Great unknown, modern history, ancient history: Georgia vs. Notre Dame Sugar Bowl stuff

This story seems a bit trivial now, given the tragic events on Bourbon Street overnight. But it appears as if the Sugar Bowl between Notre Dame and Georgia will go on as scheduled tonight in the fourth and final College Football Playoff quarterfinal game.

The CFP has been extremely kind to Georgia in recent years. Some might even argue almost too kind with the success the Bulldogs have enjoyed in it under ninth-year head coach Kirby Smart.

Georgia is 5-1 in its three previous CFP appearances — all under the four-team format — with two championships (2021, 2022) and one national runner-up finish (2017) under Smart. 

For Notre Dame, playoff fortunes haven’t been nearly as kind.

The Irish qualified for the four-teamer in 2018 and 2020, and lost both of those CFP seminal games by a combined score of 61-17.

For Georgia, this is a chance to return to the top of the NCAA mountain for the third time in the last four seasons.

For Notre Dame, it may share the same goal of a national championship that Georgia is chasing. But beyond that, the perception boost a win here would provide the Fighting Irish program that Georgia doesn’t necessarily need can’t be understated.

Notre Dame hasn’t won a top-tier bowl game in 10 tries. That came exactly 31 years ago Thursday.

“At the end of the day I think any great competitor wants to play against the best,” said Freeman, well aware that Georgia has trailed in 9 games this season. “I think great competitors love an opportunity like this, and that’s what this program is made of. Let’s see how good we really are.”

The great unknown

No surprise here, but the biggest storyline in this game, at least from a Georgia perspective, is how well redshirt quarterback Gunner Stockton will hold up while making his first collegiate start in place of injured senior Carson Beck. 

And based on all pregame reports, the Georgia coaches, players and fans all believe Stockton is up to the immense challenge, and then some.

Many are even suggesting that Stockton brings a talent upgrade from Beck, which seems far-fetched considering Beck leads the SEC with 28 touchdown passes, and entered this season as one of the frontrunners to win the 2024 Heisman Trophy. 

“All the players play harder for him,” Smart said of the confidence Stockton has already built within the program. “Do you make the players around you better is what you look for in a quarterback. I think [Stockton] raises the level of everybody around him.”

For Coach Freeman, he said that game prep didn’t change much when Stockton was announced as the starter last week to replace the injured Beck, even with limited research data on the former. 

“We utilize the game film that’s there,” said Freeman, who estimated his staff studied about 80 Stockton plays. “I don’t think they’re gonna change their offense completely because he is their quarterback.” 

Some familiarity

This will be the third crack that Notre Dame offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock will get at trying to crack the codes of the aggressive and talented Georgia defense.

Denbrock was the offensive coordinator at Cincinnati in 2020 when his Bearcats led the Bulldogs by 11 points in the fourth quarter, before falling 24-21 in a last-minute finish. 

Denbrock got his second chance against Georgia in the 2022 SEC Championship game when he was the OC at LSU, but fell to the Bulldogs, 50-30.

Will the third time be a charm for Denbrock? 

The first-year Irish assistant doesn’t believe having some familiarity with the Georgia defense under Coach Smart will bring any advantage, but …

“They really haven’t changed that much over the years,” Denbrock explained. “I know the numbers on the jerseys are different, but upfront they all look the same. They’re long. And they’re wide, and they’re tall, and they’re powerful.”

And Denbrock admitted that trying in practice to similate Georgia’s speed, physicality and NFL-caliber talent was essentially impossible.

“We go ‘good on good,’ which gives us some idea in spots of what [Georgia’s speed] will look like,” Denbrock said. “But consistently being able to replicate it is probably one of the bigger concerns that I have, just because those guys are twitchy, and they’re cat-quick up front, and their back ends can run. …We’re going to have to get our feet on the ground early.”

History lesson

According to the Notre Dame media guide, in almost 140 years of Fighting Irish football, only two of its opponents all-time have an undefeated record against the Irish, among teams who have played them multiple times.

We have to go back to the late 1800s to find the first one, that’s the University of Chicago, which beat Notre Dame in all four games played between 1893-99. 

The other, drumroll please, is Georgia. 

The Bulldogs are 3-0 against the Irish. But all three wins have come in one-possession games. 

At 2-0 against the Irish, Oregon State, was also a member of this undefeated club, before Notre Dame beat the Beavers 40-8 in last year’s Sun Bowl. 

Will the Irish be able to knock Georgia off of this list tonight in the same way it did Oregon State last December? 

Freeman isn’t worried about ancient history. He’s more interested in making history. 

“You gotta go out there with confidence, you gotta go out there wanting to put everything on the line,” he said. “And then, let’s go see what the future holds.”

Marshall, Oklahoma State, Tulsa and Indianapolis Artillery are the four teams that are 1-0 against Notre Dame all-time.