Kelly and No. 7 Irish look ahead to journey to No. Three Georgia

Brian Kelly sensed his No. 7 Notre Dame group had slightly additional bounce in its step Sunday morning and it wasn’t due to its 66-14 victory over New Mexico 16 hours earlier than.

Enjoying a nationally televised sport this Saturday evening at No. Three Georgia will try this for you.

“Oh, they’re excited,” Kelly mentioned Sunday of his 2-Zero Combating Irish, who now need to see if their act performs properly sufficient on the highway towards the third-ranked Bulldogs, who’re coming off a 55-Zero victory over Arkansas State.

“They know they needed to deal with enterprise with New Mexico and that they needed to play higher than they did at Louisville (a 35-17 victory),” Kelly mentioned. “They perceive the caliber of play that can be wanted. They’re excited in regards to the problem in entrance of them. They arrive to Notre Dame eager to play in these sorts of video games. It is like being in a Broadway present.”

With Notre Dame on their schedule, Kirby Good and his Bulldogs most likely really feel the identical approach about solely the third assembly between the 2 groups.

The primary got here on the finish of the 1980 season when freshman sensation Herschel Walker led Georgia to a 17-10 victory within the 1980 Sugar Bowl that earned a nationwide championship for coach Vince Dooley.

The second got here Sept. 9, 2017. Kelly had rebuilt his workers following a 4-Eight marketing campaign, and the Irish and Bulldogs battled underneath the lights at Notre Dame Stadium earlier than the Bulldogs prevailed in a memorable 20-19 victory.

“We have been definitely feeling as we had achieved the issues essential to get this system again to the place it wanted to be,” Kelly mentioned.

The triumph helped to catapult Georgia to the Faculty Soccer Playoff championship sport that the Bulldogs misplaced in time beyond regulation, 26-23, to SEC rival Alabama.

Since that loss, the Irish are 23-3, together with a 12-Zero regular-season run in 2018 that acquired the Irish into the CFP playoffs as an alternative of the Bulldogs, whose 11-2 regular-season was deemed not ok.

The reminiscence of their 30-Three CFP semifinal loss to eventual nationwide champion Clemson and a 2019 schedule which included visits to Louisville, Michigan (Oct. 26) and Stanford (Nov. 30) along with Saturday’s showdown in Sanford Stadium are feeding Notre Dame’s mindset.

“We speak about having a road-warrior mindset and that is what it may take for us,” mentioned quarterback Ian E book, who threw for 360 yards and a career-high 5 touchdowns towards the Lobos. “We simply need to go in there and play our sport and concentrate on us and the small particulars.”

That is simpler mentioned than achieved. However then the Bulldogs did simply that in 2017 as true freshman Jake Fromm accomplished 16 of 29 passes for 141 yards in his first collegiate begin and the Georgia protection restricted Notre Dame to 55 dashing yards on 37 carries.

“(Fromm) performed with nice poise and was extraordinarily environment friendly,” Kelly recalled. “They have been extraordinarily athletic two years in the past and they’re slightly greater up entrance this 12 months. They’re simply an excellent group in all areas.”

Notre Dame, which recruits nationwide, has recruited Georgia exhausting and the collection, introduced in 2014, could have helped the Irish to safe 6-foot-Four freshman security Kyle Hamilton, who attended the Marist Faculty north of Atlanta. His 34-yard interception return for a landing acquired the Irish began towards New Mexico.

The Irish seemingly can have two extra offensive items again in tight finish Cole Kmet, who broke a collarbone in preseason, and working again Jahmir Smith, who sat out final week’s sport after scoring a pair of touchdowns towards Louisville.

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This story has been corrected to indicate that Georgia received the 2017 sport by a rating of 20-19, not 19-17.

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