Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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BLUEGOLDONLINE.COM FEBRUARY 2025 37 1 Kickoff return touchdown, 3 made field goals from 40-plus yards (44, 48 and 47), 4 sacks, multiple takeaways (2) and no more than 10 points allowed had not been achieved by an FBS team in any single game this century, per OptaSTATS — until Notre Dame did it against Georgia in its 23-10 win in the Sugar Bowl on Jan. 2, 2025. 1st Victory for Notre Dame in a major bowl game since its 24-21 triumph over Texas A&M in the Cotton Bowl on Jan. 1, 1994. It has been so long that two players on the current Irish squad that snapped that skid have fathers who were members of that last Irish team to win a major bowl game: freshman defensive end Bryce Young, the son of former Irish defensive tackle Bry- ant Young; and walk-on linebacker Tommy Powlus, son of current Notre Dame deputy athletic director and ex-Irish quarterback Ron Powlus. That nation-worst 10-game losing streak in ma- jor bowl games — with the defeats coming by an average margin of 17.5 points — spanned 31 years, eight different opponents (Colorado, Florida State, Oregon State, Ohio State twice, LSU, Ala- bama twice, Clemson and Oklahoma) and six Notre Dame head coaches (Lou Holtz, Bob Davie, Tyrone Willingham, Charlie Weis, Brian Kelly and Marcus Freeman). The Irish suffered five defeats in the Fiesta Bowl, one each in the Orange, Sugar, Cotton and Rose, and one in the BCS National Champion- ship Game (which was played in Miami that year). 3-2 All-time record for Notre Dame on Jan. 2. Prior to the Irish's 23-10 win over Georgia, their last win on that date was a 34-21 triumph over West Virginia in the 1989 Fiesta Bowl that earned them the 1988 national championship. 6 Years since Georgia lost to a team that was not in the SEC, before Notre Dame knocked them off. Prior to that, the Bulldogs' last loss to a team that was not currently in the SEC was a 28-21 setback at the hands of Big 12 foe Texas in the Sugar Bowl on Jan, 1, 2019 — a span of 2,193 days. The Longhorns, of course, are currently in the SEC. If you take them out of the equation, you then have to go all the way back to a 28-27 loss to Georgia Tech of the ACC on Nov. 26, 2016 — a span of 2,959 days. 7:36 Was drained from the clock during Notre Dame's 12-play, 41-yard drive in the fourth quarter. It did not result in any points but it essentially iced the win for the Fighting Irish. The final 5:17 came off the clock after Notre Dame sent its offense back onto the field with the play clock ticking down for a fourth-and-1 at their own 18-yard line. The Irish got the first down when they tricked Georgia into jumping offsides on a hard count. 9-10-2 All-time record for Notre Dame against the No. 2 team in the Associated Press poll. Notre Dame's victory versus Georgia is the program's first win over an AP No. 2 team since a 29-20 victory over Miami in Notre Dame Stadium on Oct. 20, 1990, ending a four-game losing streak for the Irish against AP No. 2 teams. 12 Straight wins — the longest active streak in the country — for Notre Dame follow- ing its victory versus Georgia. During those 12 games, the Irish have outscored their opponents by an average of 27.5 points per game. The last nine wins have come by double digits. The last time they achieved nine straight double-digit wins was in 1949, when they won the national title. 13-0 Record for Notre Dame in games in which it has forced at least one turnover this season. The lone game in which the Irish defense failed to produce a takeaway was the 16-14 loss to Northern Illinois Sept. 7. Following their victory over Georgia, the Irish had forced an FBS-best 31 turnovers. That is the most for the program since the 2002 team forced 33 turnovers. 17 Points in 54 seconds for Notre Dame span- ning the first and second halves. It started with graduate student kicker Mitch Jeter's 48-yard field goal with 39 seconds remaining in the second quarter. On the next play from scrimmage, gradu- ate student defensive tackle RJ Oben recorded a strip-sack, and the fumble was recovered by junior vyper Junior Tuihalamaka at the Georgia 13-yard line. On the next play, senior quarterback Riley Leonard connected with graduate student wide receiver Beaux Collins on a 13-yard touchdown pass with 33 seconds remaining in the first half. The game-deciding flurry concluded when graduate student wide receiver Jayden Harrison returned the opening kickoff of the second half 98 yards for a touchdown and a 20-3 Irish lead with 14:45 remaining in the third quarter. Per ESPN's Bill Connelly, "In a single minute of action, the Fighting Irish's win probability leaped from around 50 percent to well over 80 percent." BY THE NUMBERS BY STEVE DOWNEY 98 Yards on graduate stu- dent Jayden Harrison's kickoff return touch- down that opened the second half. That was just shy of the Sugar Bowl record, behind only Andre Debose's 100-yard effort for Florida in 2013. Harrison's 98-yarder is the second-longest kick return in Sugar Bowl history, surpass- ing Notre Dame's Al Hunter's 93-yarder against Alabama in the 1973 Sugar Bowl for that honor. It marked the first return touchdown for Harrison — who teams avoided kicking to throughout the season — in an Irish uniform and the fourth of his career (he had three at Marshall from 2021-23). PHOTO BY CHAD WEAVER