This yr’s Allstate Sugar Bowl guarantees to be a bruising and bodily battle of wills because the seventh seeded Notre Dame Combating Irish will face off in opposition to the second seeded Georgia Bulldogs. Combating Irish Head Coach Marcus Freeman and Bulldogs head coach Kirby Good spoke to reporters Tuesday morning, explaining what makes their packages stand out.
“‘Selecting exhausting’ is a mannequin that now we have in our program concerning the guys that select to return to Notre Dame and play soccer there, and we don’t attempt to conceal it,” defined Freeman. “We would like them to embrace it, but in addition to mannequin it for all times. There’s useful classes each week. What we acquired to know as a program is which you could’t wait till you lose to have the urgency to repair the problems that you’ve.”
In the meantime, Good highlighted toughness as an indicator of not solely his workforce, however Coach Freeman’s groups, beforehand on the College of Cincinnati and at the moment at Notre Dame.
“Nicely, that Cincinnati workforce and this Notre Dame workforce, notably the defenses, play with great effort,” mentioned Good. “So it begins and ends with effort and toughness in all of soccer, they usually do an incredible job doing that. So far as his success, I believe, whenever you’re a great coach and you’re employed actually exhausting, success will discover you.”
Notre Dame comes into this recreation using an eleven recreation successful streak. They’ve outscored their opponents by a mean of 25 factors. In the meantime, of their final three bowl appearances, the Georgia Bulldogs have received two nationwide championships and blew away the Florida State Seminoles by 60 factors. By the way in which, the Georgia Bulldogs survived an all-out battle in opposition to the Texas Longhorns, successful an SEC Championship within the course of.
Nevertheless, Kirby Good in contrast the present iteration of the School Soccer Playoff to the NFL Playoffs.
“With the way in which faculty soccer is now with the portal, and also you lose gamers, you simply can’t afford to not have depth in observe such as you actually wish to observe,” defined Good. “So it’s a problem each methods. We studied all of the NFL groups which have byes versus the wild card groups that get scorching and proceed to play. I believe that’s the closest factor you will discover to it.”
Which workforce can set up the run first?
Notre Dame has two working backs that may tote the rock and an offensive line that can play on Sundays. Jeremiyah Love has run for greater than 1,000 yards and has sixteen touchdowns on the season. Jadarian Value has run for 683 yards and 7 touchdowns. Twin-threat quarterback Riley Leonard additionally has no issues reducing his shoulder. Whereas throwing for practically 2,300 yards and 17 touchdowns, he’s additionally tallied 751 speeding yards this yr.
Conversely, Georgia has Nate Frazier and Travis Etienne who every have scored eight touchdowns. However the wild card will probably be backup quarterback Gunner Stockton. Stockton, a local of Rabun County, got here in for an injured Carson Beck throughout the SEC Championship. And he performed with a great deal of confidence. Stockton completed the evening 12-for-16 and 71 yards passing. Georgia didn’t swap up the sport plan in any respect en path to successful the SEC title.
Who’s Gunner Stockton?
A factor individuals love about Stockton is that he nonetheless drives his grandfather’s Ford F-150. He additionally continues to assist out on the farm and doesn’t speak a complete lot. Nevertheless, Stockton is all about ball. And as we are saying in Georgia, there could also be slightly ‘you-know-what’ in his vinegar.
“I’m not a man that enjoys it, however that’s a part of it,” Stockton mentioned of the media blitz in New Orleans.
His teammates have his again.
“He will get fired up. He performs with ardour,” explains Georgia tight finish, and Stockton’s roommate, Oscar Delp. “There’s nothing extra that he loves than enjoying soccer. He’s such a real man. Once you see him strolling round, daylight, he’s a traditional man. He’s tremendous real, tremendous cool. He’s every part you need in a buddy.”
In highschool, Stockton 254 touchdowns and 18,024 complete yards in 53 video games, which included 13 video games with seven or extra touchdowns. He broke data held by Trevor Lawrence and Deshaun Watson.
“I’m 100% assured,” mentioned Georgia working again Trevor Etienne of Stockton. “I say this on a regular basis, Gunner has been working on a regular basis since he was QB1. I’m fully assured. I like to explain him as fearless. When he’s on the market, it’s electrical.
What: Allstate Sugar Bowl
Who: No. 7 Notre Dame vs. No. 2 Georgia
When: Wednesday Jan. 1 at 8:45 p.m. ET
The place: Caesars Superdome in New Orleans
TV: ESPN
Stream: WatchESPN
Unfold: Georgia (-1)
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