Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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32 JANUARY 2025 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED QUARTERFINAL PREVIEW: GEORGIA C O L L E G E F O O T B A L L P L A Y O F F But of course, the Bulldogs dominated the second half and came away with a comfortable 31-17 win. Redshirt senior quarterback Carson Beck played his best game of the season one week after play- ing his worst, throwing for 347 yards and 2 touchdowns. "A week ago and a couple hours, we were dead and gone," Smart said. "Peo- ple [had] written us off. … We had a lot of guys sitting on the sideline tonight that couldn't play. But we also had a lot of guys that stepped up." In the quarterfinal, Beck will likely be one of those guys who can't play. On the final play of the first half of the SEC Championship against Texas, Beck suf- fered an elbow injury. Per the team, he and his family are exploring treatment options. Reports indicate it doesn't look good. Redshirt sophomore Gunner Stock- ton took his place, and he helped lead Georgia to the win. Even without their starting quarterback, it's never wise to count out the Dawgs. "Can't say enough about [Stock- ton's] toughness, character, whatever you want to say," Smart said. "The guy's a phenomenal leader. He made some good plays. And everybody else rose up around him." WHAT'S THE WEAKNESS? When you look at the games in which Georgia's defense has struggled, you start to see a theme. Alabama redshirt junior quarterback Jalen Milroe rushed 16 times for 117 yards and 2 touchdowns. Georgia could not keep him contained in the backfield. On one play in particular — a fourth- and-1 with the Crimson Tide up 21-0 — Milroe kept it on a zone read and beat star junior safety Malaki Starks to the edge. He took it 36 yards down the side- line and to the house. On Nov. 29 in an eight-overtime win over Georgia Tech, redshirt junior Yel- low Jackets quarterback Haynes King rushed 24 times for 110 yards and 3 scores. He didn't break any big ones like Milroe did, but he QB-powered Georgia to death. Both Milroe and King passed for more than 300 yards and 2 touchdowns, too. Moral of the story: Statues are doomed against the Bulldogs, but Georgia is vul- nerable to dual-threat quarterbacks. "What threw it off a little bit was Haynes King's ability to throw the ball, because everything we had been told is his injury prevented him from throwing it," Smart said. "Haynes came in and he threw the ball well and really had some advanta- geous looks to throw it off, because we had everybody committed to the box." That, of course, plays into Notre Dame's hands. Senior quarterback Riley Leonard is elite with his legs. If teams load the box, he's shown he can hurt them with his arm. And when defenses put too much attention on the signal-caller, here comes sophomore running back Jer- emiyah Love. But if the Irish hope to beat Georgia, it will take a heroic effort from Leonard on par with what Milroe and King did in previous weeks. Time will tell if he's up to the task. ✦ Junior Mykel Williams, the latest in a line of freakish Georgia defensive linemen, has compiled 20 total stops, 8.5 tackles for loss and 5 sacks this season. PHOTO COURTESY GEORGIA