The weird Herschel Walker tangent that never seemed to either reveal its relevance or rightly fade into oblivion during the run-up to Thursday’s rescheduled CFP quarterfinal/Sugar Bowl clash between 7 seed Notre Dame and 2 seed Georgia, began its extended shelf life two days before Christmas.
(UPDATE story here on why the game was moved from Wednesday night): The game has been postponed to Thursday at 4 p.m. EST.)
It was a question about a 44-year-old game that threw 38-year-old Irish head football coach Marcus Freeman, fielded at a press conference supposedly previewing what is about to unfold at the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans (4 p.m. EST on ESPN).
How does the history of the 1981 Sugar Bowl influence the team's preparation and mindset in this matchup?
As Freeman groped for a polite and lucid answer about a game that Notre Dame lost to a top-ranked Georgia team 17-10 in the first-ever meeting between the two schools, sympathetic media members tried to boil down the storyline for Freeman, loudly whispering: “Herschel Walker beat Notre Dame.”
Perhaps the relevance is that the 62-year-old Walker technically has a year or college eligibility remaining, having left Georgia after his junior/Heisman Trophy-winning season?
For the record, the freshman version of Walker won Sugar Bowl MVP honors for top-ranked Georgia that night. He rushed for 150 yards and two TDs on 36 carries. He even threw a pass, though incomplete.
Then again, Georgia quarterback Buck Belue only had one completion — in 12 attempts — for seven yards in the game, and rushed for a net of minus-34. The seventh-ranked Irish outgained the Bulldogs 328-127 and coaxed them to punt 11 times in a game that clinched the 1980 national title for Georgia.
The difference? Beyond Walker — four Irish turnovers to Georgia’s zero miscues.
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Running backs still matter, and Freeman would like nothing more than for his lead back, sophomore Jeremiyah Love to have such an impactful game against a program just two seasons removed from back-to-back national titles that his name comes up in a press conference 44 years from now.
And while the Irish have been outrushed, often resoundingly so, in all three of their big-stage engagement (Alabama in the 2012 title game, Clemson in the CFP semis, Alabama in the 2020 CFP semis), the three games in which Freeman has coached against SEC teams in his career as a defensive coordinator or head coach, his teams have won the rushing battle.
And as a head coach at ND, he’s 28-3 when his teams check that box.
Love comes into the game No. 2 nationally in yards per carry (7.44), but has just 143 carries with his career high in a game 16 attempts vs. Virginia on Nov. 16. By contrast in Walker’s most productive of his three seasons for Georgia (1981), he averaged 35 carries a game.
The hope, the plan, the theory is that the 6-foot, 210-pound Love will be at his physical best — despite a minor knee injury against USC on Nov. 30 and a bout with the flu against Indiana on Dec. 20.
And the Irish need him to be against what was the nation’s No. 36 rush defense coming into the playoff and bowl season.
The winner Thursday gets an elite run defense (ninth nationally) to deal with in Penn State in a Jan. 9 CFP semifinal at the Orange Bowl in Miami Gardens, Fla. The 6 seed Nittany Lions (13-2) handled 3 seed Boise State and Heisman Trophy runner-up Ashton Jeanty, 31-14, Tuesday night in their Fiesta Bowl/CFP quarterfinal and will have almost two full days extra of prep/recovery time.
No. 8 seed Ohio State (12-2) and fifth-seeded Texas (13-2) each advanced with wins over higher-seeded teams on Wednesday and will face each other in the Jan. 10 Cotton Bowl/CFP semi in Arlington, Texas,
Notre Dame spent Wednesday at its hotel in light of the tragic events that had happened in the city in the early morning hours. A little peek into what the team's day looked like on Wednesday:
A 3 p.m. (Central/local time) team meeting was followed by offense/defense and special teams meetings and then a team run. The team hotel had the resources to accomplish all those things.
The came "a normal night-before-the-game schedule." The team is operating Thursday with a regular afternoon gameday timeline.
Meanwhile, ahead of the game on Thursday, the WSBT Gameday SportsBeat pregame radio show will run from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. (wsbtradio.com/96.1 FM), with Inside ND Sports' Eric Hansen part of that broadcast team.
Inside ND Sports has you covered after the game on our YouTube channel with two postgame shows. First up and live, roughly five minutes after the game's final whistle, it's former Irish offensive lineman Bob Morton and Hansen breaking down the ND-Georgia game and taking questions from viewers on Into The eNDzone.
Later, our Postgame Takeaways Show with Tyler James and Hansen, drops late Thursday night for your Friday morning viewing.
Of course, if the Irish are to defeat Georgia for the first time in four meetings, there’s going to have to be a long list of heroes beyond Love.
It’s Inside ND Sports’ practice to highlight just four players, two for each team. And besides Love, here the others:
Georgia linebacker Jalon Walker
Here's your relevant Walker to this game.
The 6-foot-2, 245-pound junior last month became Georgia's third Butkus Award winner, emblematic of the nation's best linebacker. He follows Roquan Smith (2017) and Nakobe Dean (2021) in that lineage.
Where the first-year starter shows up more prominently on the Bulldog defense is in pass rush. Among players with more than 10 pass rush snaps, he's Georgia highest-graded pass rusher per Pro Football Focus.
And he provides both volume (57 tackles) and big plays — 10.5 tackles for loss, 6.5 sacks, two fumble recoveries and six QB Hurries.
Notre Dame cornerback Leonard Moore
The freshman All-America cornerback figures into the defensive game plan against a first-time starting quarterback, in Gunner Stockton, more than it might seem at first glance.
The midseason replacement for injured preseason All-American and projected first-round draft pick Benjamin Morrison is ranked by Pro Football Focus as the 11th-best cornerback in college football, and No. 7 nationally at that position as a run defender.
And he's Notre Dame's top run defender, per Pro Football Focus, at any position. And with 542 snaps logged this season, he's given the Irish quantity to go along with that quality. That's more game action than notably starting linebackers Drayk Bowen and Jack Kiser, and star defensive linemen Howard Cross III and Rylie Mills.
Georgia figures to lean way more into its running game with Stockton starting for the injured Carson Beck, at least early. On the other side of that equation, with grad senior Mills out for the rest of the College Football Playoff with a knee injury, it's not just about defensive tackle Gabe Rubio stepping up his production.
The Irish need answers at all levels of the defense, and Moore could be one of them.
Georgia running back Trevor Etienne
This will be the fourth time Notre Dame has had to face a running back from the Etienne family, and two of those times — against former Clemson star Travis Etienne — it did not end well for the Irish.
In a 30-3 Clemson rout of Notre Dame in the 2018 CFO semis, Travis rushed for 109 yards on 14 carries with a TD. Two years later, in the 2020 ACC Championship Game — during ND's COVID-inspired one-year temporary conference membership — the elder Etienne ran for 124 yards and a TD on 10 carries in a 34-10 Tigers victory.
But in between, in a November Irish upset of then-No. 1 Clemson (47-40 2 OTs), ND limited Travis to 28 yards rushing on 18 carries.
Georgia can't let that happen to Trevor, not with the nation's No. 98 rushing offense coming into the CFP and not with the multiple injuries in the running back corps.
Trevor Etienne's numbers look modest (571 yards and 9 TDs on 111 carries), but the junior and Florida transfer is fully healthy, which has not been the case much of the season. And he can be a challenge in the passing game as well (28 receptions, 168 yards).
He's also Georgia's top-graded player on its entire roster, per PFF.
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