Jayden Harrison was so deluged with emotion, the Notre Dame grad transfer kick returner almost broke down after he crossed the goal line with the second-longest kickoff return in Sugar Bowl history and wept.
Almost.
“I’ve got goosebumps still, on my arm,” he offered.
It’s a good bet quarterback Riley Leonard did too, and some real bumps too after his fourth-quarter, face-plant hurdle for a first down that helped seal arguably the most momentous Notre Dame football victory in three decades, with an even bigger opportunity coming up next Thursday for the 7 seed Irish (13-1) in Miami Gardens, Fla. in the College Football Playoff semis/Orange Bowl against 6 seed Penn State (13-2).
In fact, it was hard not to notice the impact Notre Dame’s transfer portal brigade had on a 23-10 takedown of 2 seed/SEC champ Georgia Thursday in the delayed fourth and final CFP quarterfinal, this one staged at the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans under the Sugar Bowl banner.
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Clemson transfer wide receiver Beaux Collins scored ND’s first touchdown of the game on a 13-yard strike from Leonard 27 seconds before halftime for a 13-3 Irish lead. Safety Rod Heard II (Northwestern) and nickel Jordan Clark (Arizona State) each were strong in coverage and had two tackles apiece for the Irish defense — the best unit on the field for either side.
There was South Carolina grad transfer kicker Mitch Jeter coming back from a mid-October hip injury that dogged his body through the end of November and his psyche into December. On Thursday he nailed field goals of 44, 48 and 47 yards in his three tries, and kicked off too for the first time in 2 ½ months.
And former Duke defensive end RJ Oben not only getting his first sack when the Irish really needed it, but stripping the ball from Georgia QB Gunner Stockton, and vyper end Junior Tuihalamaka — a non-transfer but third-stringer to start the season — pouncing on it at the Georgia 13 just ahead of the Collins TD.
With Harrison, formerly of Marshall, racing 98 yards with the second-half kickoff the next time the Irish touched the ball. Yes, that Marshall — the team that in third-year coach Marcus Freeman’s first home game as Irish head coach back in 2022 helped coax Bob Davie comparisons.
You know who didn’t notice the transfers’ stamp on extending the nation’s longest active win streak to 12 games and truncating Georgia’s postseason win streak at seven?
Or at least who didn’t draw that line when asked to?
Harrison.
“I feel a sense of pride when anybody makes a play,” said Harrison, who also caught a pass for four yards. “We’re all in this together. It’s a team effort. We need everybody.”
And this is a big reason why Notre Dame will still be playing next week the night before Freeman turns 39 years old, and not thinking about spring-semester classes and winter workouts set to start four days later, just yet.
Whatever college football is turning into — with NIL, with direct player payments coming, with unknown roster sizes until at least April — Freeman is every bit in step with it, if not ahead of the curve.
And as it pertains to the transfer portal, it’s not just about who you pluck out of it, but who you can show on your own roster that a knee-jerk urge to hit the eject button might not be the best long-term decision.
Flanking Freeman at his press conference one was of each — Duke transfer QB Leonard and former wide receiver/former rover/current two-time All-America safety Xavier Watts, a portrait in patience, class and transcendence. They were also named Sugar Bowl MVPs.
Each brings something profound to the culture that’s allowed Notre Dame to continually shrug off adversity this season, the most recent dose of which was losing sack leader and SEC looking-and-acting defensive tackle Rylie Mills for the balance of the playoff.
Mills suffered a knee injury in ND’s 27-17 dismissal of 10 seed Indiana back on Dec. 20 in Notre Dame Stadium.
“Every guy is ready to step up at any given moment,” Oben said. “That’s what makes this team so special, because of the culture. We’re all going to get better for each other and get better every day.”
And that includes their coach, who not only challenges himself to get better, but challenges those higher up the food chain at Notre Dame to do the same. Or more accurately, he finesses it.
A prime example of which is pushing for the kind of transfer portal middle ground that allowed non-grad Leonard to transfer in last winter when perhaps in Freeman’s first portal cycle that would have been a hard no.
“I have my voice in a lot of those conversations, but I’m never the person to blame outcomes on deficiencies,” Freeman told Inside ND Sports back in June of 2023. “That’s the way I was raised. And in front of the media, in front of the world, we’ve got everything we need. I won’t ever blame anything we have or anything we don’t have for the shortcomings we might have on gameday, but behind closed doors you’re challenging everything. ...
“Even if we win the national championship, guess what? We’re always going to be trying to improve all those aspects of college athletics. And so, that’s kind of how I stand on all those things.”
So, Thursday night’s win over a Georgia team that went 11-3 against arguably the nation’s toughest schedule and is just two years removed from winning consecutive national titles wasn’t really about hitting a new milestone in the lens Freeman looks through and leads his players to, but seeing what the Irish can turn the moment into.
And doing so in some trying circumstances for both teams — and the host city — after a terrorist attack in the early morning hours of Jan. 1 prompted the game to be pushed back roughly 19 hours.
“Yesterday morning, we woke up, and we had heard there was some type of incident,” Freeman said. “I don't think we all knew the details, but we were getting ready to play a game. And by the time we had a break and we had lunch, we found out that the game was postponed.
“And then we found out more details. And I think once you found out more details about the tragedy, the emotions took over each individual differently. But they handled it spectacularly, and they prepared.
“We spent some time together. And I think that's what you do in tough moments. You want to spend time with family, and that's what we are. But they found a way to get prepared for this opportunity and refocus.
“And again, it's unprecedented. Life — you know, I told them this morning, there's things in life that are unpredictable. And the ability to handle those unpredictable things determine success. And they handled this incident, this change, but they handle everything that's thrown at them in an unbelievable way.”
What that looked like succinctly by the numbers, once the Irish hit the field was Notre Dame winning the turnover battle, 2-0. And Notre Dame winning the rushing battle, 154-62, making Freeman 29-3 in games in which his teams glean that statistical checkmark.
And with a quarterback throwing for merely 90 yards, but running for a game-high 80 on 14 carries and mocking the narrative his skill set would be a dead end once Notre Dame had to face a team like, say Georgia.
“Riley’s THAT guy,” Harrison offered of what Leonard means to ND. “Riley’s that type of person. You would call him at 2 o’clock in the morning if you needed something, and he would answer. He would do anything for this team.”
Including going head over heels for a first down, even if it meant risking his availability for the next game.
“I mean, everybody keeps telling me to stop doing that,” Leonard said. “And I did it, and it worked out today. Plus, we're in the playoffs, which was like, ‘All right, put your butt on the line.’ But that's my mindset going into every game. Everybody else can put their butt on the line, I'm going to do it right there with them.”
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