Marcus Freeman outsmarted Curt Cignetti with a great move on Friday night.
Freeman’s Notre Dame Fighting Irish were leading Cignetti’s Indiana Hoosiers 17-3 in the third quarter of their College Football Playoff game at Notre Dame Stadium in South Bend, Indiana. The Fighting Irish had 4th-and-8 from the Indiana 10 and lined up for a field goal. However, they split into an odd formation with most of their line shifted to the left. The unusual formation left Indiana confused and resulted in Cignetti calling a timeout.
Notre Dame had run a play that failed to convert the 8 yards, but IU had called a timeout before then. Freeman was shown on TV smiling because he knew he got Indiana to burn one of their three timeouts for the half.
Marcus Freeman toying with Indiana in the 2nd half.
Forces a timeout, and just smiles pic.twitter.com/6vOKf2vLl8
— Trey Wallace (@TreyWallace_) December 21, 2024
That was a great move by Freeman and it worked out perfectly.
Notre Dame committed a false start after the timeout and Mitch Jeter ended up kicking a 33-yard field goal to increase the Fighting Irish’s lead to 20-3.
Freeman received some recognition for his tactic.
Notre Dame HC Marcus Freeman is by far one of the most talented coaches in college football. The fake on 4th to get Indiana to burn a timeout was genius. That’s a championship level coach
— Drayton C-P (@drayton_cp) December 21, 2024
It has to feel comforting for Notre Dame fans to have a coach operating at that level. That’s a Bill Belichick-type of move.
