{"id":79584,"date":"2025-01-01T11:19:24","date_gmt":"2025-01-01T17:19:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/gunnermania-modern-history-ancient-history-georgia-vs-notre-dame-sugar-bowl-stuff\/"},"modified":"2025-01-01T11:19:24","modified_gmt":"2025-01-01T17:19:24","slug":"gunnermania-modern-history-ancient-history-georgia-vs-notre-dame-sugar-bowl-stuff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/gunnermania-modern-history-ancient-history-georgia-vs-notre-dame-sugar-bowl-stuff\/","title":{"rendered":"Gunnermania, modern history, ancient history: Georgia vs. Notre Dame Sugar Bowl stuff"},"content":{"rendered":"

This story seems a bit trivial now, given the tragic events on Bourbon Street overnight<\/a><\/strong>. 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.<\/p>\n

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

Georgia is 5-1 in its three previous CFP appearances \u2014 all under the four-team format \u2014 with two championships (2021, 2022) and one national runner-up finish (2017) under Smart.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For Notre Dame, playoff fortunes haven\u2019t been nearly as kind.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

For Georgia, this is a chance to return to the top of the NCAA mountain for the third time in the last four seasons.<\/p>\n

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\u2019t necessarily need can\u2019t be understated.<\/p>\n

Notre Dame hasn\u2019t won a top-tier bowl game in 10 tries. That came exactly 31 years ago<\/strong> <\/a>Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the end of the day I think any great competitor wants to play against the best,\u201d said Freeman, well aware that Georgia has trailed in 9 games this season. \u201cI think great competitors love an opportunity like this, and that\u2019s what this program is made of. Let\u2019s see how good we really are.\u201d<\/p>\n

The great unknown<\/strong><\/h2>\n

No surprise here, but the biggest storyline in this game, at least from a Georgia perspective, is how well redshirt quarterback Gunner Stockton<\/a><\/strong> will hold up while making his first collegiate start in place of injured senior Carson Beck<\/a><\/strong>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And based on all pregame reports, the Georgia coaches, players and fans all believe Stockton is up to the immense challenge, and then some.<\/p>\n

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<\/a><\/strong>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAll the players play harder for him,\u201d Smart said of the confidence Stockton has already built within the program. \u201cDo 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Coach Freeman, he said that game prep didn\u2019t change much when Stockton was announced as the starter last week to replace the injured Beck, even with limited research data on the former.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe utilize the game film that\u2019s there,\u201d said Freeman, who estimated his staff studied about 80 Stockton plays. \u201cI don\u2019t think they\u2019re gonna change their offense completely because he is their quarterback.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Some familiarity<\/strong><\/h2>\n

This will be the third crack that Notre Dame offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock<\/strong> will get at trying to crack the codes of the aggressive and talented Georgia defense.<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Will the third time be a charm for Denbrock?\u00a0<\/p>\n

The first-year Irish assistant doesn\u2019t believe having some familiarity with the Georgia defense under Coach Smart will bring any advantage, but \u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cThey really haven\u2019t changed that much over the years,\u201d Denbrock explained. \u201cI know the numbers on the jerseys are different, but upfront they all look the same. They\u2019re long. And they\u2019re wide, and they\u2019re tall, and they\u2019re powerful.\u201d<\/p>\n

And Denbrock admitted that trying in practice to similate Georgia\u2019s speed, physicality and NFL-caliber talent was essentially impossible.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe go \u2018good on good,\u2019 which gives us some idea in spots of what [Georgia\u2019s speed] will look like,\u201d Denbrock said. \u201cBut consistently being able to replicate it is probably one of the bigger concerns that I have, just because those guys are twitchy, and they\u2019re cat-quick up front, and their back ends can run. \u2026We\u2019re going to have to get our feet on the ground early.\u201d<\/p>\n

History lesson<\/strong><\/h2>\n

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.<\/p>\n

We have to go back to the late 1800s to find the first one, that\u2019s the University of Chicago, which beat Notre Dame in all four games played between 1893-99.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The other, drumroll please, is Georgia.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Bulldogs are 3-0 against the Irish. But all three wins have come in one-possession games.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\u2019s Sun Bowl.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Will the Irish be able to knock Georgia off of this list tonight in the same way it did Oregon State last December?\u00a0<\/p>\n

Freeman isn\u2019t worried about ancient history. He\u2019s more interested in making<\/em> history.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cYou gotta go out there with confidence, you gotta go out there wanting to put everything on the line,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd then, let\u2019s go see what the future holds.\u201d<\/p>\n

Marshall, Oklahoma State, Tulsa and Indianapolis Artillery are the four teams that are 1-0 against Notre Dame all-time.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The post Gunnermania, modern history, ancient history: Georgia vs. Notre Dame Sugar Bowl stuff<\/a> appeared first on On3<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This story seems a bit trivial now, given the tragic events on Bourbon Street overnight….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-79584","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79584","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79584"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79584\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}