SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Marcus Freeman spent his first two seasons as the Notre Dame coach chasing the playoff dream.

This year, he’s living it – at home.

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After closing the regular season on a 10-game winning streak and getting two weeks to prepare for the most meaningful postseason game of his career, Freeman is finally ready to lead the seventh-seeded Fighting Irish against 10th-seeded Indiana on Friday.

“We’ve been in the playoffs since Week 3,” Freeman said, alluding to their postseason hopes following the stunning loss to Northern Illinois. “Every game we play is a version of a playoff game in our minds. We have to continue to understand that you don’t have any more added pressure than you’ve had the previous 10.”

Except the Irish (11-1) know this one is different.

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Notre Dame hasn’t made a national championship run since 1988, its longest title drought since winning the school’s first in 1924. And unlike previous playoffs, the Irish will be playing the first game on campus in College Football Playoff history.

Just how unusual will this environment be?

It’s the first time Notre Dame has hosted a postseason game, the first time Notre Dame Stadium has hosted a Friday night game and the first time since 1990 that a Notre Dame home game has not been telecast by NBC.

Still, the Irish are doing what they can to make this seem like just another football week.

“The hardest thing throughout this whole process has probably been finals here at Notre Dame because that’s no joke,” quarterback Riley Leonard said. “Otherwise, it’s like a couple of bye weeks for us. We handle it the same way. Practice has been the same, the same recipe for success.”

But the stakes are significantly higher in this matchup between the two Indiana schools that have met just once since 1959. Notre Dame won 49-27 in 1991.

No. 9 Indiana (11-1) is the most improbable playoff entrant.

Associated Press Coach of the Year Curt Cignetti engineered an eight-game turnaround in his first season with the Hoosiers, setting a new single-season school record for victories while falling just a tiebreaker short of playing for its first Big Ten title since 1967.

The Hoosiers are scoring 43.3 points, the most of any playoff team, and have one of the FBS’ stingiest defenses, too. And even though Indiana failed its only test against a ranked foe, the Hoosiers believe that loss will help them do what most still believe impossible – reaching the Sugar Bowl for a quarterfinal game against No. 2 seed Georgia.

“It was a tough loss, but I think it was really important for us to have a game like that, to be tested and know what it takes to win these games,” quarterback Kurtis Rourke said, referring to the 38-15 loss at then-No. 2 Ohio State last month. “This is a win or go home kind of setup, so we’re going to have to make sure that we come with our best effort.”

They also may have one key advantage – postseason experience.

Cignetti and many of his assistant coaches were together for FCS and Division II playoff teams, and Cignetti also has that national championship ring from his days as Alabama coach Nick Saban’s recruiting coordinator.

“Well, I am kind of used to this routine,” Cignetti said. “But I don’t think it’s a major change for any of the coaches, to be quite honest with you, that are in the playoff.”

Cross talk

Notre Dame’s defense has been one of the best all season despite a rash of injuries, including two that took out preseason All-Americans.

But one of those, defensive tackled Howard Cross III, is expected to return Friday after missing the final three regular season games. There’s little doubt Cross will be fresh, nearly six weeks after suffering the high ankle sprain. The question is will he be rested or rusty?

“I feel physically, fine,” Cross said. “So I’m just happy, blessed to be able to get on the field.”

Staying ahead

Indiana didn’t just win games this season. It dominated opponents.

Ten of the Hoosiers 11 wins were by 14 or more points and they faced deficits in only three games and only once in the second half. But even if that’s not the same story underneath the Friday night lights, the Hoosiers insist they’re ready for any challenge.

“We know we’re supposed to be here, we know we belong, but we’re always going to have that chip (on our shoulder),” Indiana receiver Elijah Sarratt said. “We remember what everyone was saying during the season and remember what everyone is saying now. We’re going to go down there, focus on us and try to handle business.”

Running down a dream

The most telling matchup Friday will be Notre Dame’s ground game against Indiana’s defense.

The Irish offense has centered primarily around a three-pronged running attack that features Leonard, Jeremiyah Love and Jadarian Price.

Indiana, meanwhile, leads the nation in fewest yards rushing per game allowed (70.8) and the 2.46 yards per carry allowed is second best in FBS. Even in their loss, Ohio State rushed 29 times for just 115 yards. So the Hoosiers know where they must begin if they hope to advance.

“We’ve got to stop the run,” all-Big Ten linebacker Aiden Fisher said. “That’s something we’re very prideful in here as a defense and something that they are really good on offense. It’s going to be a really good matchup.”

Tailgating

Fans have been waiting a long time for this kind of game, and some of them got a jump start on the fun Friday morning.

Some set up their tailgates as the snow fell early Friday morning in South Bend.

They’ve been partying all day.

In the shadow of Notre Dame stadium, there’s food, fandom and unparalleled excitement.

“I’ve been coming to games here my entire life. My dad went here, and I would say, like, the atmosphere here right now is more electric and more energized than it’s ever been before,” Notre Dame student and Elmhurst resident Kevin Kelley said.

It’s an early Christmas gift for fans of Notre Dame and Indiana, who are there to witness the history-making game.

“Everybody is just 10 out of 10 excited, 10 out of 10, like, it’s amazing, vibes are amazing. I love it,” Notre Dame student Libby Schuster said.

The Kaplans of Deerfield are cheering for the Hoosiers.

“There’s a huge Chicago population of Indiana fans. There’s a huge Chicago population of Notre Dame fans,” IU alumnus from Deerfield Jeffrey Kaplan said.

It’s almost like the Crosstown Classic East.

“My mom’s rooting for Indiana. My dad’s rooting for Notre Dame. I’ve got Notre Dame. My sister’s got Indiana. It is. It just really is,” Notre Dame fan Jack Carretta said.

And for South Bend businesses used to the season being done in November, the game is a financial windfall. Bars and restaurants along Eddy Street are bustling.

At Hammes Notre Dame Bookstore, folks were snapping up merchandise.

“Today, we were getting all the warm gear, and we’re going to come back tomorrow to get all the fun stuff, the stuff that we can’t take into the stadium, the stuff we’re taking home,” Notre Dame alumnus Meg Dunn said.

ABC7 Chicago’s Dionne Miller and Eric Horng contributed to this report.

Richard Allen, the Indiana man convicted of killing two middle school girls in 2017, was sentenced to 130 years in prison on Friday, almost eight years after the children’s bodies were found near a hiking trail.

Allen, 52, was convicted of murder in November after a four-week trial in the deaths of Abigail Williams, 13, and Liberty German, 14, in Delphi.

The bodies of the girls, who were close friends, were found near a hiking trail on Feb. 14, 2017, but their killings went unsolved for years.

Allen received the maximum sentence. Judge Frances C. Gull told him it ranks “right up there with the most hideous crimes.”

“These families will deal with your carnage forever,” the judge said.

Indianapolis State Police arrested Allen in October 2022. He was charged with murder after what the state police superintendent called a “long-term and complex investigation.”

Prosecutors said that Allen encountered the girls on the Monon High Bridge Trail and that, armed with a gun, he forced them down a hill and cut their throats.

A jury convicted Allen on Nov. 11 of four counts of murder: one count each of felony murder and murder for each victim.

Allen had faced a potential sentence of 45 to 130 years in prison.

His attorneys say they plan to appeal. “Richard Allen maintains his innocence,” they wrote in a sentencing memo ahead of Friday’s sentencing.

The killings shook the small town of Delphi, a community of around 2,900 about 60 miles northwest of Indianapolis.

Liberty had recorded a man who prosecutors allege was Allen in cellphone video that day. Prosecutors also said that an unspent .40-caliber round that came from Allen’s gun was found at the scene and that a black 2016 Ford Focus was seen on security video nearby — and that Allen owned the only such car registered in Carroll County when the murders took place.

Defense attorneys argued no one identified Allen as the man in the video or seen by witnesses. They also argued no forensic or DNA evidence connected him to the killings.

Prosecutors played an alleged confession made last year in a recorded jail call to his wife. In it, he says: “I did it, I killed Abby. I killed Abby and Libby.”

His wife did not appear to believe him and said his medication must be messing with his mind.

A former prison psychologist also testified that Allen confessed to her that he killed the girls, and prosecutors said he confessed to other prison staff members.

Allen’s defense attorney, Brad Rozzi, has attributed the confessions to a mental health crisis. Allen was being held in a maximum-security prison while he awaited trial. Defense attorneys have also argued he was kept in solitary confinement without due process.

Defense attorneys also wrote in a sentencing memorandum that Allen has a long history of mental health illness and that he had been treated for major depressive disorder and anxiety disorder throughout his life.

Allen, who was a CVS clerk at the time of the killings, was not a suspect until a file clerk organizing thousands of tips discovered a mislabeled “lead sheet” in September 2022.

The document, which had incorrectly been marked “clear,” showed that Allen reached out to investigators days after the killings and said he had been at the same location as the girls on the day they disappeared.

Defense attorneys have said that Allen often walked on that trail and that he voluntarily went to police because he wanted to help in any way he could.

The wait is finally over as Notre Dame Stadium is just hours away from rocking as the Fighting Irish are set to host the Indiana Hoosiers in the College Football Playoff.

It’s the first game in the expanded playoff era and is of course the first playoff game to take place on a college campus at the FBS level.

Suffice to say, Notre Dame and the entire South Bend area is going to be rocking.

But what happens in the game Friday night? Can Notre Dame secure its biggest postseason win in more than a generation and advance to the Sugar Bowl to take on Georgia?

Below is how the Notre Dame on Sports Illustrated staff sees this one shaking out.

Notre Dame vs. Indiana Predictions: Nathan Erbach

The snow has already come down on South Bend and we’re unsure if it’ll be around for kickoff but a little wind almost certainly will. Notre Dame has better talent across the board and is built to better operate in these conditions. On to the Sugar Bowl we go.

Game Prediction: Notre Dame 34, Indiana 17

Bold prediction: Indiana hasn’t allowed a team to rush for more than 4.2 yards per carry on them all season and that was Charlotte in a blowout victory. They also haven’t allowed more than 137 yards on the ground.  Notre Dame blows both of those out of the water.

Notre Dame vs. Indiana Predictions: Jeff Feyerer

First, Indiana. If Notre Dame controls the tempo and can run the ball, the game is theirs. The Hoosiers front seven is tough, but I’m still taking the Notre Dame offensive line. While Jeremiyah Love is the presumptive star, I think Jadarian Price and Mitchell Evans carry the offense in this game as Indiana tries to key on Love.

Game Prediction: Notre Dame 28, Indiana 16

Bold Prediction: Al Golden sends pressure after Kurtis Rourke in a way that hasn’t been done this season and Rourke looks pedestrian at best in the Irish victory.

Notre Dame vs. Indiana Predictions: Mason Plummer

Notre Dame has the better athletes at nearly every position and it shows in front of a raucous Irish crowd. 

Game Prediction: Notre Dame 35, Indiana 17

Bold Prediction: Love and Price combine for 150 yards on the ground as the Irish gash Indiana from start to finish with a late touchdown drive to seal it.

Notre Dame vs. Indiana Predictions: John Kennedy

It wouldn’t surprise me at all early on in this ballgame if there’s a “feeling out” period between these two teams where each sees if they can run the ball north/south on the other. While I predict some frustrating stalemates early on, eventually Jeremiyah Love, JD Price, and Riley Leonard will all break for big plays in the run game as the Irish seize control. Defensively, Notre Dame will take control of the line of scrimmage as the game moves along and the Irish will wear Indiana down and suffocate them. Bring on Georgia.

Game Prediction: Notre Dame 31, Indiana 20

Bold Prediction: Youngster Leonard Moore jumps a flare pass in the flat and takes it home for six

Notre Dame vs. Indiana Predictions: Nick Shepkowski

Notre Dame certainly hasn’t played the run as well as the pass in 2024 but will be on high alert to defend it Friday night. Howard Cross makes a massive impact as Notre Dame controls the defensive line of scrimmage all night long. After a slow start offensively for the Irish, the wheels really get turning in the second half and are primed for a trip to New Orleans.

Game Prediction: Notre Dame 27, Indiana 13

Bold Prediction: Indiana has run for 2,083 yards on the year and averaged 4.8 yards per carry to date. The Hoosiers won’t average 2.5 per attempt on Friday night.