Curt Cignetti Hoping For Snow in Playoff Game at Notre Dame

The Hoosiers shared thoughts on the potential for snow in South Bend, Ind., for Friday’s College Football Playoff game against Notre Dame.

Quarterback Kurtis Rourke threw for 349 yards and six touchdowns in the snow during Indiana's 66-0 win over Purdue. / photo via Indiana Athletics

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – It’s been a mild week for mid-December in southern Indiana, with temperatures mostly in the 40s and 50s. Any precipitation over the Indiana football practice field has been rain.

But after the Hoosiers’ charter flight to northwest Indiana for Friday’s College Football Playoff game at Notre Dame, that rain could turn into snow. As of Wednesday evening, AccuWeather.com forecasts snow flurries in South Bend throughout Friday morning and stopping around 2 p.m. ET. 

It’s not projected to snow the rest of the afternoon leading up to the 8 p.m. kickoff, but flurries are in the forecast again at 9 and 10 p.m. At kickoff, it’ll be 27 degrees with a real feel of 14 degrees, north-northwest winds at 12 miles per hour and wind gusts at 17 miles per hour. 

Indiana handled its first game in snowy conditions with ease, a 66-0 domination of Purdue (1-11) on Nov. 30 to cap off an 11-1 regular season. That performance gave coach Curt Cignetti confidence Indiana could handle whatever Mother Nature delivers Friday.

“I hope it snows a foot and a half. We have a Canadian quarterback,” Cignetti said Wednesday. “Did you see him throw the ball against Purdue? This guy grew up like in the frigid north. He looked pretty good to me that night. So I don't think it's going to bother him very much, and so much revolves around that guy, right?”

Rourke completed 23-of-31 passes for 349 yards and six touchdowns against the Boilermakers and didn’t appear to be fazed by the conditions. However, the Oakville, Ontario, native is less experienced playing in the snow than one might assume.

“I actually never played in snow, like when it was actually snowing,” Rourke said Tuesday. “I definitely played in some cold games in my college career, played at Buffalo last year. That was not fun. I always try to keep the mindset of not letting the environment affect me and going out and executing and playing.” 

“If I feel comfortable enough in what I'm wearing, there shouldn't be any issue in everything moving forward. I thought Purdue was a really awesome environment, having the snow fall down in the stadium. That was pretty cool. Snow games are pretty fun. Looking forward to it if that's the case.”

Rourke’s big performance in the Old Oaken Bucket rivalry game capped off an impressive season for the Ohio University transfer. He completed 70.4% of his passes for 2,827 yards, 27 touchdowns and just four interceptions across 12 games with the Hoosiers. 

That puts him seventh on Indiana’s single-season passing yardage leader board, with a possibility of surpassing Nate Sudfeld’s mark of 3,573 yards in 2015 if Indiana advances far enough in the playoffs. He takes pride in being one of few Canadian quarterbacks excelling in American college football.

“Football in Canada is definitely rising, but it's been hard to get exposure coming out of high school,” Rourke said. “So very lucky that my brother was excelling at Ohio already, so I had a foot in the door already and just an opportunity to show what I can do.” 

“But obviously growing up in Canada, playing the Canadian football rules and all that stuff, so that was a lot of fun. Just being able to be a Canadian player and knowing that I'm able to motivate and help the younger generation in showing that you can make it to different levels and that you can excel at different levels, I'm glad to be that part and hopefully I can be a good role model to a lot of aspiring Canadians, as well.”

Rourke has the highest passing grade (92.0) among quarterbacks in the College Football Playoff, per Pro Football Focus, and his 85.7 adjusted total quarterback rating ranks third nationally, behind Miami’s Cam Ward and Oregon’s Dillon Gabriel. Rourke finished ninth in Heisman Trophy voting, a special honor for the sixth-year senior.

“Really blessed and honored and thankful just to be in the conversation and be in the top 10 in the Heisman,” Rourke said. “A year ago around this time, I committed to come here, and I never would have thought that I could be in the top 10, and so that just means a ton. It's a tribute to everything, the coaches and the players around me to help me get to that point and get to this point, and just ready to continue this journey on.”

Indiana’s second snow game against an in-state foe is shaping up to be a much bigger challenge, though. Notre Dame earned the No. 7 seed in the College Football Playoff, defeating four ranked teams at the time of the game and losing at home to Northern Illinois on Sept. 7.

Fighting Irish coach Marcus Freeman knows the frequent lake-effect snow in South Bend, Ind., at this time of year can give his team a home-field advantage against certain opponents. Notre Dame has used that in part of its pregame hype videos this week.

Weather can’t be controlled, but noise can ☘️

1️⃣ week away.#GoIrish pic.twitter.com/mPc3WS1GxY

— Notre Dame Football (@NDFootball) December 13, 2024

That’s why he was hoping to see an SEC team, for example, not the weather-tested Hoosiers. 

“Shoot, man, if we could have chosen, I think you would want a team that maybe comes from 80 degree weather,” Freeman said. “But listen, we’ll have a home-field advantage just because of the first-ever playoff game at Notre Dame Stadium and our crowd, it’s gonna be crazy. I can’t wait for it.” 

“The weather obviously isn’t gonna give us a huge advantage with them not being too far south from here. But what a great storyline, what a great opportunity it’s gonna be to have two in-state teams playing each other in the first playoff game on a campus. It’s gonna be an exciting time and a great game.”

Cignetti was especially confident in Rourke’s ability to handle the elements, and he didn’t seem worried about potential snow.

“Everybody else will find a way to stay warm, but it's not a concern,” Cignetti said. “It's going to be cold. It's going to be windy. There could be snow on the ground. Both teams have to play on it. We've been practicing outside in the cold for a long time. We played in it against Purdue. When we started the game, there was snow on the turf. It was cold. It was windy. So we've been through it.”

Indiana’s leading receiver, Elijah Sarratt, was a big part of Rourke’s productivity against Purdue. He hauled in eight receptions for 165 yards and two touchdowns. Fellow wide receiver Myles Price has been a key part of the Hoosiers’ passing attack, and he had 42 all-purpose yards against the Boilermakers.

The Indiana receivers have a few strategies to deal with the cold, but said it’s mostly a mental hurdle. 

“Practice-wise, you can't really prepare for it. Cold is cold regardless,” Sarratt said. “I have a couple tricks, Vasoline maybe, look a little shiny out there. But the heated benches, they help out a lot. But you can't really do much. It's mind over matter at that point. Just got to go out there and play some football.”

“It’s gonna be cold. You gotta stay in the cold,” Price said. “It comes with it. I like to say it’s football weather, you know. It’s nothing you can do. … You gotta gear yourself for the cold. Ball comes your way, it’s the same mentality. You gotta come down with it.”

Snow or not, Friday represents arguably the biggest game in Indiana football history, with a national championship on the line down the road. It’s the last collegiate season for many Hoosiers, Rourke and Price included, which adds to the stakes. 

That has come to Rourke’s mind this week as he prepares for a Notre Dame defense that ranks third nationally with just 13.6 points allowed per game. And he’s using it to inspire his play, with no plans of it being his last game as a college quarterback.

“Really using it to motivate me even more than I already have to go out there, have fun, enjoy it,” Rourke said. “We'll talk about my last college game in four games.”

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