Riley Leonard passed for 201 yards and one touchdown and rushed for another score as No. 7 seed Notre Dame held on for a 27-17 win against No. 10 seed Indiana in the first round of the College Football Playoff tournament on Friday night in South Bend, Ind.
Jeremiyah Love rushed for a 98-yard touchdown and tallied 126 total yards for Notre Dame (12-1). The Fighting Irish advanced to the CFP quarterfinals, where they will face No. 2 seed Georgia on Jan. 1 in the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans.
“It’s all about finding a way to get another week,” Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman said. “It wasn’t easy. (Indiana) didn’t quit until the end of the game. We’re going to enjoy this one, and we’ve earned ourselves another one.”
Kurtis Rourke completed 20 of 33 passes for 215 yards, two touchdowns and one interception for Indiana (11-2). Myles Price and Omar Cooper Jr. each caught a touchdown pass.
“All good things come to an end,” first-year Hoosiers coach Curt Cignetti said. He added, “(We’ve) set the foundation for hopefully what’s to come.”
Freeman added, “I told Coach Cignetti that’s a heck of a football team we faced.”
Notre Dame outgained Indiana 394-278, including a 193-63 advantage on the ground.
Notre Dame opened the scoring with 10:57 to go in the first quarter.
The Fighting Irish got the ball on their own 2-yard line after All-America safety Xavier Watts picked off an errant pass from Rourke. Moments later, Love took a handoff, bounced off a defender and outraced the Indiana secondary for a 98-yard touchdown.
It was the longest rushing play in a CFP game, surpassing Ezekiel Elliott’s 85-yard touchdown run for Ohio State in 2015.
Notre Dame increased its lead to 14-0 with 12:52 left in the second quarter. Leonard hit Jayden Thomas on a play-action pass for a 5-yard touchdown.
Indiana pulled within 14-3 on Nicolas Radicic’s 34-yard field goal with 3:26 to go in the first half.
The Fighting Irish regained a 14-point lead with seven seconds left in the half on Mitch Jeter’s 49-yard field goal.
Jeter connected again, this time from 33 yards, to put Notre Dame on top 20-3 with 4:21 remaining in the third.
Leonard, who completed 23 of 32 passes and rushed for 30 yards, set the record for most rushing touchdowns by a Fighting Irish quarterback in a season with 15. He scored from the 1-yard line with 4:50 left in regulation, breaking a tie with Brandon Wimbush, who ran for 14 TDs in 2017.
Indiana notched its first touchdown with 1:27 remaining. Rourke connected with Price for a 7-yard score. Rourke converted a two-point conversion moments later with a pass to Elijah Sarratt to pull the Hoosiers within 27-11.
Cooper caught a 23-yard TD pass from Rourke with 25 seconds to go. The Hoosiers failed to convert a two-point conversion, and Notre Dame recovered an onside kick to seal the victory.
–Field Level Media
