College Football Playoff – First Round Takeaways, Analysis

After years of anticipation, the inaugural 12-team College Football Playoff kicked off in South Bend Friday night with a comfortable Notre Dame win over Indiana.

It was a wild first five minutes, and then Notre Dame slowly pulled away from the Hoosiers. Here are the key takeaways:

What just happened?

Irish running back Jeremiah Love broke out for an early 98-yard touchdown, Indiana blew some early scoring chances, and in front of a raucous South Bend crowd in the first CFP first-round home game, Notre Dame did to the Hoosiers what it has . done to almost every opponent in the last 11 games: win in the trenches and see an easy victory.

MVP (Most Valuable person) of this one? Notre Dame defensive coordinator Al Golden. He was one step ahead of IU playcaller Mike Shanahan all night. The Irish tested Hoosiers quarterback Kurtis Rourke’s patience early, forcing him to read “run” on most RPOs, and after Rourke got off to a poor start (1-for-6 with an interception), they dominated the run the rest of the way . Justice Ellison and Ty Son Lawton combined to rush 21 times for just 71 yards (they had 141 yards on 32 carries against Ohio State), and IU didn’t pass 200 yards until the final few minutes of the game. The Hoosiers still drove into Notre Dame territory on four of their first five drives, but got just one field goal from it.

Meanwhile, Notre Dame’s offense mastered the art of killing time. Riley Leonard completed 23 of 32 passes for just 201 yards, 44 on a single, late completion to Jordan Faison. He otherwise averaged just 7.1 yards per carry. completion, and Notre Dame’s rushers averaged just 2.9 yards per carry. carry outside of Love’s big burst, but the Irish went 7-for-13 on third downs and just kept controlling the clock. Indiana scored twice to make things respectable, but at worst this one was in the bag for the final 15 minutes.

Indiana was probably one of the top 12 teams in the country, but Notre Dame is one of the top eight. The Irish Advance.

---

Key statistics

• Total yards, first three quarters: Notre Dame 302, Indiana 102

• Yards per game, first three quarters: Notre Dame 5.8, Indiana 3.6

• Third down: Notre Dame 7-for-13, Indiana 4-for-12

• Jeremiyah Love (Notre Dame): 10 combined carries and receptions, 126 yards (12.6 per touch), one touchdown

• Jordan Faison (Notre Dame): 10 targets, 7 catches, 89 yards (8.9 per target)

• James Carpenter (Indiana): 7 tackles, 2 TFLs, 1 sack, 1 blocked field goal

• Jaiden Ausberry and Drayk Bowen (Notre Dame): 5 tackles, 3.5 TFLs, 2 QB hurries

• Xavier Watts (Notre Dame): 10 tackles, 0.5 TFL, 1 interception

---

Impact plays

In retrospect, this one was won with a 1-2 combination in the first five minutes.

1. After an early D’Angelo Ponds interception helped set up an Indiana scoring opportunity, IU’s Kurtis Rourke fumbled on a tight window throw and it was picked off by all-world ballhawk Xavier Watts at the Notre Dame 2.

2. On the next play, Love drove for the longest touchdown in CFP history (which was also tied for the longest play in Notre Dame history).

According to ESPN Analytics, Notre Dame’s win probability went from 60% to 83% in those two games. It passed 90% for good in the final minute of the first half and passed 95% early in the third quarter. The second half was largely drama-free, even as Indiana scored twice late.

---

See you next fall, Indiana

Perhaps the coolest story in college football ended the way most Cinderella runs in March Madness do: with a dumb performance. It happens. Indiana had some chances to make this interesting early, but didn’t execute well enough, and Notre Dame used the sleeper team.

Cignetti masterfully used the transfer portal to turn Indiana’s fortunes around, but the problem with loading through the portal is that once you do it, you have to keep doing it. The Hoosiers’ starting quarterback (Rourke), their two leading rushers, seven of their top nine receiving targets, three of their top six linemen and seven of the 11 leading tacklers on defense are seniors. (And that’s to say nothing of players like junior defensive end Mikail Kamara, who could turn pro.) This team made some magical memories, but next season’s Hoosier team is going to look very, very different. That doesn’t have to be a bad thing, but of course it will be difficult for next season’s team to reach the same heights.

Make no mistake though: this was a very good team. The debates always begin the moment an upstart falls: Did they deserve it? Did they just get there because of a weak schedule? Was it fraud all along? However, we don’t have to do that. The Hoosiers entered this game ranked 10th in both SP+ and FPI and will finish the season having beaten every team ranked below them while losing to the two teams above them. They were handed a schedule with Ohio State, both participants in last season’s national title game, and three other teams that won at least eight games last season. It’s not their fault that some of those teams turned out to be duds this season. All the Hoosiers did was win 11 of 12 regular season games, 10 games by at least 14 points. It was magical and it lit up Bloomington. It’s an amazing story.

---

What’s next?

Steel yourself for the rock game in all Sugar Bowl rock games. Notre Dame now heads to New Orleans for a Jan. 1 matchup with a Georgia team that, for all its inconsistency, is physical as hell. Those forgotten Indiana tackles that turned 5-yard passes into 9-yard passes? Georgia won’t miss that many, and if Riley Leonard averaged 8.7 yards per carry. end Friday night with the short passes he threw, he might have averaged 5.7 against the Dawgs. Love burst aside, Notre Dame got away with a bunch of grunts against the Hoosiers, and it’s going to be a lot tougher in the next game.

That said, the Irish also just dominated in Rourke, a quarterback who has proven infinitely more than Gunner Stockton to date. All indications are that Georgia will have to start the unproven sophomore after Carson Beck’s injury in the SEC Championship game. Stockton filled in for Beck against Texas and began his game 4-for-5 for 43 yards. But his last 13 pass attempts netted just 15 yards, including two sacks. Georgia will have had more than three weeks to prepare Stockton for the biggest game of his life, but he is officially the least proven quarterback left in the CFP, and Notre Dame’s pass defense — which entered the Indiana game ranked first in pass success rate allowed, second in rush rate and fourth in yards allowed per carry. dropback — looked determined in the first round. While the Irish offense doesn’t do a ton of damage, Georgia’s might not do much either. Here comes one hell of a war of attrition. Notre Dame has opened as a 1.5-point favorite, according to ESPN BET.