NEW ORLEANS – Marcus Freeman savored the moment.
Confetti doesn’t fall after regular-season victories, and Notre Dame hadn’t won a postseason game of this magnitude since Freeman was a wee one.
So, yeah, bring on the confetti, thank you kindly, and make it Notre Dame navy and not Georgia red.
“Let’s celebrate this,” Freeman said after Notre Dame defrocked Georgia, 23-10, in the Sugar Bowl.
But, careful to not bask in the glow for long, because the next challenge grows tougher.
Penn State looms in the Orange Bowl, and forget what Georgia achieved the previous three seasons, because the Nittany Lions played consistently better than Georgia this season, and the Big Ten told the SEC to scram while becoming the nation’s preeminent conference.
How to trump Notre Dame’s biggest postseason win in more than 30 years? By beating a team that’s even better, on a stage that’s even bigger, the following week.
Not so long ago, you’d have been right to retain skepticism that Notre Dame, long snakebitten in the postseason, could win a playoff game against an opponent of Penn State’s caliber. Against Georgia, these Irish proved they aren’t haunted by the shortcomings of teams past.
“This program is elevating,” linebacker Jack Kiser said. “It’s ascending.”
Notre Dame didn’t just beat Georgia. It overpowered the Bulldogs and revealed Kirby Smart’s dynasty is one for the history books. As in, past tense.
“Georgia is definitely very physical,” Notre Dame safety Adon Shuler said, “so we had to kind of match that.”
Match it? The Irish exceeded Georgia’s physicality.
“A heavyweight fight,” Freeman called it.
Maybe, but the Irish landed a knockout blow on the first play of the second half. When Jayden Harrison ran a kickoff 98 yards into the end zone, Notre Dame counted its third score in less than a minute of game time.
The Bulldogs brought the thump for a quarter and a half. The Irish never relented, applying the thunder throughout four quarters against a weakened, undisciplined, maddeningly inconsistent, mistake-prone, broken team that used to be great.
Beating Penn State will be more difficult.
NEW ERA:SEC should accept reality: It no longer rules college football
HIGHS AND LOWS:Winners and losers from College Football Playoff quarterfinals
Notre Dame has arrived under Freeman. He’s 4-0 in his last four postseason games, but the first three were small fish, really.
Considering the repeated postseason disappointments that came before Freeman, Notre Dame could not turn up its nose at his first three postseason victories, but statues aren’t built for coaches who beat South Carolina, Oregon State or Indiana.
This one, though, this smashing of Georgia, elevates Notre Dame to the big-boys’ table.
Never mind that, for most of the season, Georgia played like a shadow of what it was a mere two years ago.
The ‘G’ on the helmet and the SEC logo on the jersey and the College Football Playoff emblems in the end zones mark this as a signature victory for a program that had last won a “Big Six” bowl under Lou Holtz, in the 1994 Cotton Bowl.
Notre Dame beat Georgia for the first time, and in a sign of his youth, Freeman couldn’t even remember the last time these teams faced in the Sugar Bowl, on New Year’s Day in 1981.
With former President Jimmy Carter in attendance, Herschel Walker ran over the Irish. Georgia captured the national championship with that win.
Old-time Notre Dame fans will remember that game. They’ll cherish this one.
And the next test? Well, it’s fiercer.
Playing Penn State will be like looking in a mirror. The Nittany Lions play relentless defense, they establish the run, and they generally avoid turnovers.
Sound familiar? Sounds like Notre Dame.
Except, Penn State quarterback Drew Allar gives the Nittany Lions a passing game the Irish don’t replicate. Riley Leonard’s speed on quarterback runs offers Notre Dame’s offense an ounce of pizzazz, but Allar, at his best, attacks defenses through the air in a way the Irish usually do not.
Notre Dame toppled Georgia with just 90 passing yards.
How?
“They did a good job with their line of scrimmage,” Georgia wide receiver Arian Smith explained, “stopping the run and making sure they’re disrupting the quarterback.”
The Irish finished plus-two in turnovers. Along the lines of scrimmage, the Irish bullied the pride of the SEC and made Georgia look so very doughy.
“They just out-physicaled us,” Georgia defensive back Dan Jackson said. “The main thing they did, they took away the ball on their defensive side (twice), and we didn’t do that.”
Not once did Notre Dame turn it over.
Irish players say they recovered from their Week 2 loss to Northern Illinois thanks to their leadership and team trust, and although it’s hard to deny that, it’s also true that they started valuing the ball more.
The Irish amassed six turnovers throughout September. They’ve totaled just seven since then. The Irish are plus-18 on turnover margin for the season.
And Penn State? It’s plus-five for turnovers in the playoff alone.
“I saw a little bit of the Penn State game,” Freeman said of an opponent that smothered Boise State, 31-14, in its quarterfinal, “and it’s going to be a great challenge for us. But, I’m excited for it.”
A win against Penn State to unlock a bid to the national championship? Now, that would be worth a double batch of confetti.
Blake Toppmeyer is the USA TODAY Network’s national college football columnist. Email him at BToppmeyer@gannett.com and follow him on X @btoppmeyer. Subscribe to read all of his columns.
