Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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BLUEGOLDONLINE.COM FEBRUARY 2025 23 NOTRE DAME RUSHING OFFENSE: B+ You can't say, "But half of Notre Dame's 193 rushing yards came on one play!" and use it as a justification for why the Fighting Irish rushing game was "bad." That one play is very much a part of the total, a part of this grade, so it deserves the opposite treatment. It deserves to be highlighted for great blocking and spectacular speed on sopho- more tailback Jeremiyah Love's part. Sure, the rest of the night was pretty rough for Notre Dame on the ground. This Indiana team went into the game as the No. 1 rushing defense in college football, though, and the Irish ran for 193 yards. Nobody else on Indiana's schedule went for more than 140. Much credit to Love for being a gamebreaker, but a lot of due goes to the offensive line for winning up front for much of the night and not getting bul- lied by an Indiana team that has plenty of playmak- ers in the front seven. Four of senior quarterback Riley Leonard's runs went for first downs, too, and his final attempt was a 1-yard touchdown that effectively iced the game. He never ran for more than 8 yards on any of his scampers, but the little gains added up in a big way. NOTRE DAME PASSING OFFENSE: B+ Leonard's best throw in a Notre Dame uniform was probably his last attempt of the game. He hit sophomore wide receiver Jordan Faison in stride over the middle to get the Irish down to the 1-yard line. Leonard ran in his rushing score two plays later. Leonard completed 23 of 32 throws for 201 yards with 1 touchdown and 1 interception. The pick came on a tipped ball at the line of scrimmage. Tip your cap to the Indiana defensive line on that one. Otherwise, you take 200 yards and a completion percentage of better than 70 percent all day from Leonard. Faison had what might've been the best effort from a Notre Dame pass catcher all season. He was targeted 10 times and had a career-high 7 passes catches for 89 yards. In typical Notre Dame fashion, nine other players caught at least one pass. Leonard had enough time to distribute for the most part, and he did so efficiently. NOTRE DAME RUSHING DEFENSE: A+ Indiana ran for 81 sack-adjusted yards on 3.4 yards per carry. That was in the ballpark of what Michigan and Ohio State did to the Hoosiers earlier this year. Translation: this Notre Dame defense is on par with the upper echelon of the Big Ten's traditional pow- ers even in the area where the Irish have not been elite defensively this season — stopping the run. Indiana tried both Wake Forest transfer Justice Ellison (11 carries for 37 yards) and James Madison transfer Ty Son Lawton (10 carries for 34 yards). Nei- ther of them got going, and that's a testament to Notre Dame's pursuit of ball carriers at all levels, from the defensive line to the linebackers to the secondary. NOTRE DAME PASSING DEFENSE: A Kurtis Rourke threw for 215 yards, but 121 of that total came on Indiana's final two drives. The first of those started when the Hoosiers were down 27-3. Take it from Notre Dame defensive coordinator Al Golden how much those 121 yards and the 14 points they produced mattered. "We had the game in control the whole game, so I'm not worried about the end of the game," Golden said. "There's things that we can learn from it. Obviously we've got to finish better and I've got to make some calls there, but at that point, I just didn't think continuing to show elaborate pressures in that situation was to our benefit, to be quite honest with you." He's 100 percent right. When it mattered most, the Notre Dame passing defense was really good and had Rourke in a mental pretzel. SPECIAL TEAMS: B Mitch Jeter had a kick blocked, again, but he also made field goals of 49 and 33 yards. He needed to see those go through and he did. The 49-yarder was especially important, both because of the length and the situation when it was made — in the final 10 seconds of the first half to give Notre Dame a 14-point lead, 17-3. COACHING: A+ Only five teams in Notre Dame history have won 12 games. Marcus Freeman is the coach of one of them. Lou Holtz was at the helm for two and so was Brian Kelly. We're talking about an all-time coaching job from Freeman to take a 1-1 team that lost to Northern Illinois to 12-1 and a berth in the Sugar Bowl against Georgia. He's losing doubters with each passing victory. REPORT CARD BY TYLER HORKA Sophomore wide receiver Jordan Faison led Notre Dame with a career-high 7 catches for 89 yards against Indiana. PHOTO BY MICHAEL MILLER