By Chris Schumerth

Sports Capital Journalism Program

It will be easy to forget that it was the Indiana Hoosiers that had the first opportunity to take control of the first 12-team College Football Playoff game ever played.

A team that had scored more than 30 points in all but two previous games this season started its second drive of the night on the Notre Dame 41-yard line after D’Angelo Ponds intercepted Riley Leonard’s first pass of the night.

“I don’t think it was necessarily chaotic at all,” Notre Dame linebacker Jack Kiser said about the early circumstances. “I think if you look around at the sideline no one was concerned or anything. Everybody just knew, ‘Hey, we got to do our job,’ right?”

The situation got even more dire after Hoosier quarterback Kurtis Rourke found his favorite receiver, James Madison transfer Elijah Sarratt, down the left sideline for a 28-yard yard pickup on third down.

But the next play would be Indiana’s final play of the drive, as Notre Dame safety Xavier Watts picked off Rourke, and by the next time the Hoosiers touched the football they were down 7-0.

Watts led the nation in interceptions in 2023, and his six in 2024 are second only to Cal’s Nohl Williams. Watts would also lead the Irish in tackles against Indiana with 10.

“Cover one,” Watts explained about his role on the play that resulted in the interception near the goal line. “Just over the top, reading the quarterback.”

For the Notre Dame defense—which gave up the sixth-fewest yards per game across all of the Football Bowl Subdivision this season—it was more of the same for most of the opening round of the College Football Playoff.

Indiana had six drives that lasted six or fewer plays and resulted in no points, excluding the 1-play drive that ended because of halftime. They did not have more than 200 yards of offense until there was almost 2:00 to go in the game.

If there was a drive that typified Notre Dame’s defensive play, it may have been IU’s first possession of the second half. The Hoosier defense had just forced a 3-and-out for the Irish, but they had to start from their own 12-yard-line.

On first down, Rourke dropped back to throw, only to be sacked by veteran defensive lineman Rylie Mills. After a Notre Dame offside penalty, IU running back Myles Price was only then able to find two more yards. On third down Rourke got sacked again, this time by Young all the way back to the 3-yard line. IU punter James Evans punted from his own end zone on the next play.

The total of 278 yards IU gained against Notre Dame was the third-fewest the Hoosiers achieved this fall, above only their efforts against Michigan and Ohio State.

Even when the Hoosiers were operating with backup quarterback Tayven Jackson against Washington, they went over 300 yards of offense and over 30 points in the game.

The stats for IU against Notre Dame could have been a good bit worse, had it not been for a frenetic finish in which IU scored two touchdowns on drives of 76 and 50 yards within a span of 62 seconds in the final 1:27.

Notre Dame defensive coordinator Al Golden wasn’t worried about how the game finished and took most the responsibility for the results upon himself.

“I’m not worried about the end of the game,” he said. “There’s things that we can learn from it. Obviously we’ve got to finish better and I’ve got to make some calls there, but at that point, I just didn’t think continuing to show elaborate pressures in that situation was to our benefit.”