Nick Saban outlines keys to victory in Notre Dame vs. Indiana

Ahead of the in-state matchup between No. 7 Notre Dame and No. 10 Indiana in the College Football Playoff, Nick Saban shared his thoughts on the game before kickoff tomorrow in South Bend.

Saban noted a few aspects for the Fighting Irish vs. the Hoosiers while on ‘The Pat McAfee Show’ on Thursday. He began with Notre Dame as he thinks they need to play a balanced game in order to advance out of the opening round at home against IU.

“Well, I think number one is, you know, Notre Dame has to play really good, complimentary football,” said Saban. “That’s what they’ve done all year. They really don’t blow people out.”

The Fighting Irish have proven to be a steady operation on both sides of the ball through their finish at 11-1. Both their offense and their defense finished third respectively in the nation in points scored and allowed to post an average margin of victory of 26.2, which was second most in the country to only…Indiana, ironically.

As for the Hoosiers, Saban says they have to find a way to not let their offense struggle because of what Notre Dame is going to bring defensively. He thinks, if they can stay on schedule, they’ll have a much likelier chance of winning despite what some think.

“I think, from Indiana’s standpoint, they’re going to be able to have to handle the pressure of Notre Dame’s defense. They pressure 46% of the time. First down, second down, third down – it doesn’t matter. They want to try to create a lot of negative plays, a lot of positive down and distance situations for their defense then take advantage of pressuring you on third down,” Saban pointed out. “If Indiana can’t handle that, that’s going to be a problem. But when people have handled it, like USC did, Notre Dame struggled a little bit on defense and had to count on turnovers to be able to survive.”

“I think Indiana is probably better than most people think,” said Saban. “I think that, you know, they’ve got a really good opportunity if they can handle the pressure on offense and keep the ball away from Notre Dame, who can run it probably better than they can throw it.”

Indiana was above average in protecting against such scenarios. Their quarterbacks were sacked just 1.5 times a game and were tackled for loss at 4.1 times per game, although almost a third of those tackles came against Michigan and Ohio State. They also stayed ahead of downs at 6.7 yards a play with 22.4 first downs a game and a conversion rate of 46.3 when at third down.

Notre Dame and Indiana will begin the first-ever expanded playoff tomorrow night. As for who wins it to play Georgia in the quarterfinals, though, it could come down to some of these keys from Saban.