Notre Dame finds joy in finally winning on the big stage at the Sugar Bowl

A few minutes after confetti fell on a jubilant Notre Dame Fighting Irish team that entered a corner of the Superdome, quarterback Riley Leonard brushed some of the blue and white flakes off his newfound trophy after being named Offensive MVP by Sugar Bowl.

Taking a second to stare at the prize and all the achievement it represented, the signal caller produced something that had been in short supply around New Orleans in the wake of a devastating truck attack just three hours into the new year. A few kilometers away in the famous French Quarter, over a dozen people were killed and many more injured in a tragic event that cast a shadow over the course of the game and forced its postponement a day later from its typical place on the calendar.

Standing next to a temporary stage, Riley caught up in the moment, but smiled a mile wide. Then he looked up and began hugging and high-fiving everyone within reach, especially coach Marcus Freeman’s young children, who joined the cause to embrace their father.

After a hard-earned 23-10 win over no. 2 seed Georgia Bulldogs, the minor moment was as clean and wholesome as they come — offering a stark contrast to the 36 hours before, when little of that could be found around a city that is redefining how to feel good about regularity .

“I want to thank the New Orleans Police Department for responding the way they did and creating a safe environment for us to play today so quickly,” Leonard said. “I think adding another day just helps our superpower. We say our superpowers all the time are our preparation and the character of our locker room. Those are two intangibles that we have.

“That’s our superpowers, our preparation, and I think it definitely paid off today.”

Not much to argue with, as the action between a pair of blue-bloods, at the same venue for their 1981 classic that decided the national championship, became a welcome distraction for all involved.

Everything seemed to cooperate to meet the moment. After a few days of cloudy and cold weather moved into the Mississippi Delta, the sun shone for most of the afternoon amid warming temperatures, and the cloudless sky made the Superdome’s golden exterior glisten brilliantly. Just before kickoff, the French Quarter reopened and the city showed once again how adept it is at recovering and moving forward.

Fittingly, Notre Dame also embodied all of that to win their first major bowl game in decades, doubling as their second straight College Football Playoff win. From a lone home loss in September to a MAC team, the program is now one win away from the national championship game at the end of the month.

How they looked more physical, faster and well-prepared in all three phases brought perhaps even greater satisfaction to ending Notre Dame’s abysmal 0-10 mark in major bowl games dating back to a victory in the 1994 Cotton Bowl.

It was a straight whipping of an SEC team for four quarters that proved Notre Dame was not just an equal, but better this season across the board.

“When we prepared, I told them this is going to be a 60-minute game. Georgia had been down nine games this year and found a way to come back and win — so they have that mentality,” Freeman said. “Our coaches called a great game, our players executed and put everything on the line for this university, this football team. I am really proud of them.”

Freeman deserves credit for leading the program to a place both fans and detractors of America’s college football Rorschach test never thought possible.

He lost his first three games after taking over in South Bend and inherited a team that rarely matched up well with the boys from south of the Mason-Dixon line. Regardless of the competition, Notre Dame often looked slow and inviting the last several years. It was unable to find enough playmakers on both sides of the ball to actually get over the hump and win at a level befitting its exceptional history.

The Irish were solid and good, sure, but never great. Now they have a chance to be.

An always-solid offensive line was bolstered with increased athleticism, including the addition of freshman left tackle Anthonie Knapp out of Georgia’s own backyard. A stiff linebacker space gave way to a much deeper group that could attack downhill as well as turn and run with a ton of tailbacks out of the backfield.

At wide receiver, a long position that lacked skilled answers for the Irish in big moments, coaching changes and outside-the-box thinking (starter Jordan Faison, for example, won a national lacrosse championship at the school) led to key moments just when the team needed them. Even the depth has improved to an impressive degree, with the loss of starting defensive lineman Rylie Mills and striking defensive tackle Howard Cross III proving far less of a concern.

Nothing defined the encapsulating victory more than a 54-second stretch around halftime that turned a back-and-forth rock battle between two heavyweights into a one-way score for Notre Dame.

It began with the clock ticking down under a minute in the first half when Georgia coach Kirby Smart called a timeout for kicker Mitch Jeter.

The South Carolina Gamecocks transfer has used the extended breaks built into the CFP well and bounced back from a hip injury suffered in October against the Stanford Cardinal to get back into this stretch. He easily connected on a 48-yarder that gave Notre Dame its first lead — after trailing for the first time since October just moments before.

On the ensuing Georgia drive, just one play later, new UGA starting quarterback Gunner Stockton dropped back and held onto the ball just a cross long enough for Notre Dame end RJ Oben to come around the corner and knock it out . Junior Tuihalamaka saw the football rolling around on the turf and immediately jumped on it at the 13-yard line.

A snap later, Leonard calmly ran a play-action fake before pulling up and hitting wideout Beaux Collins for a touchdown.

A sizeable portion of the announced 57,267 fans were sent into a state of euphoria. Most, dressed in black and red, were left dazed and confused.

The Irish weren’t done though.

On the opening kickoff of the second half, Jayden Harrison initially weaved to his left before cutting back and finding plenty of daylight to his right. To show that speed isn’t just reserved for those who play within the Southeastern Conference, the Marshall Thundering Herd graduate transfer ran the rest of the Bulldogs’ coverage unit down the sideline for a 98-yard touchdown.

Offense, defense and special teams combined for a 17-point outburst in less than a minute of playing time.

“I didn’t want to survive, and I think that’s the natural tendency in a big game,” Freeman said. “Let’s be aggressive now. I didn’t know we were going to come out of the locker room and score a kickoff return touchdown, but that was the middle eight that we often talk about. The ability to close the half like that and start the second half with a kickoff return touchdown was huge for the outcome of the game.”

Georgia didn’t lay down quietly, though, especially with a senior class that had gone an FBS-leading 53-5 the past four years. The Bulldogs moved down the field effectively in the third quarter before Stockton (20-of-32, 234 yards) threw his first touchdown pass of the season on a diving reception by Cash Jones, who looped out of the backfield on a wheel route and beat a linebacker in the coverage.

It looked like it might be just the spark the team needed to turn things around, but Georgia never quite took control.

That was mostly because Leonard continued to embody the grit that has defined the Irish as they recovered from an inexplicable loss to the Northern Illinois Huskies to keep winning ever since.

The quarterback used every bit of his bruised 6′ 4″, 216-pound frame to scramble and coax yards and first downs to give the Bulldogs a taste of what they usually dish out.

In addition to throwing for 90 yards and a touchdown while rushing for a game-high 80 yards, Leonard was incredibly savvy when he needed to be.

Late in the fourth quarter, he delivered a bit of trick play on fourth-and-short from his own 18-yard line just as things appeared to be tipping back in favor of the SEC champions. After Freeman and special teams coordinator Marty Biagi initially ran out of the punt unit, the Irish instead put all 11 on the field, and Leonard barked a hard count that gave him a free play and another set of downs.

A few plays later, the QB converted a third-and-7 with a keeper that included his best John Elway impression at the goal line in a spinning, leaping flip over All-American safety Malaki Starks to secure a first down. The entire sequence ended in no points, but it did get 7:36 off the clock and allowed the defense to end the game with its fourth sack.

“I’ll say it for him, good call,” joked Leonard, who revealed Freeman changed the trick play on fourth down two days ago and downplayed his own role in consistently moving the chains. “I mean everybody keeps telling me to stop (those jumps) and then I did and it worked out today. Plus we’re in the playoffs, you know, you put it all on game. That’s pretty much my mindset in every game.”

That mindset permeates the entire program and allows the formerly floundering Irish to go toe-to-toe against an SEC team and come out on top as they expected.

“It’s about the team, it’s about everybody,” added Freeman, who by advancing to the semifinals along with Penn State counterpart James Franklin will ensure a black head coach will appear in the national title game for the first time. “As the head coach of this place, I understand that we’re not in this position unless everybody in this program gets their job done.”

They did it to emphasize a decisive victory in a place that is difficult to get one of them. For that and more for a sugar bowl that won’t soon be forgotten, it’s worth smiling about.