The Georgia Bulldogs couldn’t get out of their own way on Thursday, and Notre Dame was happy to make them pay.
Georgia fell 23-10 to the Fighting Irish on Thursday in the Sugar Bowl, which served as a College Football Playoff quarterfinal game, and has a lot of self-inflicted wounds to blame for the way things turned out. The Bulldogs turned it over twice, with the first being a red zone fumble from Trevor Etienne that cost Georgia points and was his first ever lost fumble in college.
Later in the half, Gunner Stockton lost the ball on a strip-sack and Notre Dame recovered. Riley Leonard found Beaux Collins for a touchdown on the next play to make it 13-3. Big swings like that are tough to overcome in a defensive battle, and Georgia indeed wound up digging too deep of a hole for itself.
“They played exactly like we expected them to play,” head coach Kirby Smart said. “Physical, tough, don’t beat yourself, and they did that. They did those exact things. They got two turnovers, and we didn’t, and they returned a kickoff for a touchdown. So, we basically spotted them, probably 14 points after that.”
The Bulldogs’ biggest gaffe of the game, as Smart alluded to, was when they gave up a kickoff return touchdown to Notre Dame’s Jayden Harrison that put the Fighting Irish up by 17. It was a completely uncharacteristic mistake for Georgia that capped off 17 points for Notre Dame in just 54 seconds of game time.
The frustrating plays continued for Georgia throughout the second half, with Dillon Bell letting what would’ve been a walk-in deep touchdown slip through his hands. Georgia ended up scoring on that possession anyway, but the drop added to a list of frustrating moments from Georgia’s receiving corps. It was a fitting play to happen in this group’s final game.
“[If] we don’t have those fumbles, we could probably be sitting here at a different mindset, not so disappointed,” Arian Smith said. “But you know, that’s how the game goes. Things go well and things go bad. So, if we don’t have two turnovers, and then we get that kick return, we could be sitting in a different place.”
There were other, non-turnover mistakes that doomed Georgia. Walk-on Parker Jones got a sideline penalty that moved a 67-yard Smith gain from the 11-yard line to the 31 in the second quarter. Georgia failed to score a touchdown on the possession.
Jalon Walker had a costly offsides penalty on a 4th-and-1 that gave Notre Dame a first down in the fourth quarter. The Irish had originally lined up with their punt team before rapidly subbing in the offense, forcing Georgia to do the same with its defense. It was the result of confusion and possibly even desperation from Georgia.
The turnovers and simple mistakes were made worse by the fact that Georgia couldn’t get the run going. The Bulldogs dominated time of possession in the first quarter, holding the ball for over 10 minutes, but the Fighting Irish had overtaken them in this category by the end of the game thanks to Georgia’s tendency for three-and-outs. With a quarterback making his first career start, it was important for Georgia to make things easy for Stockton by keeping it on the ground and allowing for play-action opportunities. It didn’t work out that way.
“They did a good job taking away things that we wanted,” Smith said. “We wanted to take shots, we wanted to run the ball. They did a good job of disguising blitzes and making sure they disrupted Gunner, so credit to them and kudos to them for winning the game, and doing the things that they did to win the game.”
This was by no means an uninspired effort from Georgia, on either side of the ball. The offense tried to claw its way back but had simply made things too difficult for itself. And the defense played their hearts out all night. The Bulldogs held Notre Dame to just 244 total yards and just a 4-for-14 conversion rate on third downs. A lot of players suiting up in the red and black for the final time left it all out on the field.
“Not the way we wanted to go out as a team, but I’m just super thankful for the relationships I’ve built,” senior safety Dan Jackson, one of those players whose career is now coming to a close, said. “Not just this season, but, you know, the five years that I’ve been here, I wouldn’t ask for anything else.”
This concludes a tumultuous season for Georgia. This loss, along with the postponement and tragedy that led up to it, add to a year that has seen a slew of injuries, off-field issues and tough stretches for this team.
It’s tested Smart’s group like no year before, and, eventually, all of it seemed to just catch up to the Bulldogs. The Fighting Irish made fewer errors and took advantage of the ones Georgia made, and that was more than enough to send them to Miami. Georgia will be looking for a fresh start in 2025.
