Player Q&A: Indiana football players Aiden Fisher, Kurtis Rourke preview CFB Playoff game against Notre Dame

The CFB Playoff committee announced Sunday afternoon that Indiana football will face Notre Dame on the road in the opening round of the playoffs.

Indiana football players Aiden Fisher, Kurtis Rourke spoke to the media Sunday afternoon, giving initial thoughts going into the playoff game.

Below are the full Q&A’s and transcripts of Indiana football players Aiden Fisher and Kurtis Rourke.

Aiden Fisher:

Q. How did the day unfold for you? Curt didn’t bring the team together. Did a group watch the proceedings? What was the level of paying attention this morning and trying to figure out where you guys were going to land?

AIDEN FISHER: This morning I kind of woke up and did my normal routine for a Sunday morning. Me and my roommate watched the selection show, kind of saw where things fell in place, and we’re happy for that.

Q. I think I recognize you probably just started to dig into Notre Dame, but especially from a linebacker’s perspective, they do a lot of stuff on the ground, the option as a quarterback, he’s a threat to run. Both as the middle linebacker, the voice of Coach Haines in your helmet, how much responsibility falls on you in a game like this where there’s got to need to be a lot of pre-snap communication, a lot of correct reads, and getting things lined up right?

AIDEN FISHER: It’s going to be huge. I talked to Jailin Walker already this morning about it. We’re pumped for this opportunity. Really good football team. Got in some film this morning. Really good football team, really good on the ground. They always look to establish the run game, and that’s been their identity all year.

We’re excited for it and look forward to it.

Q. I know what people say nationally doesn’t matter to you guys, but when you watched the show, there were a few shots taken at your guys’ schedule, your resume. I guess how much fuel — you guys played with a chip on your shoulder all year. How much fuel has that been for you guys’ fire? I know it doesn’t matter, but they did disrespect you guys a little bit.

AIDEN FISHER: I didn’t even see that part. Once they placed us with Notre Dame, got my headphones, got my book bag, and came here to watch a little film and get ahead of it.

People have opinions everywhere. You can say strength of schedule, who we play, how we play. We’ll handle it when the time comes, and that stuff is just opinions. Everybody has one.

Q. Aiden, human nature would dictate you see your name up there on the bracket today and you think we’ve arrived, we’ve done something. Did that happen, how do you keep that from happening, and how do you keep going?

AIDEN FISHER: Kind of going back to the previous question. When you see your matchup and then obviously we’ve gotten a lot of criticism for our schedule and things like that, so it just kind of gives us more of an edge. It’s something that we look forward to.

It’s a blessing to be in the position we’re in, but we’ve earned it, we’ve worked for it, and this is the standard for Indiana football to be in this position year in and year out now.

Q. Aiden, we hear a lot about crowd noise and how it affects offense. How does it affect defense? Maybe from the Ohio State game, what did you learn about letting just the road environment in general, forget the noise, how did you learn from that game, and what can you apply to this one?

AIDEN FISHER: That was definitely a big learning experience, a lot of people, not a lot of cheering, a lot of boos.

I think the biggest thing we learned is just to be able to keep the main thing the main thing. No fan has an impact between the white lines when it comes to Saturdays. Especially when you’re in a hostile environment, you’ve really just got to block it out. It gets loud. It gets hostile. You’re hearing a lot of different things. The biggest thing is just blocking it out.

For me on defense at away games like that, it gets a little quiet for us to figure out how the offense works. In my opinion, I love it. You go into a stadium, and you can quiet their fans. It’s a really good feeling.

Q. Just want to get your thoughts on the way your defense has played overall. I think you guys are No. 1 against the rush, No. 2, 3, 4 in meaningful categories. Coach Haines is up for the Broyles Award, top assistant. Why do you think you guys — what are the factors that have made you guys this good over the course of a whole season?

AIDEN FISHER: First it starts with Coach Haines, obviously up for the award, and I can’t think of a coach more deserving than him to win the award.

But I just think it’s the edge we play with. A lot of new faces this off-season, and we gelled really well. If you look at the course of the season and the continuity that everybody’s got with each other, the continuity we’ve built, we’re all meshing really well and playing good football at a time when it’s good to get rolling now.

Q. You mentioned Notre Dame’s run game, but especially with their quarterback also being a capable runner, can you relate that to any opponents you’ve played this year, or even in the past like in terms of when you guys prepare for this? Just how much of a challenge is it to stop the run game?

AIDEN FISHER: He’s a great player. Really good O-line, really good backs. Quarterback is really good, receivers are solid, tight ends are really good too.

Definitely got a challenge coming up, but when you look back at the teams we’ve played, we’ve seen a lot of pocket passers, we’ve seen those mobile guys as well. We’ve just got to take into account we’ve got to be ready for option plays, designed quarterback run, stuff like that, just making sure we’re not falling asleep if he pulls the ball.

Q. Maybe a weird question. If 10-year-old Aiden saw you in this position playing in games like this, competing for a National Championship, how would you react then? How cool is it for you to be in this position?

AIDEN FISHER: It’s really a blessing. I think God has put me in this position that I’m in here, and I’m really blessed by what he’s done for me in my life. I think that little kid would be smiling ear to ear and just happy to be here and making his family proud and playing for the Lord.

Q. You talked a lot about the Notre Dame run game. Your defense, the Indiana defense has been really good against the run all season long. What makes this team and your defense so good against the run?

AIDEN FISHER: I would just say the angles that we play with, the pursuit to the ball, that edge that we play with.

I’ve talked about it before, a lot of guys that are here right now aren’t supposed to be here. They aren’t big enough. They aren’t fast enough. We carry that with us in the Monday walk-through to Saturday kickoff.

So it’s really just being able to play together, play off each other extremely well, and just doing our assignments and playing fast.

Q. You talked about it against Ohio State, the give and take of football obviously last week against Purdue was a much better situation. How do you guys come together and keep your heads up when you’ve got offense having a tough day, which could happen against Notre Dame, and how do you guys just keep going on defense?

AIDEN FISHER: Yeah, offense has had an extremely impressive year, and even those games where it looks like they struggle, we’ve got to pick up our end of the bargain as well.

Going into a game like this, we know we’re going to have to play really good, complementary football, and I have complete confidence in Kurtis and the guys up front on offense. I believe completely in them, and we’re going to get the job done.

Q. Quarterbacks a lot of times get a lot of fame for how much film prep they do, but from your standpoint, how much film prep do you do? How many games back will you go? How many hours, say, in a week will you do? Do you do it at home, here? How obsessed are you with the film preparation?

AIDEN FISHER: Film is huge for me. Anything that can set me apart and get me ahead in my prep, I want to make sure I’m doing it. I think film is that for me. In a normal week, I’d probably say I go through five or six games. I’ve got two weeks now, so hopefully get to maybe eight, just make sure I’m getting everything.

If you look back through a season, there’s some things, trick plays, little things, that will give a tell they ran here and there week 1, week 2, and maybe they think it’s a good look for our defense.

I just want to make sure I’m prepared in everything I do, and I think film is a great way to do that.

Q. I know you guys are focused on winning for the sake of winning, but from the beginning of the year, people have talked about this team was made up of guys from JMU, all these other transfers, and all that. You mentioned taking some of that with you. Do you carry that with you still all the way through the season now to this point, say these are those same guys that they were talking about that couldn’t compete at this level, and now you’re at the College Football Playoffs?

AIDEN FISHER: Oh, absolutely. Every week I want to prove myself, and going back to high school, going back to when I was in the transfer portal, none of these schools called me. None of these schools wanted me to come play for them. I carry that every Saturday, and next Saturday is no different. That will be with me.

Kurtis Rourke:

Q. This is kind of a weird way to ask this, I guess, but you’ve never really prepped for a postseason game, have you, between the injury and the portal and everything. Just what’s different when you have a little more time and you maybe don’t know who you’re playing, but you have a little bit of downtime? We asked Coach Cignetti about keeping the focus going, but just from a quarterback’s perspective, when you have a little bit more runway, a little bit more time to watch film, a little more time to digest things, what’s different about prep? Is there kind of a balance about maybe doing a little bit more but not sort of overloading yourself, I guess?

KURTIS ROURKE: Yes, absolutely. Last week was a good kind of decompressed week and kind of look over the season and the highs and lows and where I can get better individually and then as a team.

Then also kind of just wanted to stay in the rhythm as well. We practiced three times last week, and I wanted to take every single rep, and I wanted to make sure that I stay in the rhythm of playing a game against speed and not take any time off kind of that way because I knew that practice went very long and I’d still be able to get my rest time and everything like that.

Then preparing for game in postseason, I haven’t prepared to play, but I’ve definitely prepared for bowl games before, just haven’t had the opportunity to play in one. So extra excitement going into this one.

Q. Can you maybe describe what this weekend was like? Ohio is playing in the MAC Championship game yesterday. Is it surreal to hear that? While you’re waiting to hear Indiana is playing in the playoff. What’s that like considering basically a year ago you made the decision to enter the portal and now this happens, what was this weekend like for you?

KURTIS ROURKE: It was an awesome weekend. Just so happy for everyone that was able to win. I know a lot of guys there, the quarterback who won the MVP is a really, really good friend of mine. I’m just so happy for him and the success that he’s had this season.

Then Ohio has been in — it was the fifth MAC Championship they’ve played in, and they haven’t won since 1960-something. Being a guy that was in that program for five years, it’s awesome to see that and see a lot of my teammates, my past teammates excel and beat a rival like Miami of Ohio.

It was awesome. I was back to being kind of a fan and watching my friends and past teammates win. Congratulations to the coaches and all that.

Then just kind of when the game ended, was just kind of thinking about when our time’s up and how exciting it is to play this late in the year, especially a part of the first ever 12-team playoff. So a lot of fun emotions yesterday.

Q. How did you watch the preview this morning?

KURTIS ROURKE: I just watched it with my wife and my wife’s parents.

Q. Coaches talked about Ohio State, the noise was an issue for you guys. So you guys tried to fix some things. For you as a quarterback, what did you learn as an offense, what did you learn that you guys can do better, improve on? Obviously at Notre Dame you’re going to be facing the same kind of crowd noise, so it won’t impact you as much.

KURTIS ROURKE: It was definitely a disappointing loss. I felt like we didn’t play to our standards in that game. It was also a really important game for us to — a learning opportunity just how to deal and how to win those big games, something that watching and digesting the game afterwards, knowing how well we have to play and we have to minimize our mistakes and be able to handle the environment.

That’s what it will take to win these big games. Even though it was a tough loss, I think it was really important for us to have a game like that, to be tested in knowing what it takes to win games. This is obviously a win or go home kind of playoff setup. So we’re going to have to make sure that we come with our best effort and knowing that it’s going to be a hostile environment, and now we know how to handle it.

Q. Kurtis, it seems like the majority of the season, it’s been chip on the shoulder, whether it was 17th pick in the preseason poll to all the national outside noise. How do you walk that fine line as maybe using it for extra motivation but not giving into the rat poison?

KURTIS ROURKE: Yeah, like you said, it’s just extra motivation. I think what’s so great about our team, it starts with Coach Cignetti, a lot of us have had to prove that we belong in wherever we are. It just fuels us in knowing that we’re counted out and we’re the underdog and we always will be, at least for this year.

So we just go in and we can play freely knowing that we’re capable of competing with anybody. It just fuels the fire for sure.

Q. Everybody, it seems, has an opinion, something related to Notre Dame, knows someone who went there. What went through your mind when you saw Notre Dame pop up in the bracket?

KURTIS ROURKE: Just a place I haven’t played before. So just kind of looking forward to the opportunity. Really excited to play whoever we’re going to. Just know that it’s going to be that Notre Dame’s a historic place, so that’s kind of all I knew.

I actually don’t know anyone that went to Notre Dame, so maybe that will be a first. They’re a historic team. They’ve had great teams in the past, and they’re a good team this year. So just knowing that but also knowing that we’re also a pretty good team as well.

Q. This team has talked on and on all year long about changing the culture of Indiana football, changing how it feels, changing the winning attitude. Do you feel like punching the ticket to the playoff does that, or does this journey start now?

KURTIS ROURKE: It’s kind of a little bit of both. We’ve had that chip all year, and that regular season is something we’re very prideful of in knowing that we were able to go out and achieve pretty much every goal that we set.

But then kind of resetting after the regular season, after Purdue, and knowing that the new season starts. We’ve got to be on our A game. We’ve got to take everything we learned through the regular season and apply it to this game because it’s a one-and-done kind of thing.

Q. Coach Sunseri, of course, is moving on whenever you guys are done. What’s he meant to you in your development as a quarterback, and how has he kind of handled the day-to-day with you over the course of the season?

KURTIS ROURKE: Coach Tino has been awesome. I’ve developed so much as a quarterback since working with him in January. It’s been awesome to see my personal growth as well as the rest of the quarterbacks in the room. I know all of us can say that we’ve learned and become a better quarterback this year, and a lot of that attributes to Coach Tino.

Just very happy that he has an opportunity to go and continue his journey, his path, and his dream. Just very grateful for him because he’s really accelerated and helped this offense, helped the players become and create opportunities for their personal life, and I’m just happy to see that he’s taking advantage of an opportunity for him as well.

Q. You talked about the hostile road environment. I know against Ohio State you guys had to go to the silent count. How confident are you guys in going to that silent count, if you guys have to, in South Bend?

KURTIS ROURKE: Yeah, if it comes down to that, we’re going to be prepared, more prepared than we were. We’ve been repping it ever since that game even though we might not know if we have to use it or not.

It’s going to be an afterthought for us if we have to go to it just because we repped it so many times, and it’s going to be — yeah, I don’t see it being an issue.

Q. Coach Cignetti said that there’s going to be some tweaks to the week’s schedule with the Friday game. Any tweaks for you as a quarterback with the shorter week?

KURTIS ROURKE: I mean, honestly, it was just replace class time with more film watching. We don’t have class this week and next week, so just be worrying about watching more film, seeing what Notre Dame does, and be able to see some points where we can attack them and just learn as much as I can about them.

I think it’s going to be a good game and can’t wait till they get here.

Q. This is sort of a follow-up to that. How many games back do you anticipate looking at in terms of Notre Dame game film? The whole season? And what is it that you look for in particular?

KURTIS ROURKE: It will be good to watch every game that they have. You could watch games for tendencies. You can pick that up in any game. You can watch for personnel. Personnel, you usually watch the last couple games to see who’s going to be playing.

In terms of overall scheme, with all the extra time, it would be good to watch as many games as possible, and that’s going to be my goal.

Kickoff is set for Friday, December 20, at 8:00 PM ET from Notre Dame Stadium.

SEE ALSO: Indiana football, Curt Cignetti in ‘juggling act’ as critical recruiting month clashes with playoff push

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