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, Riley Leonard went airborne.
He scrambled to the left and saw only one Georgia defender between him and the chains. There was only one thing Leonard would do. He leaped across the first-down marker, all but closing out the Sugar Bowl.
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 over 30 years and advanced to the College Football Playoff semifinal.
For 29:17 of game time, it looked like Notre Dame was in for a redux of Week 1 at Texas A&M. The Irish and Bulldogs dug in for a low-scoring rock fight, with graduate student kicker Mitch Jeter‘s 48-yard field goal with 43 seconds left giving his team what most assumed would be a 6-3 halftime lead.
On the first play of Georgia’s ensuing drive, though, came the turning point.
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. He had struggled the entire season after transferring from Duke, failing to pick up a quarterback hit, let alone a sack, throughout the first 13 games. None of that matters now.
One snap later, two more transfer additions gave Notre Dame firm control of the game. Senior quarterback Riley 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, one more transfer addition broke the game wide open.
Graduate student wide receiver Jayden 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.
Harrison went 98-yards for a touchdown, giving Notre Dame a 17-point lead.
The Bulldogs got back in it with a 32-yard touchdown pass from Stockton to junior running back Cash Jones, but that 10-point deficit was as close as they came. Notre Dame’s vaunted defense kept them at arms length by making multiple fourth-down stops, including a fourth-and-2 that sophomore linebacker Drayk Bowen blew up with a blitz and a fourth-and-5 that graduate student safety stopped with lockdown coverage.
Notre Dame will face No. 6 Penn State in the Orange Bowl on Jan. 9, with a chance to reach the national championship.
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