… but should we talk about the Notre Dame game a little now? Here’s what Brett McMurphy has to say about it.
No. 1 – Notre Dame at Georgia, Sept. 21
Projected point spread: Georgia -10.5The last time Notre Dame faced a team from the South, it wasn’t pretty (Clemson 30, Notre Dame 3 in last year’s Cotton Bowl). This game, pitting a pair of top 10 teams, will have huge College Football Playoff implications. While a loss won’t eliminate the loser from playoff contention, they would likely have to run the table the rest of the way since we’ve never had a two-loss team in the five-year history of the playoff.
Last year, Notre Dame’s defense surrendered its fewest yards since the 2012 team that reached the BCS title game. Six starters return off that unit, which will be tested by quarterback Jake Fromm and running back D’Andre Swift. The Bulldogs return 15 starters, 11 of which were freshmen or sophomores last season.
Notre Dame’s offense made huge strides when Ian Book replaced Brandon Wimbush as starting quarterback four weeks into last season. The Irish averaged 37 points a contest over their final nine games until Clemson held Notre Dame to three points.
This is a rematch of the 2017 contest in South Bend, won by Georgia 20-19 (in Fromm’s second career start, while Wimbush attempted a career-high 40 passes) on its way to reaching the College Football Playoff championship game. This will be Georgia’s biggest home non-conference contest since hosting Clemson between the hedges to open the 2014 season.
The first thing that catches your eye is that double-digit point spread over a team that just played in the CFP. The second thing is the Clemson comparison. Yeah, I know it’s a different season and all that, but that’s an easy narrative to hatch and we all know how the national media loves itself an easy Georgia narrative.
This game will get plenty of attention as it gets closer. The 2017 road win jump started the Dawgs’ run towards their national title game appearance. Will a 2019 win do the same?
Get The Picture 
Hurricane Brett, it was Jake Fromm’s first start.
I hope this ends up as the 3:30 game on the Eye and it’s broiling hot as the Irish melt in the heat. Dawgs -10.5 sounds about right, but if this team is as good as we think they are, I would be surprised to see beat them 24-3 or something similar.
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*wouldn’t be surprised
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If it’s hot and humid the Irish are in trouble. It’s impossible to prep for that in South Bend.
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That’s not true. It’s as hot and humid in Indiana as it is here in August. The difference is the evenings cool off some compared to the south.
The difference in the two teams plan may be that ND has to keep their “1’s” in longer due to depth issues. That WILL wilt them quicker.
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CBS might swing a deal with Mickey to get this game at night.
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I don’t want it at night. We will have a loud crowd regardless of kick time. I want the north Georgia heat and humidity on our side.
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Definitely want this as a primetime, showcase game for UGA but I don’t see any way CBS doesn’t screw this up and make it the 3:30 SEC game. Dawgs, and their fans, rock under the lights but UGA seems to get fewer of these marquis matchups than any other top program. I feel it would be a bigger advantage in the game itself if it were played at night, and I know it would get more eyeballs and recruiting attention.
The humidity will be an edge for us, but not as much as many think (our guys cramp as well), and it will still be humid at 7-8 when players are warming up and lining up for the kickoff. We sound like SC last year, we have the better players, let them play stoked, we don’t need a weather edge.
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Now could CBS score a deal with ESPN and move the game from 3:30 to 8 pm?
I agree with you that CBS will opt to broadcast the game. I went back an looked at Notre Dame’s schedule and they haven’t played an SEC team in an SEC home venue since 2004 (can that possibly be correct?)
So CBS has broadcast a regular season game involving Notre Dame & the SEC since Knoxville 15 years ago.
Can anyone else check me on this? I couldn’t find a definitive list of games broadcast by CBS as the rights holder and just quickly perused past Notre Dame schedules for when they played an SEC team at the SEC school.
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Sorry typing fast … CBS hasn’t broadcast a game in the regular season where Notre Dame was on the road in the SEC since Knoxville in 2004.
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Isn’t it almost certainly going to be on NBC at night ? Because….Notre Dame and all that. I have no idea how schools tied to conferences, tied to multiple networks, negotiate with another school not tied to a conference and tied to a completely different network.
But it feels like if you don’t consent to NBC, you ain’t playing Notre Dame. Personally, I don’t care, I think NBC is fine.
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NBC has the ND home games, and no control over the away games barring some special negotiation. CBS will have first pick on this game unless they trade it away to Mickey for some concession later in the season. CBS only has a couple of doubleheaders, otherwise it is 3:30 with them. Another reason I wish the SEC would find a new partner.
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Actually CBS doesn’t get this game either. CBS gets SEC games (i.e. SEC vs SEC). Mickey will have this one, and I cannot imagine it’s not a prime time game.
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Not true. CBS has its choice of games involving games played at SEC venues regardless of opponent or involving 2 SEC teams regardless of venue. CBS has shown COFH and UF/FSU in the past.
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NBC only has rights to ND home games.
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CBS is not passing on the chance to have Notre Dame off a CFP season play the Georgia Damn Bulldogs. Bank it.
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You know, it’s hard to compare your team to the one led by the Lovely and Talented Trevor Lawrence.
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It wouldn’t be if UGA still had the lovely and talented Justin Fields. Hahaha!
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ND getting spanked by Clemson makes this a more dangerous game in my view. We may not take them as seriously as we need to and they’ll be playing for pride.
Hopefully, we’ll be locked in and woodshed them. We should.
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The 10.5 spread is a joke. Sure, we could win by that much, but I also could see us losing by 7-10. If we aren’t dead serious about this game (or we swallow the rat poison), we could be in trouble. We need to be locked in and we can score a nice victory.
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We aren’t good enough to just show up and half ass our way to a win. One hopes the recent Sugar Bowl experience will be fresh enough in everyone’s mind that focus will be maintained at a high level. If we are able to focus on how hard we can play, rather than how hard we can get away with playing and still win, we will be able to maximize our results.
We came into South Bend with a chip on our collective shoulder and a laser beam focus, especially on D. That’s what we need this fall. “Should win” is wayyyyyy different than “will win.”
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Personally, I don’t want to see “another god___ day go by where we don’t come out with shit up our ass ready to go. It’s time to _____ck’n go. All I wanna do is eat ! I want you to eat ! I want you to want this ____. Do you want it ? Show me !”
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I hope the Dawgs show up, and ready to play as a team. No sleep walking through games and no thinking they can phone it in. A spark needs to be lit and carried through the season. Please, Dawgs, please, get it together and keep it together! GO DAWGS!
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But what would the Clemson / ND score have been if Clemson wasn’t pumped up on PEDs?
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Maybe that was intended as snark, but the ‘smoke’ of the ones that failed suggests that there may have been ‘fire’ that was mostly contained by testing time. We’ll never know, of course, but if we find out that Nick is hiring a pharmacy student as an analyst…..
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I personally think the point spread is very fair, if not slightly lower than it should be. ND played a weak schedule last year with quite a few close, ugly wins over vastly inferior opponents. They then got absolutely exposed by Clemson as we all know. UGA will be a top 3 team in the fall, and we have them at home. More so, ND lost a considerable amount of last year’s team, and their recruiting has been typical ND recruiting – solid enough but nothing terribly sexy.
This is a year ND takes a step back and loses 3-4 games, and I frankly think we handle them with ease after a fairly close first half.
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That win may have kicked off Georgia’s march to the playoffs, but it wasn’t something most people were paying attention to at the time. Notre Dame wasn’t ranked in preseason and slipped back out of the rankings after the loss. Georgia was only 15th and didn’t really turn many people’s heads until skulldragging Mississippi State a few weeks later. Notre Dame for their part turned things around and finished with a high ranking.
This game will have a lot of national attention from the get go, as they are presumed playoff contenders squaring off early in the season.
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…and that MSU win got people’s attention because of the beat down the Maroons put on LSU the week before.
Of course, we didn’t even need 3rd and Grantham that week, did we?
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This game is currently considered the #1 OOC game of the year, and a must see. In 2017, I think it was among the Top 3 games. In other words, not much difference other than the pre-season rankings going into 2019. It was a bg national game then, it will be again this season. ND getting blown out by Clemson takes a little of the luster of the game, and gives them some extra motivation.
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Per Seat Geek, it’s still $480/ticket to sit in the Tech Deck for this game.
Going to enjoy it from the Couch gentlemen. Ya’ll be extra loud for me.
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I laugh every time I see the words Tech Deck. So good. So perfect.
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I’m working an extra year to get f/s tix for this one.
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