Indiana’s Curt Cignetti explains the late point in the CFP loss to Notre Dame

On December 21, 2024By Littum

Indiana’s The Cinderella season under first-year coach Curt Cignetti ended Friday night with the 10th-seeded Hoosiers falls at no. 7 seed Notre Dame in the first College Football Playoff game on campus.

While Indiana made some mistakes in the 27-17 defeat – most notably an interception at the 2-yard line that resulted in a Jeremiyah Love 98-yard touchdown – the final score was largely a result of being outplayed and outmaneuvered by Fighting Irish.

However, there was a moment in the fourth quarter that raised questions among fans watching the game. Facing fourth-and-11 at the Notre Dame 48 and trailing 20-3, Cignetti elected to punt the ball back to the Fighting Irish, despite only 10:34 remaining on the clock.

ESPN announcers Sean McDonough and Greg McElroy were confused by Cignetti’s decision when they called the play in real time.

Speaking to reporters after the game, Cignetti said he “didn’t want to gamble” but couldn’t rationalize going for it on fourth-and-11 based on what his offense had done to that point.

“I didn’t want to point. But we didn’t do anything offensively. And our defense struggled. That’s the only positive I could really draw was that our defense still struggled,” Cignetti said. “Because the offense was to do nothing. And I didn’t want to go fourth-and-10 because you just wish and hope: You have nothing to base it on, that you can convert fourth-and-10 at that time.”

Cignetti added that there was still time to win the game with a punt. In fact, the Hoosiers were able to score two touchdowns in the final 4:32 of the game — but those scores were largely erased after Notre Dame took said punt and went on to score a touchdown to extend its lead to 27-3, while they ate 5:44 off the game clock.

Here is Cignetti’s full response:

The Indiana offense finished the game with 278 total yards, 17 first downs and a paltry 4-of-12 third-down conversion rate.

The Hoosiers also finished 1-for-1 on fourth down — although that happened on fourth-and-1 at the Notre Dame 37-yard line with 47 seconds left in the game.