SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Curt Cignetti paraphrased Lou Holtz and Marcus Freeman quoted Curt Cignetti. It’s just that neither head coach was entirely familiar with the other after No. 7 Notre Dame was bracketed against No. 10 Indiana in the opening game of the College Football Playoff.
That will change in the coming days as one program rides the wave of unexpected success into the postseason while the other hasn’t quite met the minimum requirements to count this year as a full step forward.
Cignetti said he caught himself looking around Memorial Stadium on Sunday, thinking about the progress made since he took the Indiana job after moving from James Madison. The Hoosiers went 3-9 before going all-in with Cignetti, who led Indiana to an 11-1 record that earned him a contract extension by mid November.
“Wow, we’ve accomplished a lot in 12 months But that’s all in the past,” Cignetti said. “What are you gonna do now? Lou Holtz.”
The famous Holtz quote is “What’s important now,” which he reduced to “WIN” in acronym form. But the point stood for Indiana just as well as it did for Notre Dame, even if the upward growth from Freeman in his third year is incremental compared to Cignetti in his first. When asked about the moves made in Bloomington, Freeman said he’d yet to go deep on the Hoosiers or their head coach, but he’d already begun the research.
GO DEEPER
Indiana’s Curt Cignetti has ignited a fire: ‘This guy is just different’
“I took a minute and Googled him and looked at some of the things he’s done in the past at his other places, and he’s won everywhere he’s been,” Freeman said. “So, he’s done a great job, and we expect a great opponent.”
It was a nod to Cignetti’s introductory news conference almost a year ago when he said, “It’s pretty simple. I win. Google me” — at a place that had won the least in Big Ten history. Regardless, Sunday marked the beginning of a back-and-forth between two programs that have played just once in the past 66 years, a 49-27 Notre Dame win in South Bend in 1991 that marked the first home game of the NBC contract.
The winner will face No. 2 Georgia in the Sugar Bowl on Jan. 1.
For Freeman, the opening game of the Playoff on Dec. 20 offers a Friday night examination of his program in a television window without competition. Whatever the Irish show should include running back Jeremiyah Love (knee) and defensive tackle Howard Cross III (ankle) after the former went out of the USC game and the latter hasn’t played since Florida State four weeks ago. Linebacker Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa remains out with a knee injury suffered against Army.
The Irish weren’t going to be at full strength anyway, considering the season-ending injuries to cornerback Benjamin Morrison (hip), defensive end Jordan Botelho (knee), defensive end Boubacar Traore (knee) and center Ashton Craig (knee), but they have been playing their current hand for more than a month. It’s been a winning one, with Notre Dame winning 10 in a row. The Irish are the only team in the country ranked in the top five of both scoring offense and scoring defense. Indiana is one of four ranked in the top 10 in both.
“We’ve always had a goal of reaching our full potential, and that doesn’t change,” Freeman said. “And our mindset is to prepare in a way that, on Friday, when we play, we’re ready to play at the highest level we can, and we’re prepared to play against a really good opponent.”
Notre Dame staged a postseason practice on Saturday, more than a day before learning of its next opponent. Freeman said he didn’t watch much of conference championship weekend, checking out Georgia-Texas and some of the night games before shutting it down. He tried not to overthink the opponent before learning its identity, considering the Irish had their own work to get completed. Notre Dame held its season-ending awards ceremony on Friday night and the staff has been scouting the transfer portal to boost next year’s roster after closing a 25-man recruiting class last week.
GO DEEPER
Notre Dame made a signing day splash in California to change perception of its class
Indiana was one of the few teams Notre Dame knew it could draw. It’s not an SEC program heading north for a potential snow game. It’s not an opposing fan base likely to stay out of Notre Dame Stadium either, if proximity means much of anything.
“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 in Notre Dame Stadium, and our crowd, it’s going to be crazy. I can’t wait for it.”
In less than two weeks, that moment will arrive. Notre Dame will know Indiana and Indiana will know Notre Dame. The same back and forth will apply to the two head coaches, both trying to move in the same direction even if the path there couldn’t be more different. Freeman was hired by Notre Dame at 35 years old. Indiana didn’t tab Cignetti until he was 62, after head coaching stops at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Elon and James Madison.
The road Cignetti travelled to this point deserves recognition. For Freeman, the path needs to have a few more mile markers before Notre Dame’s head coach can look around his home stadium and savor what he’s accomplished. Maybe throw in a Lou Holtz quote, too.
For now, Notre Dame is an incomplete assignment. But Freeman believes the Irish will find the answers.
“As far as this season, we wanted to obviously make it to the Playoff, but we understand that this team has an opportunity to do some great things,” Freeman said “We just have to focus on really giving ourselves the best opportunity to do that, and that’s in how you prepare physically and tactically for a game. And that’s what we got to do.
“And so at some point, we will look back and say, ‘Wow, look what we accomplished this season.’ But right now, I think we’re all just focused on preparing for this next opponent.”
GO DEEPER
Who’s in the College Football Playoff? How all 12 teams got here — and what to expect
(Top photos of Marcus Freeman and Curt Cignetti: Michael Reaves, Jason Mowry / Getty Images)
