Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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40 SEPT. 11, 2017 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED BY LOU SOMOGYI THE "NOTRE DAME OF THE SOUTH?" To many college football aficio- nado's, Georgia is "the Notre Dame of the South" — an operation that receives plenty of hype each Febru- ary for its recruiting success, but is unable to translate it into consistent excellence on the playing field. In a Rivals survey this summer, the data revealed that during the five-year period from 2013-17, Geor- gia had the No. 5 cumulative rat- ing among recruiting classes, while Notre Dame was No. 8. The top 10, with the average re- cruiting ranking in parentheses, was comprised of Alabama (1.2), Ohio State (3.8), Florida State (4.8), LSU (5.8), Georgia (7.8), USC (8.4), Au- burn (9.6), Notre Dame (10.2), Texas A&M (10.8) and Florida (11.6). The top three all won national titles during that time, but LSU head coach Les Miles was fired last season. The Bulldogs annually thrive on the recruiting trail, yet in the last eight years they have finished out- side the Associated Press top 25 five times, losing anywhere from four to seven games in five of those eight campaigns. Despite a .740 winning percentage (145-51), head coach Mark Richt and the school parted ways after the 2015 season because Georgia could never get over the "next level" hump. Under first-year head coach Kirby Smart in 2016, the Bulldogs had an- other underwhelming season, los- ing all of its rivalry games (Florida, Georgia Tech and Tennessee), falling at home to Vanderbilt and barely get- ting by Football Championship Sub- division foe Nicholls State (26-24). Notre Dame's woes go back even farther. It has lost at least three games in 22 of the last 23 seasons, has not won a major bowl in that time and has recorded only two top-10 finishes. The 2012 campaign was the outlier for both with 12-1 Notre Dame fin- ishing No. 4 and 12-2 Georgia No. 5. The Bulldogs would have played the Irish for the national title had they not lost a tremendously hard-fought SEC Championship game to Ala- bama, 32-28. Notre Dame, though, has been un- able to build on that 2012 success with a pedestrian 31-20 record over the last four seasons — including a 20-19 mark versus Power Five con- ference teams. Still, the eight players Notre Dame had drafted in 2016 (six in the first three rounds) were the fourth-most in the nation, and since 2012 Notre Dame is one of only six schools to play in both a national title game and Big Six (major) bowl. For both Notre Dame and Geor- gia, this meeting is crucial to begin a more promising campaign in 2017, or to be continued to be recognized mainly for recruiting hype and not much else. TOO MUCH HOSPITALITY Many Fighting Irish followers might remember the infamous "Sea of Red" game at Notre Dame Sta- dium in 2000 when an enormous contingent of Nebraska fans almost made it seem like a Cornhuskers home game. Georgia is looking to do a sequel to that Sea of Red. The Bulldogs re- ceived 8,000 tickets from Notre Dame and an additional 400 went to the Redcoat Band, but reports are surfac- ing that the secondary ticket market could result in at least 20,000-plus Bulldogs fans piling into Notre Dame Stadium. There are at least two reasons why the demand is so great from Bulldog faithful. One, this is the first time since a 15-7 victory at Michigan in 1965 that a Georgia football team is playing north of the Mason-Dixon line. Two, it is Georgia's first visit to Notre Dame, which is still respected ground in college football despite mainly mediocre results by the Irish the past 23 years. GAME PREVIEW: GEORGIA Top STorylineS Georgia has achieved success on the recruiting trail by landing players such as former five-star prospect Lorenzo Carter, now a senior linebacker, but it hasn't translated to as many wins as anticipated on the field in the fall. PHOTO COURTESY GEORGIA