SOUTH BEND, Ind. (WNDU/AP) – Jeremiyah Love tied a Notre Dame record with a 98-yard touchdown run and the Fighting Irish picked up their first College Football Playoff win in program history with a 27-17 victory over Indiana on a cold, brisk Friday night at Notre Dame Stadium.
The seventh-seeded Irish (12-1) won their 11th straight in the first CFP game ever played on a campus site while shutting down the highest-scoring team in the playoff bracket. No. 10 seed Indiana (11-2) finished with its second fewest points this season, and most of them came after the game was out of reach with less than two minutes left to play.
“There’s not many times in your life that you’re the first to do something, right?” said Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman after the game. “We’re the first group to play and win a playoff game at Notre Dame Stadium, so that’s something we’ll share for the rest of our lives.”
Indiana briefly had momentum early after picking off a tipped pass from Riley Leonard on Notre Dame’s second play from scrimmage, but the Irish got that momentum right back by picking off Hoosier quarterback Kurtis Rourke four plays later.
Notre Dame then took control on the very next play of the game, as Love scooted around the right side of Indiana’s defense, eluded one tackle and sprinted 98 yards down the sideline to make it 7-0. It was the longest run in CFP history, and it matched Josh Adams’ longest run in school history in 2015 against Wake Forest.
Notre Dame made it 14-0 on its next possession — a 16-play, 83-yard drive that ended with a 5-yard touchdown pass from Leonard to Jayden Thomas and took more than nine minutes off the clock.
Indiana never recovered after that, as Notre Dame’s defense took care of the rest. Until the final 1:27, the Irish allowed just one field goal.
“They took it to us. I thought their quarterback played really well, I thought their defense suffocated our offense till the last 1:50 or whatever,” said Indiana head coach and AP Coach of the Year Curt Cignetti. “They won, they deserved to win. We didn’t play our best game, but they had a lot to do with that tonight.”
Notre Dame advances to the quarterfinals of the CFP, where the Irish will meet No. 2 seed Georgia in the Sugar Bowl on New Year’s Day. Georgia is 3-0 all-time against Notre Dame, but starting quarterback Carson Beck is unlikely to play for the Bulldogs after injuring his elbow in the SEC championship game, ESPN reports.
“We’re just trying to stay alive and play as many games as we can because we love the game, love preparing for it and we love representing this university,” Leonard said. “There’s no place like Notre Dame. This is why you come here, this is why I came here — to play for a (national) championship.”
Leonard was 23 of 32 with 201 yards and one touchdown through the air. He scored a 1-yard TD run late in the fourth, giving him 15 rushing touchdowns this season and breaking Notre Dame’s season record by a quarterback (previously held by Brandon Wimbush).
Love finished with eight carries for 108 yards. Jordan Faison caught seven passes for 89 yards to lead the Irish in receiving.
Indiana’s magical season comes to an end after setting a single-season school record for wins. It was a remarkable turnaround for the Hoosiers, who won three games a year ago and only nine in the last three seasons combined, in Cignetti’s first season at the helm of the program.
“No one’s as disappointed as I am, but sometimes you’re going to have a disappointment and you have come back from it,” Cignetti said. “This team accomplished things no other Indiana team did.”
The Irish now lead the all-time series against IU with a 24-5-1 overall record. Indiana’s last win over the Irish, a 20-7 victory in Bloomington, came all the way back on Oct. 21, 1950. The Hoosiers haven’t won at Notre Dame since 1898.
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