Notre Dame football etched its name in the history books with their historic victory over the Georgia Bulldogs this afternoon in the Sugar Bowl. The Fighting Irish stunned the nations two seed with a 23-10 victory, marking 13 wins on the season, which is the most wins in Notre Dame football program history.
ND secured their first New Year Six bowl win in over three decades and their first victory over Georgia in program history. Notre Dame football program turns the page and enters the next chapter as they now are an elite program and a national contender.
Fighting Irish have fought through adversity all season long, battling injuries and media criticism, but with this historic win, Notre Dame now secures a spot in the semifinals with a matchup with the Penn State Nittany Lions in the Orange Bowl.
Notre Dame football's 25 seconds of domination
Irish went down 3-0 and trailed for the first time since the Georgia Tech game back in October. Notre Dame went ahead and scored 17 unanswered points and led to their statement victory and advance to semifinals. Mitch Jeter drilled his second field goal of the game at 48 yards with 39 seconds left in the first half to give ND a 6-3 lead.
Georgia got the ball back but defensive linemen, Junior Tuihalamaka, strip sacked Stockton and led to an Irish Beaux Collins 13 yard touchdown. Irish scored 10 points in 11 seconds to conclude the half. Marcus Freeman has now won 28 straight games when he leads at half.
ND would receive the ball to start the second half and Jayden Harrison returned a 98 yard kick for a touchdown and made Notre Dame go up 20-3. Fighting Irish scored 17 points in just 25 seconds of game time.
Notre Dame defense takes advantage
Irish defense forced three fumbles in the game and recovered two of them. ND has 148 points off turnovers, which is the most in FBS by 42 points. Jaiden Ausberry and Junior Tuihalamaka recovered the Irish fumbles, which made the turnover count to 31 which is most in the country.
Blue and gold defense continues to dominate fourth downs as Georgia went 0-3 on fourth downs. Georgia tried to make a push in second half as they trailed 20-10 late in third quarter but a QB hurry by Drayk Bowen caused a turnover on downs. Notre Dame defense ranks six at allowing just 34% conversion on 4th down and demonstrated that Thursday afternoon.
Notre Dame allowed 234 yards through the air, but shut the Bulldogs rushing game down as they gave up just 62 yards on the ground.
Notre Dame offense struggles but does enough
On the offensive side, Riley Leonard threw 14-23 for just 90 yards, but led the Irish in rushing yards with 80 yards. Georgia glaring weakness of dual-threat quarterbacks haunted them as Leonard extended multiple drives including two first downs that sealed Notre Dame victory late in the fourth quarter.
Price and Love struggled through the game and as they combined 16 carries for 56 yards. Love seemed to injury his right leg in the second half and was limited the rest of the game.
Irish Mitch Jeter went 3-3 on field goals in the statement victory over the Bulldogs. Jeter was just 8/15 entering the game but went 100% in the biggest game of his career. Irish special teams accounted for 13 of their 23 points in the quarterfinals. Jeter was just 50% from 40 yards plus entering this afternoon, but the time off clearly helped as his three field goals were from 44, 47 and 48.
"Competitors find a way." Freeman stated on Leonard's effort. "Those runs aren't sometimes how we drew them up but Riley finds a way, because he is a competitor person."
The Fighting Irish will now shift its focus to Penn State and the Orange Bowl on a short week of preparation. Notre Dame and Penn State have faced off 19 times and have a even record at 9-9-1. The last time these two historic programs played was back in 2007, when Penn State beat the Irish 31-10. The Orange Bowl will take place Jan. 9 at 6:30 local time.