Notre Dame Football: Georgia Bulldogs Q&A with Dawg Sports

Let’s talk about this tiny little football game that sort of matters to some of us that’s happening tomorrow

Hi friends, it’s been a couple weeks — in case you were unaware as you prepared for all your New Year’s Eve party plans, I’m here to remind you that your Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team has another somewhat important game coming up that you may be interested in…

The 7-seed Irish, after taking down the 10-seed Indiana Hoosiers 27-17 just 11 days ago, now travel down south to Nawlins to face off against the 2-seed Georgia Bulldogs in the Allstate Sugar Bowl tomorrow evening. The Dawgs are 11-2, SEC champs, and have won 2 of the last 3 national titles — so even though their original 2024 starting QB Carson Beck is out for the year, we’re still talking about one of the toughest programs one could face in college football right now.

So, in order to understand just how tough this matchup is for Marcus Freeman’s squad and how ND may be able to pull off the victory and move on to the semi-finals of the College Football Playoff, we reached out to MaconDawg, the Site Manager over at Dawg Sports, SB Nation’s headquarters for all things UGA.

MaconDawg answered questions about this Bulldogs team’s potential to win another title, what the backup QB does differently than Beck, how the Georgia defense will try to shut down the Irish rushing attack, and some other very important questions about British things, what a YouTube star UGA fan is doing now, and much more.

So, considering we all want to go ahead and get on with watching the slate of college football games we’re about to be treated to over the next 2 days, let’s dive straight in to read what he had to say about this game and what we can expect from THE DAWWWWWWGS.

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Photo by Todd Kirkland/Getty Images

1. How are Georgia fans feeling about this season so far, and how likely do you think it is that this Bulldogs team puts it together down the stretch and wins Kirby Smart his 3rd title in 4 years?

Conversely, is Kirby on the hot seat if he goes a whopping 2 years in a row without winning it all??

MaconDawg, Dawg Sports: This has been an incredibly frustrating season for Georgia fans, mainly because of inconsistency. It’s not that Georgia has been bad. It’s that at times they’ve been awful (the first half against Alabama, the Ole Miss game) and at other times (34-3 victory over Clemson, solid win over Tennessee, both Texas wins) have looked like a national title contender. Especially with a backup quarterback, I don’t know that any sane UGA fans really expect to win a title this season.

As to the hot seat, not even close. Definitely not after winning an SEC title with a backup quarterback. There’s actually a pretty strong feeling among Bulldog fans that with all the injuries this team has suffered, significant turnover on the staff in the offseason, and playing the toughest schedule in the country, getting to this point has been one of the best coaching jobs Kirby has done.

2. With Carson Beck officially out, the relatively unknown Gunner Stockton will start for the Dawgs on New Year’s night. What’s his deal? What’s he really good at, and what limitations/weaknesses does he have that you think the Irish defense could try to exploit? Is he a major step down from Beck?

MaconDawg, Dawg Sports: Stockton isn’t the pure drop back passer that Beck is. But he’s got a good arm and is a significantly better runner. He actually reminds Bulldogs a little of a successful recent UGA quarterback:

Honestly the Notre Dame defense will probably be able to use their experience defending Riley Leonard in practice to some advantage, as the two aren’t incredibly dissimilar.

3. Georgia seems to have a pretty good 1-2 punch in the backfield with Trevor Etienne and Nate Frazier — how good are those guys, and how much success do you think they and the Bulldogs o-line will have against an Irish front seven that will now officially be missing one of its biggest, strongest, and most experienced interior d-linemen in Rylie Mills (recently ruled out for the year)?

MaconDawg, Dawg Sports: Etienne came into this season with a lot of hype, but like just about every other member of the Bulldog backfield has missed significant time due to injury. Frazier took over the starting role in his absence and has played with more and more poise and confidence every week. There’s a bit of a sense among Bulldog fans that they may be meshing as a tandem at just the right time.

Georgia is definitely going to try to run the ball. Kirby Smart’s ideal game plan is to control the clock, score points after long drives, and keep his defense fresh. I expect the Bulldogs to hit some runs against the Fighting Irish defense, but a major determining factor may be whether they can do that consistently. If the Irish can control the line of scrimmage late in the game that may be the difference in this one.

Brett Davis-Imagn Images

4. Who are the key Georgia receivers Stockton will target in this one, and do you think they’ll be able to get much separation against a pretty stingy Irish secondary?

MaconDawg, Dawg Sports: There really aren’t any. I wish that was a joke, but the Bulldog receiving corps have been a liability all year. Georgia leads FBS in dropped passes and just hasn’t been able to replace Brock Bowers and Ladd McConkey, who anchored the receiving attack from 2021 through 2023.

Arian Smith is a burner who can get open downfield, but catches barely half the 25+ yard opportunities he gets. Dillon Bell is a more consistent downfield pass catcher who has also looked good in the slot. And Dominick Lovett is a versatile receiver who Georgia has looked for a lot in 3rd down situations. But the Bulldog passing attack has really evolved more in the direction of tight ends Oscar Delp and Lawson Luckie and tailbacks Etienne and Cash Jones, all of whom have averaged greater than 1.5 receptions per game.

Joshua L. Jones / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

5a. What are the strengths and weaknesses of the UGA defense this year? How have opponents found success against them?

MaconDawg, Dawg Sports: Georgia has been uncharacteristically good at getting to the passer, averaging 2.77 sacks per game (the most since the 2021 title team defense that produced 5 first round NFL picks). Georgia has also been uncharacteristically bad on 3rd down, a real departure from the norm under Kirby Smart. After leading the SEC in opponent third down conversion percentage in 2022 and 2023, the Red and Black have given up first downs on 33.15% of attempts. The problem has been particularly acute on third and long.

Georgia has also given up 36 passes of greater than 30 yards thanks to some iffy secondary play. That’s gotten better after some late season lineup changes, but if Notre Dame can protect Riley Leonard and if Leonard can extend plays and produce off-script, big plays will be there for the taking in the passing game.

5b. FAN QUESTION:

MaconDawg, Dawg Sports: Georgia rarely plays stacked fronts, but will likely play five-six guys in the box and play man on the outside a lot.

I don’t see that changing. Kirby feels like he has the athletes on defense to play that sort of base look but bring pressure judiciously when he needs to, like so:

6. Which ND players scare or concern you heading into this matchup? On the flipside, which UGA players should Irish fans be most afraid of in this one?

7. FAN QUESTION:

MaconDawg, Dawg Sports: Kirby Smart looks like a dumb old country boy. But as Lyndon Johnson famously warned, if anyone tells you that’s what they are, you should probably hold onto your wallet.

Smart is low key one of the most consistent in-game coaches in college football. For example, in both the overtime win over Georgia Tech and the one over Texas he used timeouts at key moments to control the situational flow of the game. He called a gutsy fake punt against the Longhorns that may well have been the play of the game (featuring a touch pass by OC Mike Bobo’s son, 315-pound offensive guard Drew Bobo).

In short, I’m worried about the quarterback, I’m worried about the secondary, and I’m even worried about the punter. But Kirby Smart is solid.

8. FAN QUESTION:

MaconDawg, Dawg Sports: That’s a pretty rich question from a group of people who frequently travel to Dublin for no discernible practical or legal reason.

9. Speaking of KINGS, what is the star of one of my favorite YouTube videos from back in the day — the “SPURRIER!!! YOU THINK VISORS ARE COOL?!” guy — doing these days?

If you don’t know, please give me your best guess with as much detail as you feel is warranted to properly honor his greatness.

MaconDawg, Dawg Sports: I’m currently answering questions about the Sugar Bowl.

Just kidding. I think that guy’s a dentist now, though I could also be thinking of the Georgia fan who used to come to home basketball games slathered head to toe in peanut butter.

10. Alright, let’s get down to it — who wins this game, what’s the final score, and how does it happen?

MaconDawg, Dawg Sports: This game should be really, really close. If Kirby has his way it may set the cause of football back two decades, and the first team to 20 may win.

I expect Georgia will move the ball some, but I just don’t know that the Dawgs can avoid mistakes consistently enough with a new starter to beat a fundamentally sound, physical Notre Dame team. I’m also concerned about the kicking game, as Georgia’s veteran punter Brett Thorson went down with an ACL injury in the SEC title game.

My heart says Georgia, but my brain says Notre Dame: Irish 27, Bulldogs 24.

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Alright folks, I want to give a massive shout-out and thank you to MaconDawg for taking the time to provide us with such awesome, thoughtful analysis while even humoring some of our more…interesting…questions — especially during this holiday season when we all have a million things going on. He’s truly a gentleman and a scholar.

I HIGHLY recommend you head over to the Dawg Sports site to check out their coverage of this game — there are few SB Nation sites who do it better, and you’re gonna find some excellent insights and useful tidbits of info as we head into this massive game. Furthermore, PLEASE make sure you give both MaconDawg and the Dawg Sports site account some follows on the good ole Twitter machine, as they’re provide hard-hitting news, coverage, and humorous riffs on everything happening before, during, and after this Sugar Bowl matchup. They’re the types of follows you maintain well after this game is completed, just for the great college football content.

That about does it, you guys — so the only thing left to say is, as always: GO IRISH, BEAT BULLDOGS!!!