NEW ORLEANS — The tales of the 1981 Sugar Bowl are for someone else to tell.
Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman wasn’t alive when Georgia running back Herschel Walker led the Bulldogs to a 17-10 victory over the Irish. Georgia head coach Kirby Smart was a young child living in Alabama paying no attention to the game.
But college football reporters can’t get enough about the history of the sport they cover, so of course that game came up in Tuesday morning’s press conference, one day prior to seventh-seed Notre Dame (12-1) meeting second-seed Georgia (11-2) in the Sugar Bowl for a College Football Playoff quarterfinal at Caesars Superdome in New Orleans (8:45 p.m. EST on ESPN).
“I'm thankful that we don't have to play Herschel Walker tomorrow,” Freeman said, “but we've got some other challenging running backs that we've got to try to defend.”
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Georgia’s underperforming running game will be without two reserve running backs, Branson Robinson and Roderick Robinson II, in Wednesday’s game. (UPDATE: The game has been postponed to Thursday.) The Bulldogs will lean on junior Trevor Etienne (111 carries for 591 yards and nine touchdowns) and freshman Nate Frazier (129 carries for 644 yards and eight touchdowns). Their importance will likely be elevated with quarterback Gunner Stockton making his first career start for Georgia.
Notre Dame’s running back duo of Jeremiyah Love and Jadarian Price has always been the focal point of the Irish offense this season. Love has rushed 142 times for 1,057 yards and 16 touchdowns. Price has 100 carries for 683 yards and seven touchdowns. Both are healthy, Freeman said, thanks to a rotation at the position that’s been part of the annual plan with running backs coach Deland McCullough.
“It's something we've done in my three years as a head coach, with Coach McCullough being our running backs coach, is that we pride ourselves on being able to rotate running backs and sell it in a way in recruiting and to your current players of we're going to get you enough film to get you prepared for the next level, but we're also going to make sure you're healthy,” Freeman said. “We don't want you to use every rep you have in your body in college.
“And so, they buy in to that. They've done a great job within the roles that have been determined for them. Aneyas Williams is another guy that's really stepped up as a freshman this year.
“It's very similar to what you see Georgia does. They have multiple running backs that can hurt you in different ways. And I think as you continue to progress in college football, that's what you're going to have to see, because you can't — the days of playing just one running back, I don't think that's going to really happen in too many places for multiple reasons.”
A Notre Dame loss Thursday will provide doubters another reason to cite a major bowl losing streak for the Irish that spans back to a 24-21 win over Texas A&M in the 1994 Cotton Bowl, even though the bowl system has been devalued in the current college football landscape. But a win? That will provide the Irish with proof that Freeman’s blueprint for the program, which doesn’t differ much from Georgia’s, can bring playoff staying power.
“They have a tremendous team.” Smart said. “They play football the way that we like to play football, very physical brand of football, disciplined, tough.”
Playing the path given
Notre Dame’s path in the first 12-team College Football Playoff was dictated by the format partially designed by and agreed to by former Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick. As long as the Irish aren’t in a conference, they won’t be eligible for a first-round bye in this format.
That allows Freeman to spend very little time wondering if he’d rather have a first-round bye.
“I think you have to embrace your current circumstance,” Freeman said. “If I'm going to sit up here and say I wish I had somebody else's, you're making an excuses for the circumstance you have. And so, we embrace it. Again, we embraced Week 13, which was the conference championship week, as our bye week. We had to have that mindset. We're going to use this as our bye week. And the conference champions are going to use the first round as their bye week.
“And so that's the mindset we've had. It was an amazing experience to host a home playoff game versus Indiana in the first round. That was a great experience for college football and our fans and our players. And now you get a chance to play in a great opportunity that we have versus Georgia in the Sugar Bowl.”
Georgia didn’t have much of a choice in its path either. When the Bulldogs played in the SEC Championship Game against Texas, they needed to win to guarantee their spot in the playoff. Though it seems unlikely, a three-loss record could have prevented Georgia from making it into the 12-team field.
But Smart, whose won two national championships since taking over Georgia’s program in 2016, knows that the outcome of Thursday’s game will sway opinions on which path is better. Georgia hasn’t played since the 22-19 overtime win over Texas on Dec. 7.
“Depends on who wins,” Smart. “Honestly. Because I think it can be painted either way. There's positives and negatives about both. I can't say I have a preference either way, because we have only been part of the system where you finish the conference championship, and you play again either the 31st or 1st.
“So, we haven't been in the format where you play. We thought, obviously, there was an opportunity that we were going to have to play a home football game or possibly a road football game, depending on the outcome of our conference championship game. So, it would have gone either way. We had a plan for either way.
“When you look at the calendar either way, you can make positives and negatives. There's risk of injury. I think when you ask Marcus that question, he lost a very dominant player (defensive tackle Rylie Mills), and there's a risk of injury in that game. But there is a level of concern when you haven't tackled and gone live. 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.
“So, it's a challenge both ways. We studied all the NFL teams that have byes verses the wild card teams that get hot and continue to play. I think that's the closest thing you can find to it.”
Freeman’s assistant coach empowerment
While Freeman and Smart were answering questions at Tuesday’s press conference, Freeman was named the 2024 Dodd Trophy Coach of the Year. Freeman became the first Notre Dame winner of the award since Brian Kelly in 2018.
Freeman may also be creating paths for his current assistant coaches to win awards like that in the future too. Gerard Parker, last season’s offensive coordinator for the Irish, became the first assistant to land a head coaching job after working under Freeman when Troy hired Parker in December 2023.
Freeman actively tries to find extra leadership roles for his assistants, including the annual Blue-Gold Game when a pair of assistants serve as the head coaches for the two sides in the scrimmage. He also adds responsibilities to assistant coaches on a weekly basis throughout the season. It’s something Freeman learned while playing for head coach Jim Tressel at Ohio State. Each game came with an assistant coach being the expert on the upcoming opponent, and that’s something Freeman has continued as a head coach.
“I thought it was a great way as a player to hear somebody else's voice, to hear some of your assistant coaches in front of the entire team,” Freeman said. “And as a coach, it's a great way for me to empower our coaches and give them the opportunity to be in front of the whole team, which not everybody gets the chance to do. And it's been great. They embrace it. They really look forward to it, and I think our players enjoy it.”
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