Indiana vs. Notre Dame: College Football Playoff Q&A with One Foot Down

The Hoosiers take on the Irish on their turf on Friday. Our friends at One Foot Down stopped by to talk some ball.

Indiana is set to take on Notre Dame this Friday at Notre Dame Stadium in South Bend in the program’s College Football Playoff debut.

With that in mind, we sat down with our friends at One Foot Down to talk some ball. Here’s what they had to say:

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Q: Marcus Freeman just got a big extension. How has he been received by the Fighting Irish faithful in his first few years on the job?

There are basically two schools of thought here.

As a person, Marcus Freeman is the most beloved Notre Dame head coach since Lou Holtz. He seems like a nice enough guy, typically shows humility and takes the blame when things go wrong, shows a willingness to learn and improve, and usually says the right things in interviews/press conferences, especially about Notre Dame itself. There were a number of things to dislike about Brian Kelly, but one that really seemed odd is how much he never really seemed to want to coach at Notre Dame and always seemed to complain about anything unique Notre Dame’s coach had to deal with on the job (e.g. academic restrictions in recruiting).

Freeman, on the other hand, has this whole mantra he emphasizes with his players and recruits that is “choose hard,” and he constantly talks about how all the unique aspects of Notre Dame — even the ones that seem more difficult to deal with — are selling points, not obstacles. Freeman seems to want to be there and work with whatever limitations the school puts on him (which honestly aren’t much these days, besides some basic academic restrictions), and so it’s been pretty easy to root for his success. With Kelly, it felt like fans had to try to rationalize their support of a guy who was clearly an asshole.

Also, my wife would tell you that it doesn’t hurt that Freeman is a handsome man, too. That always helps.

As a coach, I will say it’s been a bumpier ride for Freeman to be well-received by ND fans. We were pumped when they hired him because he was a dynamite recruiter and the players loved him, ensuring a strong continuation of a solid team culture Kelly had managed to build while limiting defections during the regime change. But as you can imagine, losing games to Marshall, Stanford, and Northern Illinois in your first few seasons will have a lot of fans worrying that the first-time coach was in over his head and not ready for the job. 19-7 over his first two years, with Gator and Sun Bowl victories, wasn’t horrible by any means — but eventually Irish fans expect to make the Playoff, compete for titles, etc. (even if they haven’t truuuuuly done so since the early ‘90s). Those are the expectations of the job.

This season was big for Marcus, bouncing back from that fluky NIU loss to win 10 straight (most of those in decisive fashion) and earning a Playoff berth that was essentially the low-bar goal for his third season on the job. Irish fans are pretty content with him for now and he got that extension that shows the school is content too, but fans could quickly turn on him if the team drops a Brian Kelly-esque postseason performance on Friday, or even in the next round if they make it there. We as fans just want to see a Notre Dame team actually look like they belong with other great teams on the biggest stage. That would be a huge step up from the 2013 BCS National Championship, 2018 Cotton Bowl, and 2020 Rose Bowl, where the Irish were outscored a combined 103-31 by Alabama and Clemson. WOOF.

Q: What’s Notre Dame’s overall identity as a program under Freeman? When you think of Marcus Freeman football, what three things come to mind?

Freeman is a defensive guy at heart, being a former linebacker and a former defensive coordinator, so I can say definitively the program’s identity under him is NOT a flashy, high-powered-passing-offense kind of program. His mentor is Jim Tressel, and his teams are very much built in a similar fashion to those OSU teams in the first decade of the 2000s.

So what three things specifically come to mind when I think of Freeman Football?

1. Trying to win in the trenches, first and foremost — Notre Dame’s strength has basically always been the offensive line, and so even though this year’s o-line started a bit inexperienced and lost a few starters between the spring and now, the group has really begun to come together and Freeman’s continued to rely on the big boys to power his offense. Defensively, they don’t have an elite group up front, but they are pretty deep and experienced, and have a couple guys in the middle in Howard Cross III and Rylie Mills who can really change the game when they’re playing well. Freeman is going to ride those two lines as far as they can take him.

2. Running the football — part of this is because the Irish are pretty mediocre at throwing it and have been that way for the entire Freeman era, but even if they had a better passing QB than Riley Leonard, Sam Hartman, or Drew Pyne, I think Freeman would still mostly focus on using a ridiculously deep stable of running backs (and a QB in Leonard who can really do damage with his legs as well) to just plow into defenses behind that offensive line he trusts so much. He wants to run the ball early and often and control the game with the ground game.

3. Having an athletic, fast defense that makes things reeeeeally difficult for opponents, especially in the passing game — from 2003 until 2017, the Irish really had only one good defense (2012 with Manti Te’o, Stephon Tuitt, etc.), and more often than not their defense was pretty poor. But in 2017, Brian Kelly hired some guy named Mike Elko to coordinate the defense, and a year later he was succeeded by some guy named Clark Lea, and suddenly ND was cranking out good defenses each year based on what those two built.

However, those guys weren’t exactly pulling in elite athletes to populate the defense with, and so it wasn’t until Freeman came along that things started to amp up somewhat in terms of depth of talent and how good these defenses could be. Freeman and his staff started landing guys who were faster, longer, and better athletes, and that’s how the Irish have ended up with one of the best secondaries in the country (even with star CB Benjamin Morrison out for the year), and how they have a young group of really athletic linebackers and lots of versatile d-linemen that can do a number of different things. This group isn’t perfect and they’ve lost a few starters to injury, but they still make opponents earn every inch of every scoring drive.

Q: What do you see as this group’s strengths and weaknesses? When they win games or individual plays, how do they do it? When they falter, what happened?

The team’s overall strength is defense, without question. They’re 6th in the country in yards per play, 3rd in scoring, tied for 9th in red zone score percentage, tied for 7th in 3rd down conversion percentage, and tied for 1st in turnovers gained — and a lot of that is driven by their pass defense. Granted, I will point out that the Irish haven’t faced many really good QBs this year. Kurtis Rourke will almost certainly be the best they’ve seen to-date. But the Irish are 1st in the country in QB rating allowed, 1st in completion percentage allowed, 2nd in yards per attempt allowed, tied for 4th in interceptions, tied for 1st in interceptions returned for touchdowns, and 7th in passes defended. And all of that has been done with All-American cornerback Benjamin Morrison out for about half the year.

The linebackers are pretty damn good (although many of them are young and still gaining experience) and as I mentioned, the defensive line often finds ways to get the job done even if they aren’t massive in size or littered with elite talent. The three levels of the defense combine really well in Al Golden’s system to stifle most opponents.

The defense isn’t perfect, though. They’re pretty average in stopping the run (34th nationally in yards per carry allowed) and because they lost their two best defensive ends early in the year, they don’t get a ton of sacks (2.5 per game, tied for 36th in the nation) and are not very good at picking up tackles for loss (88th in the country in that stat). Instead, they mostly just play really sound and fundamental defense, force teams into passing situations on 3rd down, and then choose that moment to bring some heat and force some risky passes that the secondary often bats down or even picks off. I will note, though, that USC found success picking on sophomore corner Christian Gray when he was left on an island in coverage a couple weeks ago. He eventually overcame it and made them pay, but he had a long day before that thanks to some talented USC receivers and the Trojans QB making some really nice throws to take advantage of his rough game.

Offensively, we’ve covered this for the most part — the offensive line, running backs, and Riley Leonard’s legs are what drive the unit. Mike Denbrock hasn’t gotten this offense humming quite as well as his LSU offense did with Jayden Daniels, Malik Nabers, and Brian Thomas Jr. (can’t imagine why), and so ND finds success by picking up chunks of yardage and moving the sticks with Jeremiyah Love and Riley Leonard primarily, and then with Jadarian Price hitting a home run every so often (he’s basically a boom-or-bust back but has several huge runs this year).

They falter when the opposing defense is able to largely corral Irish ball carriers on 1st and 2nd down and force Leonard to throw on 3rd-and-medium and 3rd-and-long. Forcing him to actually throw is key, as he can otherwise scramble and often pick up first downs on the ground. If IU can put a spy on him that limits his ability to do so, and make him throw to some very meh/disappointing receivers, they can find success forcing punts and getting the Irish defense back onto the field with hopes of wearing them down over the course of the game.

Q: Who are the players Indiana should be circling on a whiteboard in meeting this week?

Assuming he’s healthy (he injured his knee against USC and has been in a brace/wrap in practice), Jeremiyah Love is definitely the ultimate name to know on this team. This may sound like a hot take to anyone who isn’t an Irish fan, but I firmly believe he is the best running back in the country not named Ashton Jeanty. The sophomore is a big, strong back who’s excellent at breaking tackles, making himself skinny to fit through tiny slivers of holes, and then turning on the burners when he sees daylight and outrunning everyone else on the field. Oh, and he likes jumping over people too, which is pretty cool.

Xavier Watts is the next name that comes to mind — the All-American safety is an absolute stud at the back of the defense, excellent in run support while also being a very adept ball hawk (12 interceptions and 12 passes defended over the last two seasons).

Others I would like to mention:

• CB Leonard Moore — he’s a true freshman who had already forced an older player to transfer by passing him on the depth chart, and then when Morrison went down he’s stepped in as a starter and has been the best corner on the team. He’s a future All-American if he keeps up his trajectory (already a Freshman All-American this year with 35 tackles, 8 PD, 2 INT, and 2 FF)
• DT Howard Cross III — like Love, he has been hurt recently, but it sounds like he will be fully cleared for Friday. He’s not a massive guy for a defensive tackle, but he’s a super-senior with tons of experience and something scouts keep calling “violent hands.” He serves as the lynchpin of this Irish defense in the middle. He’s often the guy collapsing the pocket and forcing opposing QBs to throw it away or throw an interception — IU’s interior o-line will have their hands full with him
• NB Jordan Clark — a grad transfer from Arizona State, the son of former Steeler Ryan Clark has been a stud at the nickel all season and is a major key to how well this secondary has played so far this year
• LBs Jack Kiser and Drayk Bowen — Kiser is a wily vet who basically calls the defense for Al Golden from the field, and Bowen loves to lay the lumber and will be out there trying to knock some dudes in the cold, cold dirt on Friday night
• RB Jadarian Price — like I said, his big-play potential is huge. Just ask Texas A&M or USC
• QB Riley Leonard — This feels like a copout to say the QB is an important name to know, but as a runner he’s super dangerous and if he can be “on” throwing the ball, the IU defense may really struggle to get stops — how Leonard plays could ultimately decide this game
• TE Mitchell Evans + WRs Jaden Greathouse and Jordan Faison — the Irish receivers have been underwhelming, but these would be the best bets for guys who will make some plays…Evans is a stud tight end and a go-to target for Leonard, while Faison is a fast, shifty little lacrosse player (don’t tell Bill Belichick) and Greathouse is just the best all-around wide receiver on the team
• DE Bryce Young — the son of Bryant Young, this true frosh may make some plays on defense, but this is more a call-out for special teams — he’s blocked multiple kicks this year and could swing the momentum of the game if IU isn’t ready with their protections on field goals/punts

Q: What’s your personal fondest memory as a Notre Dame fan?

I have been brainwashed since birth to be an Irish fan by my parents, so I have tons of them (and unfortunately, as any Irish fan, I have countless more very not-fond memories of rooting for this stupid team over the years).

If we are only talking football, I don’t think you can top the memories made my senior year at ND, which was the 2012 season where the Irish went undefeated before getting absolutely run over by Eddie Lacy and Alabama in Miami. That season gave me tons of great moments, none better than the goal line stand in overtime against Stanford, in the pouring rain, to win that weekend’s College Gameday matchup. I think I leapt down ~8 bleacher rows in the student section while celebrating.

A close second would be every second of the trip down for the National Championship later that season (prior to kickoff, of course). Road tripping with all my best friends in my 2001 Buick LeSabre to spend multiple days on South Beach as a 21-year-old? That was pretty excellent, even with how the trip ended with that embarrassing game.

Those memories might win anyway, but if we are including all ND sports, the men’s hoops team has given me several good ones that compete for the top spot too:

• The Sweet 16 and Elite 8 games against Wichita State and that unbelievably loaded Kentucky team in 2015 — I went with a Kentucky fan buddy and we had a blast. That ND/UK game is still one of the best basketball games I’ve ever seen live
• Beating #1 Syracuse in 2012 and getting to rush the floor
• The Jerian Grant miracle that led to the 5-overtime win over Louisville

Q: Score prediction. Who wins on Friday and how?

ND fans are being way too cocky/overconfident for this one — I’m going to start by saying that.

Yes, I believe ND can and should win this game, especially at home – but acting like this IU team who’s been SHELLACKING everyone except Ohio State won’t show up for the biggest game in their program’s history is just foolish. I think these two teams aren’t that dissimilar, ND might just have a little more speed and athleticism. But they both have really good defenses, solid running games, veteran transfer QBs, etc.

I think IU scores early to make ND fans nervous and get the Hoosiers in the stadium rowdy, but the Irish defense settles from there, the ND offense starts moving the ball via their running backs and Leonard, and maybe some well-timed tight end action, and then the Irish eventually wear IU down and win this one by just over a touchdown in a game that was way closer than the final score, as the Irish add a score in the final minutes to ice* it.

I’ll say Notre Dame 31, Indiana 20.

*Pun unfortunately not intended.