Notre Dame's Physicality Determines 2025 Sugar Bowl
Notre Dame has always been a physical program. It’s Midwest football. It’s Notre Dame football.
On Thursday night, Notre Dame once again stepped on the big stage in the Sugar Bowl in a standalone game, and the Fighting Irish not only beat Georgia, the SEC champions, but they also made the Bulldogs submit.
“We knew they were going to be a ground-and-pound team, especially with a backup quarterback in,” stated linebacker Drayk Bowen. “We knew we had to bring the fight to them and that was one of our keys to victory. We needed to be physical to do that. I felt like, upfront, we were physical and making piles go back. I thought we brought that to life.”
The tone for the game might have even been set on the drive. Notre Dame stopped Trevor Etienne for a two-yard loss on the first play of the game and then rallied to the ball to stop a Gunner Stockton run for no gain.
Following a pass interference flag, Notre Dame stopped Cash Jones for a five-yard loss, stopped another QB run and then sacked Stockton.
It was a dominant possession and if it didn’t set the tone for the game, Georgia was well aware Notre Dame was going to be there all night.
“I think we did, especially the first play on the crack toss,” said Bowen. “We got down the line of scrimmage. They tried a reverse and that went down behind the line of scrimmage. They tried things and they went for negative plays.”
On Georgia’s second drive of the game, Notre Dame once again stepped up to the occasion.
The Bulldogs reeled off a 13-play, 71-yard drive that took over seven minutes off the clock, but it ended at the Notre Dame 10 as Adon Shuler forced an Etienne fumble and Louisiana native Jaiden Ausberry recovered it.
“It was very important,” Shuler stated of Notre Dame’s physical play. “I think that’s what allowed us to be very successful on both sides of the ball. That’s just the brand of football we want to play.
“That’s just how we play as a defense. Each week, we want to elevate and get better. We felt we had a great opportunity this week to showcase who we are.”
Captain Jack Kiser has seen firsthand Notre Dame’s physical brand of football but lost big games at the same time.
Thursday night was different. The Irish were not only the most physical team, but they showed Notre Dame is becoming the program Marcus Freeman has wanted to develop since he was named head coach.
“I think that’s what this defense prides itself on,” explained Kiser. “We’re disciplined but also physical and we make plays. When you look at a big SEC team and their offensive line and how big they are and the backs they have, we really wanted to out-physical them at the line of scrimmage.
“Coach Freeman always talks about being an Oline-Dline driven program and I think we saw that tonight.”
The most telling stat of the night? Notre Dame’s run defense held Georgia to to just 62 rushing yards and 2.1 yards per carry, while totaling 154 yards on the ground against a bigger SEC defense.
“We had three keys to victory on defense and number one was to stop the run,” Freeman stated. “We didn't believe that we could lose this game by passing yards, but we could lose if we don't stop the run.
“The defense did an amazing job at stopping the run and that put them in some difficult third down situations. Then another key to victory was takeaways and the defense got two takeaways, a couple turnovers on downs, which were huge. They were relentless.”
And yes, there was a point where the Notre Dame program felt they had broken Georgia. It came late in the third quarter as Georgia had some momentum, but Notre Dame’s defense stepped up to earn a fourth down stop after a questionable pass interference call.
“When they got the fourth down stop and then we got the fourth down stop, I think after that, the momentum just shifted,” said Bowen. “It was game over for them.”
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