the sprained ankle he suffered at Purdue, Notre Dame’s rush offense has averaged 246.2 yards per game with the starting O-line intact.
“I think every snap that those guys take together is an opportunity for it to kind of get a little bit better than it was the rep before,” Denbrock said. “And that’s helped them continue to grow and improve and play more consistent, which is what we need them to do.”
Of Indiana’s 12 opponents, seven ranked No. 90 or worse in yards per carry. None ranked in the Top 25.
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Notre Dame has a kicker problem. It can only hope Mitch Jeter can solve it.
Since straining his hip/groin against Stanford in mid-October, the South Carolina transfer has been a shell of the kicker who drilled three field goals at Texas A&M, including two 46-yarders, plus a 48-yarder against Louisville. He’s 1 of 5 since the injury, with the only make a no-stakes 28-yarder late in the third quarter of the Florida State blowout. Jeter’s 27-yard miss at USC came after special teams coordinator Marty Biagi watched a strong warmup from the kicker.
It’s enough to wonder whether Jeter’s struggles have been not just physical but mental the past two months — hardly ideal as Notre Dame approaches a first-round Playoff game in freezing temperatures.
“They can be paired together,” Biagi said. “When you haven’t gotten to practice week-in and week-out, or, ‘Hey, I’m going to hit just a couple in this period, then I have to shut it down,’ it’s hard to get into a routine — at any position, but especially one like that.”
Biagi said Jeter barely practiced during the past two months, usually relying on a self-assessment in pregame warmups. Sometimes Jeter told Biagi he was ready to go. Sometimes he opted out, giving backups Zac Yoakam and Marcello Diomede a shot. Those two are a combined 2 of 6 on field goals.
During its early CFP practices, Notre Dame would sometimes stop a period and call out the field goal unit to give Jeter reps with more eyes on him. During Monday’s open portion of practice, the media watched Jeter attempt six field goals. He made four, hit the right upright on one and hooked another wide left.
“This is as close as he’s been to where he was before he got hurt,” Freeman said. “He’s had a really good two, three weeks of practice. Now we got to let him truly recover. He needed a chance to recover.”
The Irish haven’t needed much from Jeter during the past two months. Notre Dame might on Friday night. Whether Jeter delivers or not is anyone’s guess.
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Prediction
Notre Dame literally wrote the rules of the new College Football Playoff to create this moment. Now it’s on Marcus Freeman to deliver in the first game of the new 12-team CFP. The Irish are better on both lines of scrimmage than the Hoosiers. They are better in the secondary. They’re better at the coordinator positions. And they will have a home crowd at their back. If Notre Dame is as “maniacally obsessed” with winning a national championship, as the program claims, getting past Indiana in the opening round at home should be straightforward. And maybe it will be, at least by the fourth quarter. Indiana keeps it close until a late Xavier Watts interception helps book Notre Dame for a Sugar Bowl date with Georgia.
Notre Dame 21, Indiana 13
(Photo: Michael Reaves / Getty Images)
