End of a joyride: Hoosiers fail to meet the moment and get throttled by Notre Dame

Curt Cignetti coached scared. Kurtis Rourke got rattled. The offense did nothing for 58 minutes. A beautiful season ends in a most ignominious way.

SOUTH BEND – This is where the magic expires, where this miraculous IU football season ends. And this is how it ends, with Jeremyah Love going 98 yards on Notre Dame’s second possession, with Marcus Freeman out-smarting Curt Cignetti and forcing him to burn an early third-quarter timeout, with Cignetti punting on fourth and 11, trailing 20-3 and less than 11 minutes remaining.

Here was Cignetti as he walked into the post-game press conference after Notre Dame’s lopsided 27-17 victory at frigid Notre Dame Stadium in the opening round of the College Football Playoffs:

“The hardest part of tonight is saying goodbye to your kids,” he said, forcing a wry smile. “Because they just watched their dad get his ass kicked.”

It’s a shame it had to end, a shame it ended this way in a largely non-competitive game that only looked cosmetically better after two IU touchdowns in the last minute and a half. But Cignetti was right: He did get his ass kicked, and so did his overmatched team. That’s not to be indelicate but hey, you saw it. It wasn’t pretty.