My Two Cents: Indiana Isn't Elite After All, But Being Pretty Good Beats the Alternative

Indiana had no answers for Notre Dame in the College Football Playoffs on Friday night, losing 27-17 in a game that wasn't nearly that close. Maybe the Hoosiers can't hang with the big boys, but they were pretty good in 2024 and brought life back to a very sick program.

Indiana coach Curt Cignetti steams along the sidelines during the Hoosiers' playoff loss to Notre Dame on Friday night. / Trevor Ruszkowski-Imagn Images

SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Notre Dame, a football blueblood, was a top-five team earlier this year, and they were No. 3 in the Associated Press poll heading into the playoffs. Ohio State, also blue, was ranked as high as No. 2 this season.

They are the only two teams to beat Indiana this season.

The Fighting Irish were the latest to do so, winning the first-ever on-campus College Football Playoff game on Friday night. They broke a long run early, played smothering defense and were energized by a huge — and loud —homefield crowd, which they earned in this new format. They were never really threatened in a 27-17 win that wasn't as close as it sounds. A wacky final minute-and-change can do that.

The naysayers out there will say that Indiana didn't belong, that they built their 11-win resume with a plate full of cupcakes. They will say they didn't beat anybody all year. The really mean ones, they'll say that the Hoosiers were frauds.

They will be wrong, of course. Because here's what we learned about the 2024 Indiana Hoosiers over the course of four months. They were a pretty good football team that was well-coached and played an exciting brand of football. They were much better than the last three Indiana football teams. They went 8-1 in the Big Ten, far better than the 2021-23 Hoosiers that went 3-24 in the league over that three-year period.

Indiana's only crime? It's that they aren't an elite football program. Is that really criminal?

All they are is pretty darn good. Maybe that's not good enough at most schools, but considering Indiana's horrific history, we'll take it.

They showed up in South Bend as a touchdown underdog, and they weren't supposed to beat a Notre Dame team that was on a 10-game winning streak and had outscored those 10 foes by a 44-13 average. The roll included wins over three ranked teams, Louisville, Army and Navy.

The Fighting Irish are good. Really good. In all phases. They won their first playoff game, and it won't surprise me if they win a few more. They get No. 2-seed Georgia next in the Sugar Bowl, and with starting quarterback Carson Beck out with an arm injury, the Bulldogs are very beatable.

Indiana didn't have to play a perfect game to win here Friday night, but they had to be pretty darn close. They weren't. The three keys to the game were avoiding giving up big plays, winning the third-down battle and putting pressure on a Notre Dame program that his its own postseason heartache history,

None of that happened.

Getting ahead early was paramount for Indiana, and they got a huge break on Notre Dame's first possession when quarterback Riley Leonard had a pass tipped and D'Angelo Ponds intercepted for the Hoosiers at the Notre Dame 41. Indiana got one first down to the 17, but then quarterback Kurtis Rourke, who looked tense and sped-up early, threw into double coverage, and he pass was picked off at the 2-yard line.

That was painful. What followed was even worse.

On Notre Dame's first play after the pick, running back Jeremiyah Love went left and broke a few tackles, and the skies opened down the sideline. He took off, and no Hoosier defender could catch him. He went 98 yards for a score.

Notre Dame quickly scored another touchdown to get ahead 14-0. Indiana's offense never got going. Rourke, who's been so good all year and finished ninth in the Heisman Trophy voting, never got going., He only had seven completions through the first three quarters, and padded his numbers in the fourth. He finished the night 20-for-33 passing for 215 yards and two TD passes in the final 1:25.

Indiana couldn't run the ball either. The Hoosiers had just 63 yards on the ground on 27 carries.

It wasn't what we were hoping for. But hope can be painful sometimes.

For years — decades, really — the only thing Indiana football was supposed to do was bide time on the calendar until basketball season rolled around. This year, we really appreciated Indiana making the playoffs and playing into late-December. It's been a wonderful distraction. Too bad they couldn't have kept playing until March.

We had a fall of sun-splashed sellout crowds at Memorial Stadium, which is something new. We have the promise of many more. Students learned to stay in their seats past halftime, and found out that second-half football can be fun.

We are in a moment in time when Indiana fans actually like their football coach. Curt Cignetti did exactly what he was hired to do, fix an ailing — OK, very sick — program. He did that, which is great.

Indiana was picked to finish 17th in the new 18-team Big Ten. Only Purdue was ranked behind them, checking in at No. 18 only because their was no lower number. (66 would have worked.) But those seven other teams that were supposed to beat Indiana? They all got beat — and beaten bad.

Lets not forget that Cignetti's first Big Ten road game was a 29-point win against UCLA at the iconic Rose Bowl. He also beat Northwestern on the road by 17 and Michigan State by 37.

Cignetti's Hoosiers beat the defending national champions (Michigan) and the national runner-up (Washington). They also beat Nebraska by 49 points on Homecoming in Bloomington.

This was a most enjoyable Indiana football season, and now it's over. So they're not elite. So what. No one expected them to be, not even the most ardent IU fans in their crimson-colored glasses. Indiana doesn't contend for national championships in football, but they gave it a shot. They made the playoffrs. That's awesome.

We'll gladly take all that Indiana football gave us in 2024. And, for a change, Indiana football fans can start a new hobby.

They can look forward to next season with hope and anticipation. And those eight months will seem to last forever. Aug. 30 can't get here soon enough.