Indiana football coach Curt Cignetti's only loss comes against Ohio State this season. On the Pat McAfee Show, Cignetti detailed the main error they made in their loss in Columbus.

“We didn’t handle the crowd noise very well and had some communication breakdowns in pass protection,” Cignetti said. “We couldn’t play offense for a while there because we couldn’t protect the quarterback. We went to a silent count, which was the first time I’d ever done that, and we’ll never do that again.”

Besides that Indiana football lost to Ohio State, they had a historic season. Cignetti even won AP Coach of the Year with an 11-1 record. Furthermore, he helped the Hoosiers secure a spot in the College Football Playoff. Although they'll play Notre Dame in South Bend, he believes that they'll be fine.

Indiana will be going into almost as loud of an environment as they faced at Ohio State playing at Notre Dame. The stadium holds over 77,000 fans vs Ohio State’s 102,780. Cignetti says that the silent count hurt Indiana because he feels that Ohio State picked up on what the indicator was to hike the ball, and they just teed off on them after that.

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Notre Dame will make it difficult for Indiana football and Curt Cignetti

During the 2023 season, the Fighting Irish stadium was recorded at 134 decibels. Essentially, someone can lose their hearing in an atmosphere like that. Still, Cignetti is going back to what works, and that's not the silent count, instead of a hard count. Besides one game, they've played great.

Not to mention, playing in Columbus was the significant test of the season. While Notre Dame might not be on the same level as Ohio State, they've played dominant football outside of Week 2 against NIU. Regardless, Cignetti is ready for the noise and will go back to what works.

“There is always an indicator when the ball is going to get snapped,” Cignetti said. “Once they figure out what the indicator is, they tee off and time those blitzes in their get off. Defensive guys are reactive players, and offensive guys are used to going on a cadence. It's a rhythm, so we didn’t need to do that, but that’s behind us now.”

The in-state matchup will be one of the talks of the opening round of the CFP. This might be Indiana'a fatal flaw heading into their game against Notre Dame. However, Cignetti will have his guys ready to go and hopefully learn from their past mistakes.