(Notre Dame) — Jeremiyah Love and Howard Cross are available and ready to go for the College Football Playoffs, Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman said Sunday.

Notre Dame’s game week for Indiana is officially underway. With the Irish set to host the Hoosiers in the College Football Playoff on Friday, game week preparations began on Sunday—including Marcus Freeman’s usual Monday press conference.

Love was banged up and did not play for the end of the game against USC in the regular season finale but the Irish star running back sounded his regular confident self when he spoke with the media Sunday. As for Cross, Notre Dame’s 6-year defensive lineman who missed the last 3 games of the regular season, you could sense his readiness to get back on the field. Freeman said Cross is an excellent football player and while others stepped up in a great way while he was out, Cross was missed.

Freeman also said kicker Mitch Jeter has looked as close to as his old self since being injured earlier in the season. Jeter has struggled greatly since returning. Special teams standout Devyn Ford will also be back. The bad news on the injury front is that linebacker Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa remains out this week.

With this week also being finals week at Notre Dame, the Irish will practice Monday through Wednesday in the morning and then will return to a normal time frame for their walk thru on Thursday.

With the excitement building for Friday, Freeman’s message to his team is similar to what it’s been—you don’t have to put any more pressure than what has been on you for the last 10 weeks.

“We’ve been in playoff situations since week 3 and we understand that,” Freeman says.

And by sticking to those similar messages, Freeman will stick with his mantra of what that pain was like losing to Northern Illinois back in week 2.

“Fear is a motivator,” Freeman says.

He points out he’d be lying if he told you he’s stopped thinking about the loss to NIU and that feeling. He says ultimately it all comes down to preparation and he won’t stray from that.

Great preparation will be needed against this 11-1 Indiana squad. Freeman views the Hoosiers under 1^st year coach Curt Cignetti as a very well coached program that is fast and has a top ranked rush defense.

“They play aggressively, they create chaos,” Freeman said of IU’s front line defense. “They are talented. They play hard. Their D-line is very, very good. It’s hard to simulate what they do.”

Meanwhile the Irish will face one of the best quarterbacks they’ve faced all year in Kurtis Rourke.

“He’s a veteran,” Freeman says of Rourke. “He’s played in big games. He makes a lot of good decisions.”

Freeman says the ability for IU’s offense to run the ball will be a big factor as well especially if weather is a factor in this game.

As of Sunday afternoon, forecasts called for temperatures in the low 20s and winds ranging from 10-20 miles per hour for Friday night. That means the ‘feels like’ temperature will likely be in the teens. Naturally conditions could be colder in South Bend at this time of year but this should be the coldest weather Notre Dame or Indiana players have ever played in.

“There’s no cold tough guys,” Marcus Freeman said when asked how he will talk to his players about staying warm Friday. “If you don’t want to wear sleeves–don’t wear sleeves but don’t be shivering on the sidelines.”

Irish captain Xavier Watts smiled and said he fully planned to wear sleeves Friday.

Be sure to join us Monday at 7pm on Pulse FM for the latest edition of Notre Dame Federal Credit Union’s Irish Football Fix as we preview the College Football Playoff matchup with Indiana.