Allstate Sugar Bowl: Georgia Bulldogs and Notre Dame Fighting Irish gear up for physical matchup

NEW ORLEANS — This year’s Allstate Sugar Bowl promises to be a bruising and physical battle of wills as the seventh seeded Notre Dame Fighting Irish will face off against the second seeded Georgia Bulldogs. Fighting Irish Head Coach Marcus Freeman and Bulldogs head coach Kirby Smart spoke to reporters Tuesday morning, explaining what makes their programs stand out. 

“‘Choosing hard’ is a model that we have in our program about the guys that choose to come to Notre Dame and play football there, and we don’t try to hide it,” explained Freeman. “We want them to embrace it, but also to model it for life. There’s valuable lessons every week. What we got to understand as a program is that you can’t wait until you lose to have the urgency to fix the issues that you have.”

Meanwhile, Smart highlighted toughness as a hallmark of not only his team, but Coach Freeman’s teams, previously at the University of Cincinnati and currently at Notre Dame. 

“Well, that Cincinnati team and this Notre Dame team, particularly the defenses, play with tremendous effort,” said Smart. “So it starts and ends with effort and toughness in all of football, and they do a tremendous job doing that. As far as his success, I think, when you’re a good coach and you work really hard, success will find you.”

Notre Dame comes into this game riding an eleven game winning streak. They have outscored their opponents by an average of 25 points. Meanwhile, in their last three bowl appearances, the Georgia Bulldogs have won two national championships and blew away the Florida State Seminoles by 60 points. By the way, the Georgia Bulldogs survived an all-out battle against the Texas Longhorns, winning an SEC Championship in the process.

However, Kirby Smart compared the current iteration of the College Football Playoff to the NFL Playoffs.

“With the way college football is now with the portal, and you lose players, you just can’t afford to not have depth in practice like you really want to practice,” explained Smart. “So it’s a challenge both ways. We studied all the NFL teams that have byes versus the wild card teams that get hot and continue to play. I think that’s the closest thing you can find to it.”

Which team can establish the run first?

Notre Dame has two running backs that can tote the rock and an offensive line that will play on Sundays. Jeremiyah Love has run for more than 1,000 yards and has sixteen touchdowns on the season. Jadarian Price has run for 683 yards and seven touchdowns. Dual-threat quarterback Riley Leonard also has no problems lowering his shoulder. While throwing for nearly 2,300 yards and 17 touchdowns, he’s also tallied 751 rushing yards this year. 

Conversely, Georgia has Nate Frazier and Travis Etienne who each have scored eight touchdowns. But the wild card will be backup quarterback Gunner Stockton. Stockton, a native of Rabun County, came in for an injured Carson Beck during the SEC Championship. And he played with loads of confidence. Stockton finished the night 12-for-16 and 71 yards passing. Georgia didn’t switch up the game plan at all en route to winning the SEC title. 

Who is Gunner Stockton?

A thing people love about Stockton is that he still drives his grandfather’s Ford F-150. He also continues to help out on the farm and does not talk a whole lot. However, Stockton is all about ball. And as we say in Georgia, there may be a little ‘you-know-what’ in his vinegar.

“I’m not a guy that enjoys it, but that’s part of it,” Stockton said of the media blitz in New Orleans.

His teammates have his back. 

“He gets fired up. He plays with passion,” explains Georgia tight end, and Stockton’s roommate, Oscar Delp. “There’s nothing more that he loves than playing football. He’s such a genuine guy. When you see him walking around, daylight, he’s a normal guy. He’s super genuine, super cool. He’s everything you want in a buddy.”

In high school, Stockton accounted for 254 touchdowns and 18,024 total yards in 53 games, which included 13 games with seven or more touchdowns. He broke records held by Trevor Lawrence and Deshaun Watson.

“I’m 100% confident,” said Georgia running back Trevor Etienne of Stockton. “I say this all the time, Gunner has been working all the time since he was QB1. I’m completely confident. I like to describe him as fearless. When he’s out there, it’s electric.”

What: Allstate Sugar Bowl
Who: No. 7 Notre Dame vs. No. 2 Georgia
When: Wednesday Jan. 1 at 8:45 p.m. ET
Where: Caesars Superdome in New Orleans
TV: ESPN
Stream: WatchESPN
Spread: Georgia (-1)

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