No. 7 Irish look forward to test at Georgia
SOUTH BEND, Ind. – Brian Kelly sensed his No. 7 Notre Dame football team had a little extra bounce in its step Sunday morning and it wasn’t because of its 66-14 victory over New Mexico 16 hours before.
Playing a nationally televised game this Saturday night at No. 3 Georgia will do that for you.
“Oh, they’re excited,” Kelly said Sunday of his 2-0 Fighting Irish, who now want to see if their act plays well enough on the road against the third-ranked Bulldogs, who are coming off a 55-0 victory over Arkansas State.
“They know they had to take care of business with New Mexico and that they had to play better than they did at Louisville (a 35-17 victory),” Kelly said. “They understand the caliber of play that will be needed. They are excited about the challenge in front of them. They come to Notre Dame wanting to play in these kinds of games. It’s like being in a Broadway show.”
With Notre Dame on their schedule, Kirby Smart and his Bulldogs probably feel the same way about only the third meeting between the two teams.
The first came at the end of the 1980 season when freshman sensation Herschel Walker led Georgia to a 17-10 victory in the 1980 Sugar Bowl that earned a national championship for coach Vince Dooley.
The second came Sept. 9, 2017. Kelly had rebuilt his staff following a 4-8 campaign, and the Irish and Bulldogs battled under the lights at Notre Dame Stadium before the Bulldogs prevailed in a memorable 20-19 victory. “We were certainly feeling as we had done the things necessary to get the program back to where it needed to be,” Kelly said.
The triumph helped to catapult Georgia to the College Football Playoff championship game that the Bulldogs lost in overtime, 26-23, to SEC rival Alabama.