Georgia and Notre Dame meet for the 2nd time on the turf of the Superdome in New Orleans with national championship implications and for the 4th time overall. The previous 3 meetings have all been instant classics, and this match-up has the potential to be another 4 quarter battle between 2 stout defenses and 2 offenses with questions. Let’s get to the first look.
Series Record: Georgia leads 3-0.
Last Meeting: Georgia wins 23-17 in Sanford Stadium in 2019 in one of the most electric atmospheres I’ve experienced in my 43 years of attending games in Athens. The Georgia offense did just enough to win the game as Jake Fromm had an efficient game connecting with Lawrence Cager and Dre Swift had 98 yards and a TD. The Georgia defense gave up a couple of big plays leading to Notre Dame points, and the Irish took 4 plays inside the 5 after a fumbled punt to get a cheap touchdown. As a freshman, Nolan Smith made a couple of huge plays on the final possession to end the Irish threat.
Gambling Degenerate Facts: Georgia is a 1.5 point favorite after opening as a 1.5 point underdog and is -123 money line bet and point total of 44.5.
Interesting Statistic: 5 (Notre Dame pick 6s for the season)
Talk about the luck of the Irish. Most teams go an entire season without a pick 6. This stat is important as Gunner Stockton makes his debut as the Georgia starting quarterback. Ball security is going to be key to winning the game. Notre Dame is +16 in turnover margin, but that statistic is a bit misleading as the Irish were +11 during a 3-game stretch of wins over Navy, FSU and Virginia. If the Dawgs take care of the ball, it’s going to be difficult for the Notre Dame offense to drive the length of the field consistently against the Georgia defense.
Early Outlook
The outcome of this game comes down to the Georgia offensive line against the Notre Dame front 7. The Irish are going to try to do everything they can to take away the Georgia running game and force Gunner Stockton to beat them with his arm. New Year’s night is not the time for a slow start on either side of the ball. We need to force Notre Dame to play from behind to make Riley Leonard throw the ball to keep up.
If the Dawgs get to 27, we win. If not, we’re going to be in for the fight for 4 quarters. With 25 days to prepare Stockton, I don’t expect the moment to be too big for #14, and remember Mike Bobo wanted Stockton when he was at South Carolina.
I’ll be back on Wednesday with a full preview. Where are you on the game right now? Let us know in the comments below.
Dawgs win 27-14 with Gunner, Etienne, Frazier, and our defense showing out.
Might even get a big chunk play out of Peanut 🥜.
HBTFD
I wish I could be more confident, but we just don’t have much of a sample size for Gunner Stockton.
You are spot on Hog. Gunner saved our tails in the SECCG coming off the bench, but he now has 3 weeks knowing he will be the starter…in a playoff game in the Sugar Bowl nonetheless. We do not know who or what the kid is at this point. Throw in the fact that this squad has looked like an EKG reading all season, and anything is possible. As erratic as team looked throughout 2024, they managed to win the SEC and gifted us one more playoff game to fan and hunker down. New Year’s Day should be a ton of fun.
I totally understand this sentiment. We need a full complementary game of football we’ve only seen in spurts this year.
The big thing is if the defense plays as they did in the 2 Texas games and the Clemson game, we will be hard to beat.
The good thing is they don’t know much about how Gunner plays either.
At this point, I just hope we win the whole damn thing, less for a third natty, but more to shut every annoying fan base camp up. From the Texans to the B1Gs to Danny Kannell, I want the country to eat crow.
I would be surprised if ND does anything other than pack the box to stuff the run forcing Gunner to complete passes. The strength is their DB’s and pick 6’s have been their calling card. Fortunately we have a better defense.
I have more faith in Bobo than most. If he had the weapons Monken had this team probably is undefeated. I expect a very physical game where ND is finally worn down and out late. The type of game that Kirby loves.
Easy to forget the absolute studs Monken had blocking for his scheme.. not to mention the running game he had that clearly took pressure off of the passing game. Not sure we would’ve beaten Ole piss, though, there was a lot going against us going into that game. We certainly wouldn’t have gotten embarrassed, however..
Kirby needs to giveGunner a stiff drink before game. Settle him down. We run the ball stop there run and we win comfortably.
That ‘stiff drink’ comment reminds me of a big Intramural game from college. Our 2 best receivers were older guys, big buddies, and would show up about half lit most games. Both were damn good. Well, this particular game they didn’t drink beforehand, and they were dropping balls left and right. They disappeared for a few minutes at halftime, made a few ‘halftime adjustments’, and we proceeded to beat the crap out of the other team. Neither one dropped a ball in the 2nd half. 😂
At first this game concerned me. But after taking some time to look at the games Notre Dame played this year I’m confident the Dawgs will win. ND only played a couple of decent teams and lost to a very bad team. Gunner and the Dawgs will take care of the not so fighting Irish.
There’s actually a scenario in my mind where we beat them so handily, everybody prematurely anoints us this year’s champ and our biggest problem becomes rat poison.
I’m not confident. I wouldn’t be surprised at any outcome.
I will say this though: If Georgia beats Notre Dame, they win the national championship.