A few minutes after confetti fell on a jubilant Notre Dame Fighting Irish team herded into a corner of the Superdome, quarterback Riley Leonard brushed some of the blue and white flakes off his newfound trophy after being named offensive MVP of the Sugar Bowl.
Taking a second to stare at the award, and all the accomplishment that it represented, the signal-caller produced something that had been in short supply around New Orleans in the wake of a devastating truck attack just three hours into the new year. A few miles away in the famed French Quarter, over a dozen people were killed and many more injured in a tragic event that cast a shadow over the game’s proceedings and forced its postponement a day later from its typical spot on the calendar.
Standing off to the side of a makeshift stage and caught up in the moment though, Riley smiled a mile wide. He then looked up and proceeded to start hugging and high fiving anybody within reach, most notably coach Marcus Freeman’s small children, who joined the proceedings to embrace their father.
Coming off a hard-earned 23–10 victory over the No. 2 seed Georgia Bulldogs, the minor moment was as pure and wholesome as they come—offering a sharp contrast to the 36 hours prior where little of that could be found around a town that redefines how to have a good time with regularity.
“I want to thank the New Orleans Police Department for responding the way they did and creating a safe environment for us to play today so quickly,” Leonard said. “I think adding another day is just helping our superpower out. We say our superpowers, all the time, is our preparation and the character in our locker room. Those are two intangible things that we have.
“That’s our superpowers, our preparation, and I think it definitely paid off today.”
There’s little arguing with that as the action between a pair of bluebloods, at the same site of their 1981 classic that determined the national championship, became a welcome distraction for all involved.
Everything seemed to cooperate to meet the moment. After a few days of cloudy and cold weather had moved into the Mississippi delta, the sun shone most of the afternoon amid warming temperature and the cloudless sky caused the golden exterior of the Superdome to glisten resplendently. Just before kickoff, the French Quarter reopened and the city showed once again how capable it is in recovering and moving forward.
It was fitting that Notre Dame embodied all that, too, in order to win their first major bowl game in decades that doubled as their second straight victory in the College Football Playoff. From a lone September home loss to a MAC team, the program now sits a win away from the national championship game at the end of the month.
How they looked more physical, faster and well-prepared in all three phases perhaps brought even greater satisfaction to end Notre Dame’s ignominious 0–10 mark in major bowl games dating back to a victory in the 1994 Cotton Bowl.
It was a straight up whipping of an SEC team for four quarters that proved Notre Dame was not just an equal, but better this season across the board.
“As we prepared, I told them that this will be a 60-minute fight. Georgia had been down in nine games this year and found a way to come back and win—so they have that mentality,” Freeman said. “Our coaches called a great game, our players executed and put everything on the line for this university, this football team. I’m really proud of them.”
Freeman deserves praise for guiding the program to a place both fans and detractors of America’s college football Rorschach test never thought possible.
He lost his first three games after taking over in South Bend and inherited a team that rarely matched up well with the boys from south of the Mason-Dixon Line. No matter the contest, Notre Dame often looked slow and prodding the last several years. It was incapable of finding enough playmakers on either side of the ball to actually get over the hump and win at a level commensurate with its unparalleled history.
The Irish were solid and good, sure, but never great. Now, they have a chance to be.
An always stout offensive line was fortified with increased athleticism, including adding freshman left tackle Anthonie Knapp out of Georgia’s own backyard. A stiff linebackers room gave way to a far deeper group that could attack downhill as well as they could turn and run with a host of tailbacks out of the backfield.
At wide receiver, long a position that lacked capable answers for the Irish in big moments, coaching changes and outside-the-box thinking (starter Jordan Faison, for example, won a lacrosse national championship at the school) led to key moments just when the team needed. Even depth has been improved to an impressive degree, with the loss of starting defensive lineman Rylie Mills and banged-up defensive tackle Howard Cross III proving to be far less of a concern.
Nothing defined the encapsulating win more than a 54-second stretch surrounding halftime that made a back-and-forth rock fight between two heavyweights into a one-way result for Notre Dame.
It began as the clock ticked under a minute in the first half when Georgia coach Kirby Smart called a timeout to ice kicker Mitch Jeter.
The South Carolina Gamecocks transfer has used the extended breaks built into the CFP well, returning from a hip injury suffered in October against the Stanford Cardinal to rebound for this stretch run. He easily connected on a 48-yarder that gave Notre Dame its first lead—having trailed for the first time since October just a few moments prior.
On the ensuing Georgia drive, just one play later, new UGA starting quarterback Gunner Stockton dropped back and held onto the ball just a tick long enough for Notre Dame end RJ Oben to come around the corner and knock it out. Junior Tuihalamaka saw the football rolling around the turf and promptly leaped onto it at the 13-yard line.
One snap later, Leonard calmly rode a play-action fake before pulling up and hitting wideout Beaux Collins for a touchdown.
A sizable portion of the announced 57,267 fans were sent into a state of euphoria. The majority, clad in black and red, were left dazed and confused.
The Irish weren’t done, however.
On the opening kickoff of the second half, Jayden Harrison weaved initially to his left before cutting back and finding plenty of daylight to his right. Showcasing that speed is not reserved exclusively for those who play within the Southeastern Conference, the graduate transfer from the Marshall Thundering Herd outran the rest of the Bulldogs coverage unit along the sideline for a 98-yard touchdown.
Offense, defense and special teams combined for a 17-point outburst in less than a minute of game time.
“I didn’t want to survive, and I think that’s the natural tendency in a big game,” Freeman said. “Let’s be aggressive now. I didn’t know we were going to come out of the locker room and score a kickoff return touchdown, but that was the middle eight that we often talk about. The ability to close the half in that way, and to start the second half with a kickoff return touchdown was huge for the outcome of the game.”
Georgia did not lie down quietly though, especially with a senior class that had gone an FBS-leading 53–5 the past four years. The Bulldogs moved efficiently down the field in the third quarter before Stockton (20-of-32, 234 yards) tossed his first touchdown pass of the season on a diving reception by Cash Jones, who looped out of the backfield on a wheel route and beat a linebacker in coverage.
It seemed like that could be just the spark the team needed to turn things around, but Georgia never quite took control.
That was mostly down to Leonard continuing to embody the grit which has defined the Irish as they’ve recovered from an inexplicable loss to the Northern Illinois Huskies to keep winning ever since.
The quarterback used every bit of his bruising 6' 4", 216-pound frame to scramble and cajole yards and first downs to give the Bulldogs a taste of what they usually dish out.
On top of throwing for 90 yards and a touchdown while rushing for a game-high 80 yards, Leonard was incredibly savvy when he needed to be.
Late in the fourth quarter, he delivered a bit of trickeration on fourth-and-short from his own 18-yard line just as things seemed to be tilting back in favor of the SEC champions. After Freeman and special teams coordinator Marty Biagi initially ran out the punt unit, the Irish instead subbed a full 11 onto the field and Leonard barked out a hard count that earned him a free play and a fresh set of downs.
A few plays later, the QB converted a third-and-7 with a keeper that included his best John Elway at the goal line impression in a spinning, leaping flip over All-American safety Malaki Starks to secure a first down. The entire sequence didn’t end with any points but it soaked 7:36 off the clock and allowed the defense to finish the game with its fourth sack.
“I’ll say it for him, great call,” joked Leonard, who revealed Freeman changed the fourth-down trick play two days ago and downplayed his own role in consistently moving the chains. “I mean everybody keeps telling me to stop doing [those leaps] and then I did it and it worked out today. Plus, we’re in the playoffs, you know you put it all on the line. That pretty much is my mindset going into every game.”
That mindset permeates throughout the program and allows the previously wallowing Irish to go toe-to-toe against an SEC team and come out on top as they expected.
“It’s about the team, it’s about everybody,” added Freeman, who by advancing to the semifinals along with Penn State counterpart James Franklin will ensure a Black head coach will appear in the national title game for the first time. “As head coach of this place, I understand that we’re not in this position unless everybody in this program gets their job done.”
That they did to underscore a defining victory at a place that’s hard to notch one of those. For that and more at a Sugar Bowl that won’t soon be forgotten, that’s worth smiling for.
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Bryan Fischer is a staff writer at Sports Illustrated covering college sports. He joined the SI staff in October 2024 after spending nearly two decades at outlets such as FOX Sports, NBC Sports and CBS Sports. A member of the Football Writers Association of America's All-America Selection Committee and a Heisman Trophy voter, Fischer has received awards for investigative journalism from the Associated Press Sports Editors and FWAA. He has a bachelor's in communication from USC.
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