Indiana and Kurtis Rourke have been on a tear at the peak of their extraordinary season. Their lone loss came against the Buckeyes. They gave it to their only ranked opponent before the playoff contention. But ever since, Curt Cignetti taught his boys to take care of their business in every game without fail. Kurtis, leading the storied offense, lived up to the hype. A completion rate of 70.4 per cent for 2827 yards and 27 touchdown passes. He only scored four interceptions in the season. But Adan Breneman’s expert lens warns you not to sleep on the massive Notre Dame’s biggest claim to fame.

The promising pocket passer will have another chance to add a stack to his card as Indiana prepares to fight Notre Dame in the first round of the playoffs. Can they be handed a sure-shot victory prediction? Well, even if they head as a favorite, the Cignetti-Kurtis duo needs to take note of some major pitfalls. Brenemen put out his thoughts straight. 

”I think Kurtis Rourke will play well in this game, but I give that with a big but there. Notre Dame’s going to win this game because of how physical Notre Dame is in the trenches and how good Notre Dame’s defense is.  There is a lot of talk in football about the middle eight in the game. Middle eight is the final four minutes in the first half and the first four minutes in the second half. Such a critical time of the game.”

Sure, Curt Cignetti lived nothing short of a magical season in his first year at Bloomington, with the MAC conference MVP award winner in 2022 becoming his biggest weapon. But come on, Notre Dame has also won its last 10 games in a row. Despite not having the most talented roster around, the Irish are toppling their opponents back-to-back with their playing-together mentality. The beautiful harmony in the team made it easier for Freeman to walk past any opponent with beaming confidence.

Their most lethal weapon? The Fighting Irish just know how to get a hold of the momentum when their opponents need it the most. For instance, at the end of the first half, in the dying minutes of the second quarter when, a team can gain momentum by ending the half with a score and getting the possession to start the second half.

”Notre Dame outscored the opponents at home from 52 to nothing at the middle eight and haven’t given up a touchdown; the efficiency and those pivotal moments from Notre Dame, I think, will overpower Indiana’s tempo,” Breneman left Indiana on the edge. 52-0 in those crucial eight minutes. That’s what Marcus Freeman’s team has been doing all season. It adds to their fire power that they’d be hosting the Hoosiers. 

But wait, the team that came from a 3-9 to 11-1 and finished second in the powerful Big Ten to Oregon (13-0) can’t just give up to the negation. Their faith is all but fragile.

Curt Cignetti is heading to the playoffs with a win-or-bust mentality 

The extreme rigidity will be a concern in the Notre Dame stadium as the entire south bend falls victim to the December’s snowfall, but the Hoosiers had had that before, too, when they faced No. 2 Ohio State. Of course, the weather was a lot milder at that time. Cignetti’s squad at least had a taste of it. It didn’t go well as they suffered their only season defeat (38-15) to the Buckeyes. But, thankfully, it is not working as a trauma in their upcoming endeavor in the same field, rather, it served as a wake-up call for Indiana football.

Curt Cignetti, in a reflective interview with ESPN’s Pat McAfee, noted how they won’t go to a silent count in the game ever again after it cost them their undefeated season streak on November 23rd.

”We didn’t handle the crowd noise very well, had some communication breakdowns in pass protection, and couldn’t play offense for a while there because we couldn’t protect the quarterback.” What is Curt Cignetti talking about? All the things that went wrong for the Hoosiers against the Buckeyes. That is the only game when his team was truly outplayed. This time around, he’s resolute to change things.

”We are here to win it. We don’t want a participation medal,” Cignetti set the bar high for Kurtis and the team.