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SOUTH BEND — Surging Notre Dame football (12-1) has earned a New Year’s Night date in New Orleans with No. 2 Georgia (11-2) in a College Football Playoff quarterfinal matchup.
Third-year coach Marcus Freeman’s seventh-seeded Irish, winners of 11 straight games, stopped the Cinderella season of in-state rival Indiana with a 27-17 win on Friday night at Notre Dame Stadium.
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Georgia, looking for its third CFP championship in four seasons, lost starting quarterback Carson Beck to a throwing elbow injury in the SEC Championship overtime win over Texas. The final score was 22-19.
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Coach Kirby Smart’s Bulldogs turned to untested backup quarterback Gunner Stockton, who held things together well enough in the second half in that Dec. 7 rematch against the Longhorns. Stockton, a redshirt sophomore who is 6-foot-1 and 215 pounds, went 12 of 16 passing for 71 yards in the SEC title game but averaged just 4.4 yards per attempt.
He also threw an interception and carried eight times for eight yards.
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Former University of Louisiana running back Emory Hunt, CEO of Football Gameplan and college football analyst for CBS Sports, picked the Irish to knock off the Bulldogs shortly after the matchup was set.
“I don’t care if (Georgia) had Carson Beck; Notre Dame is going to beat Georgia,” Hunt said. “Notre Dame is great on both sides of the line of scrimmage. They can run the football. They can shut down your passing game.”
Georgia’s two losses were on the road against Mississippi (28-10) and Alabama (41-34). The Bulldogs also needed eight overtimes to survive Georgia Tech at home on Thanksgiving Weekend.
Notre Dame hasn’t trailed in 397 game…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/notre-dame-beat-georgia-cfp-170707597.html
Author : South Bend Tribune
Publish date : 2024-12-21 17:07:00
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