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NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA – JANUARY 02: Head coach Marcus Freeman of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish and head coach Kirby Smart of the Georgia Bulldogs talk after the 91st Allstate Sugar Bowl in which Notre Dame defeated Georgia 23-10 at Caesars Superdome on January 02, 2025 in New Orleans, Louisiana. (Photo by Sean Gardner/Getty Images)
Notre Dame Fighting Irish head coach Marcus Freeman made a bold decision to go for a fourth and short from deep within his own territory late in the fourth quarter against Georgia. Freeman’s decision worked out well for Notre Dame, who drew Georgia offsides after subbing their punt unit and then offense on the field.
“That situation that happened in the fourth quarter was something we practiced,” said Freeman. Notre Dame capitalized on the first down and ate up some more clock on a drive that lasted over seven minutes and extinguished any chance of a comeback.
Georgia head coach Kirby Smart did not think that Notre Dame’s substitution was legal. “I’ve been told by our head of officials in the SEC that you can’t do that. You can’t run 11 on, 11 off,” said Smart. “We did it in 2017 against Tennessee. We’ve carried that. We practiced that and repped that because teams try to do it, and we were told by officials you could not do that.”
Georgia’s offside penalty crushed any chance the Bulldogs had of making a comeback. Ultimately, Georgia was more mistake-prone than Notre Dame and was not as physical as the Irish.
“And I think the performance was a reflection of that. We had a lot of confidence in the ability to be able to do that, and we had a plan. And that’s the aggressiveness in terms of our preparation that I want our program to have, and again, out there when it matters the most. And so, that’s got to be one of our edges, is that we are going to be an aggressive group and not fear making…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/marcus-freeman-explains-notre-dames-192935223.html
Author : UGA Wire
Publish date : 2025-01-04 19:29:00
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