The battle for Indiana is on.
IU football, for the first time ever, is playing in the College Football Playoff. The Hoosiers (11-1, 8-1 Big Ten) are in as the No. 10 seed, in the new 12-team bracket, and will face No. 7 seed Notre Dame (11-1) in South Bend, Ind. on Friday, Dec. 20.
Here’s a collection of statistics and figures that provide insight into Indiana’s opponent for the biggest game in program history.
Notable team stats
- Notre Dame is one of the best teams in the country in terms of turnover margin. The Fighting Irish are tied for the second-best margin in the nation, behind only James Madison, at plus-16. They’re also tied with Texas for the most takeaways in the country, with 28. IU isn’t far off at plus-15, and the Hoosiers have committed only eight turnovers all year, which is tied for third-fewest in the country.
- The Irish rank 40th in the country in total offense, at 421.3 yards per game. IU’s defense is second in the country with just 244.8 yards allowed per game.
- ND’s offense is much stronger on the ground than over the air. The Irish rank 10th in the nation in rushing offense, with 224.8 yards per game. But they’re 101st in passing offense, at just 196.4 yards per game. For context, Indiana is 29th in passing offense at 265.2 yards per game.
- The Irish get a lot of chunk plays in the run game. They’ve had 16 rushing plays for at least 30 yards this season, which is tied for third in the nation. Their 10 rushing plays for at least 40 yards is tied for fourth in the country. And their seven rushing plays of 50 or more yards is tied for second.
- Notre Dame is ninth in the nation in total defense, allowing 296.8 yards per game. Indiana is 24th in total offense, at 438.8 yards per game.
- ND has the worst team field-goal percentage in the country this season. The Irish are just 8 for 18 on field goals this year, and they’ve had three different players attempt kicks. That could certainly be a factor in a close game.
- Notre Dame ranks ninth in the country in red-zone defense, as opponents score on 73.3 percent of its trips inside the 20. IU has the nation’s third-best red-zone offense, scoring 93.9 percent of the time.
- The Irish are just 112th in the nation in kickoff return average, at 16.9 yards per return. They don’t allow much going the other direction on kick returns, though — ND is seventh in the country at 15.6 opponent yards per kick return. Punt returns are similar: Notre Dame averages 5.4 yards per return (104th in the nation) and allows 4.7 yards per return to opponents (21st).
Notable player stats
- Notre Dame running back Jeremiyah Love finished 42nd in the country with 949 rushing yards on the season, and his 15 rushing touchdowns tied him for 13th.
- ND quarterback Riley Leonard’s running ability is a big weapon. He rushed for 721 yards on the year — including sack yardage — with 14 touchdowns. Only eight quarterbacks in the country ran for more yards than Leonard this season, and only five QBs scored more rushing touchdowns.
- ND’s leading receiver, senior Beaux Collins, has just 427 yards on the season with two touchdowns. He’d be IU’s third-leading receiver, behind Elijah Sarratt and Omar Cooper Jr.. Five Hoosiers have more receiving touchdowns than Collins.
- Irish safety Xavier Watts has five interceptions this season, which is tied for third-most in the country by an individual player. Indiana defensive back Amare Ferrell is right behind Watts with four picks. Watts is also tied for 11th in the country with 14 passes defended.
- Indiana edge rusher Mikail Kamara has more tackles for loss than any defender Notre Dame has faced this season.
- ND defensive lineman Rylie Mills leads the Irish with 6.5 sacks, which is tied for 50th in the country.
Quotes
Curt Cignetti on Notre Dame and the preparation process for the game:
“What stood out in the little bit I’ve seen is a really good football team that’s very disciplined and very well coached and executes at a high level. In terms of our preparation, normally this would be like sort of like when you have an off week and the coaches dig deep, and we install some with the players, and then the next week we’re more aggressive in our install. We’re doing a balancing act between recruiting and preparation. So we’re going to have to make the most of every day, but we are going to turn sort of the portal recruiting, official visit piece off Saturday around noon so that Sunday, which is really like a Monday now, it’s all football, it’s all prep for the coaches.”
Aiden Fisher on Notre Dame’s offense:
“He (Leonard) is a great player. Really good O-line, really good backs. Quarterback is really good, receivers are solid, tight ends are really good too. Definitely got a challenge coming up, but when you look back at the teams we’ve played, we’ve seen a lot of pocket passers, we’ve seen those mobile guys as well. We’ve just got to take into account we’ve got to be ready for option plays, designed quarterback run, stuff like that, just making sure we’re not falling asleep if he pulls the ball.
Kurtis Rourke on preparing for a postseason game for the first time:
“Last week was a good kind of decompress week and kind of look over the season and the highs and lows and where I can get better individually and then as a team. Then also kind of just wanted to stay in the rhythm as well. We practiced three times last week, and I wanted to take every single rep, and I wanted to make sure that I stay in the rhythm of playing a game against speed and not take any time off kind of that way because I knew that practice went very long and I’d still be able to get my rest time and everything like that. Then preparing for game in postseason, I haven’t prepared to play, but I’ve definitely prepared for bowl games before, just haven’t had the opportunity to play in one. So extra excitement going into this one.”
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