Two of college football's biggest brands will finish out the quarterfinal round of the 2024-25 College Football Playoff when SEC champion (2) Georgia takes on (7) Notre Dame in the Sugar Bowl.
Notre Dame reached the second round thanks to a 27-17 win against Indiana that was much more lopsided than the final score indicates. The Fighting Irish led 27-3 with less than five minutes remaining before a late flurry of Hoosiers points made the score look much closer than the game actually was. Quarterback Riley Leonard was effective, and the defense was stifling, though the win came at a cost as the team lost starting defensive lineman Rylie Mills for the rest of the season to injury.
Georgia begins its College Football Playoff campaign in the quarterfinal matchup, having earned a bye as the SEC champion. However, it has injury concerns of its own, with confirmation that starting quarterback Carson Beck is out for the year after suffering an elbow injury in the SEC Championship Game win against Texas. Gunner Stockton is set to make his first career start in the Sugar Bowl against a feisty Notre Dame defense.
Georgia and Notre Dame are synonymous with college football at the highest levels, but this will be just the fourth meeting between the two programs. The Bulldogs have claimed all three previous matchups, including a 17-10 win in the Sugar Bowl that sealed a national championship and victories in both ends of a home-and-home series in 2017 (in South Bend) and 2019 (in Athens).
This Sugar Bowl matchup was originally slated to be played on New Year's Day, but in the wake of the deadly truck attack in New Orleans, the game was eventually postponed to Thursday.
How to watch Georgia vs. Notre Dame live
Date: Wednesday, Jan. 1 | Time: 4 p.m. ET
Location: Caesars Superdome -- New Orleans, Louisiana
TV: ESPN | Live stream: Fubo (Try for free)
Georgia vs. Notre Dame: Players to watch
Riley Leonard, QB, Notre Dame: The Fighting Irish quarterback has lived up to the expectations since his transfer from Duke and enters the quarterfinals as one of the top dual-threat signal callers in the country. Leonard is one just five quarterbacks as the power conference level with 1,900 yards passing and 700 yards rushing this season. His 15 rushing touchdowns ranks 15th among all FBS players and fifth among quarterbacks.
Xavier Watts, DB, Notre Dame: The two-time All-American picked up his 13th career interception in the CFP First Round and totaled a career-high 10 tackles in the win. Watts is regarded not just as one of the top defensive backs but one of the top defensive players in the entire country over the last two seasons, and as one of the team's captains he's going to be a huge part of getting Notre Dame ready to go for its first-ever win against Georgia.
Jeremiah Love, RB, Notre Dame: With his 98-yard touchdown run against Indiana in the CFP First Round, Love extended his streak of rushing for a touchdown in every single game this season. He has amassed 1,057 rushing yards on the season and is the only FBS player to have rushed for a touchdown in every game this season and continues to extend his school record of most consecutive games with a rushing touchdown.
Jalon Walker, LB, Georgia: The 2024 Butkus Award winner as the nation's best linebacker, Walker leads Georgia in tackles for loss with 10.5 and is the team's co-leader with 6.5 sacks. Walker has made big plays when his team needed them most all year. He had a strip-sack in the regular season win at Texas and totaled three tackles for loss in the SEC Championship Game win against the Longhorns as well.
Trevor Etienne, RB, Georgia: Though he missed time due to injury in the back half of the season, Etienne's performance in the SEC title game underscored his value to the Bulldogs. Etienne had 94 yards on 16 carries and two touchdowns in the win, including the game-winner in overtime. Etienne has nine starts and has totaled 571 yards (5.1 yards per carry) and nine touchdowns on the year.
Gunner Stockton, QB, Georgia: Thrust into action when Carson Beck was knocked out of the SEC Championship Game, Stockton is set to make his first career start on a huge stage. Stockton led the Georgia offense on scoring drives of 75, 61 and 72 yards on three of his first four possessions against Texas. Before the SEC Championship Game, Stockton had seen action in just three games this season, completing 13-of-16 passes for 135 yards.
Sugar Bowl prediction, picks
These teams are led by their defenses and given the caliber of athlete in the trenches, we can expect a rock fight. Georgia will also likely come out conservative to keep Stockton out of pressure situations. Notre Dame would probably not mind a shootout as the Fighting Irish have been far more productive and consistent offensively but they are good enough to win a low-scoring grinder of a game too. Pick: Under 45.5
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