Georgia Football's Big Time Advantage Over Notre Dame in the Sugar Bowl

The Georgia Bulldogs have a big time advantage over Notre Dame in the Sugar Bowl.

Jonathan Williams | 4 Hours Ago

Dec 7, 2024; Atlanta, GA, USA; Georgia Bulldogs quarterback Gunner Stockton (14) drops back to pass against the Texas Longhorns during the second half in the 2024 SEC Championship game at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Brett Davis-Imagn Images / Brett Davis-Imagn Images

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Georgia Bulldogs

The Georgia Bulldogs have a big time advantage over Notre Dame in the Sugar Bowl.

The first round of the college football playoff finished up this past weekend, and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish defeated Indiana. This means Georgia and Notre Dame will face off in the Sugar Bowl. This will be the third time these two programs have matched up against one another under Kirby Smart, as they did a home-and-home series back in 2017 and 2019. This time around, though, Georgia has a big-time advantage over Notre Dame.

One advantage Georgia has is the extra time off to get healthy, but that's not the biggest perk the Bulldogs have headed into this game. In fact, it has everything to do with a position group that is not healthy and likely will not be healthy during the Sugar Bowl. Gunner Stockton being the starting quarterback is the Bulldogs' biggest advantage.

That's not in reference to Stockton being better than Beck or anything like that. But it has everything to do with the fact that Stockton and Beck are two different types of quarterbacks and the Bulldogs will have to tweak their offense.

The other factor to that is Georgia has never shown what a Stockton-led Georgia offense looks like. Any time Stockton has gotten into games since he was on campus he has been plugged into an offense that is styled around Beck's game. In the Sugar Bowl though, the Dawgs will have had the last three weeks to prepare an offensive game plan that is centered around Stockton's strengths. And since the Bulldogs have never put that on film, Notre Dame will have to try and predict what that game plan looks like.

The Fighting Irish have a good defense, but having to go into a college football playoff game guessing is not a great feeling.