How sweet it is: Notre Dame shocks Georgia in Sugar Bowl, advances to College Football Playoff semifinal

On third-and-7 from the Notre Dame 27-yard line, Georgia needed a stop.

There were just under six minutes left in the Sugar Bowl. The Irish led by 13. A first down would all but ice the game. Senior quarterback Riley Leonard ran to the left, turned the corner and saw only one Bulldog defender between himself and the chains. In that situation, there’s only one thing he knows how to do.

He went airborne.

“Everybody keeps telling me to stop doing that, and I did it,” Leonard said. “It worked out today.”

Leonard leaped, head-first, across the first-down marker. He tumbled head over heels to the turf, got up and reveled in front of teammates and Irish fans — the ones who stayed an extra day after a horrifying terrorist attack postponed the game — who knew they were witnessing history.

No. 7 Notre Dame shocked No. 2 Georgia, 23-10, on Thursday in New Orleans. The Irish won a major bowl game for the first time in 31 years and advanced to the College Football Playoff semifinals.

“I’ve been reminding them the last 10 days as we prepared, this will be a 60-plus-minute fight,” head coach Marcus Freeman said. “Our players executed, put everything on the line for this university and this football team.”

For nearly 30 minutes of game time, it looked like Notre Dame was in for a redux of Week 1 at Texas A&M: A low-scoring rock fight. But with 39 seconds to go in the first half, the turning point came.

Georgia redshirt sophomore quarterback Gunner Stockton barely had time to finish his drop when graduate student Notre Dame defensive end RJ Oben barreled toward him on his blind side. Oben came screaming around the edge and ferociously strip-sacked Stockton, and junior vyper Junior Tuihalamaka recovered the fumble at the UGA 13-yard line.

Tuihalamaka immediately turned toward Oben and rushed to hand him the football. Oben earned it.

“We’ve been game planning all week, watching the tackles, seeing how they set,” Oben said. “There was an opportunity that presented itself, and I was able to make a play.”

One snap later, two more transfer additions gave Notre Dame firm control of the game. Leonard found senior wide receiver Beaux Collins over the middle of the field for a touchdown, putting the Irish up 13-3.

Notre Dame entered the halftime locker room with its fans chanting “Let’s go Irish,” a shell-shocked Georgia on the other sideline and the knowledge that it would get the ball back to begin the second half. When it did, graduate student wide receiver Jayden Harrison broke the game wide open.

Harrison took the Bulldogs’ second-half kickoff at the 2-yard line and cut left. He cut back right at 20 and found a seam to the outside. He sprinted past a diving prayer of a tackling attempt from Georgia kicker Peyton Wooldring at the 40 and just like that, he was gone.

“I saw white jersey in between red the whole time,” Harrison said. “I almost cried.”

Harrison went 98-yards for a touchdown, giving Notre Dame a 17-point lead. Most teams talk about winning the “middle eight.” The Irish scored two touchdowns in the middle 54 seconds.

Al Golden‘s dominant defense took over from there, allowing one touchdown on a busted coverage but nothing further. Georgia averaged 2.1 rushing yards per carry, including 4 sacks for the Irish, and held the ball for only 5:16 of the fourth quarter. Notre Dame stopped two critical fourth-downs and converted one of its own by making the Bulldogs jump on fourth-and-1 from deep in its own territory.

Junior defensive tackle Donovan Hinish put the final nail in Georgia’s coffin by sacking Stockton on fourth down with under a minute to go. And for the first time since Jan. 1, 1994, confetti rained down on the Irish.

Notre Dame will face No. 6 Penn State in the Orange Bowl at 7:30 p.m. ET on Jan. 9 in Miami, with a chance to reach the national championship game.