Back in the 1950s, part of a bygone era when freshmen were ineligible to play and even well-established head coaches owned regular houses on regular streets in regular neighborhoods, college football still had something of an Indiana-Notre Dame rivalry.
And even if, in truth, it hardly was a rivalry at all — the Irish always beat the Hoosiers — at least the schools still played each other fairly regularly.
But the 1958 game, the sixth matchup of that decade, would be the last of its kind until 1991. And if you can believe it, there hasn’t been one since. It took the College Football Playoff to bring No. 10 Indiana and No. 7 Notre Dame together (7 p.m. Friday, Ch. 7, ESPN) for only the second time in 66 seasons.
Half that long ago — 33 years — coach Bill Mallory, quarterback Trent Green and the Hoosiers bused 199 miles up Highway 31 to take on coach Lou Holtz, quarterback Rick Mirer and the Irish and lost 49-27. Those teams would end up in the Copper and Sugar bowls, respectively, the concept of a 12-team major-college playoff beyond the imagination.
The Hoosiers have had only five winning seasons since then — one-fifth as many as the Irish — but this time can match the state heavyweights with a best-in-school-history 11-1 record. Also, this time they’re flying. Times have changed even at IU, which recently threw $72 million at much-buzzed-about coach Curt Cignetti to lock him in long-term.
It will be frigid at Notre Dame Stadium. Snow might fall on the first on-campus game in the playoff’s 11-year history. In a college football postseason that has more hype than any before it, it will be a rousing night no matter the weather nor the fact that — after 66 years of the Irish and Hoosiers being football strangers — a good many Indianans don’t know their Moose Krause from their George Taliaferro.
There are reasons to believe the game could set a tense, exciting tone for the playoff by coming down to a close finish. We can boil it down to a pair of them based on, broadly speaking, each team’s greatest offensive strength.
The Irish run the ball ruthlessly. Quarterback Riley Leonard punishes defenses with 5.8 yards per carry, and backs Jeremiyah Love and Jadarian Price come in at 7.1 and 7.3. As a trio, they average three rushing touchdowns per game. But there’s only one defense in all the land that has given up fewer than 1,000 yards on the ground this season, and guess whose it is? Indiana’s. Its average of 70.8 yards surrendered leads the nation by a country mile.
“You’ve got to be aggressive [and] establish a new line of scrimmage when you’re running the ball,” Irish coach Marcus Freeman said. “That’s a mindset and mentality we have to have.”
The Hoosiers throw the ball with extraordinary effectiveness. Quarterback Kurtis Rourke has completed better than 70% of passes and heads into the playoff ranked No. 1 nationally in efficiency rating (181.38). But guess whose defense ranks No. 1 in both completion rate allowed (48.7%) and efficiency (94.10)? Notre Dame’s.
It’s strength vs. strength both ways. Is there anything better?
Each team is partly defined by three terrible hours, too.
In just its second game, Notre Dame lost to Northern Illinois 16-14 in what endures as the upset of the season.
“I would be lying if I said I don’t think about that loss,” Freeman said.
Indiana took a 10-0 record to Ohio State and got drilled 38-15, with breakdowns and gaffes that were entirely uncharacteristic.
“I think our guys have learned from that and will be better in a hostile environment than we were on that particular day,” Cignetti said. “At the end of the day, it’s just football. The game’s going to be won or lost between the white lines.”
There’s no better place for the best two teams in any state to run into each other.
Pick: Notre Dame, 27-20.