The Anti-Preview: #7 Notre Dame Fighting Irish VS #3 Georgia Bulldogs

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish are the #7 ranked team in the country and pretty much like 95% of those that cover college football are predicting a loss on Saturday night to the Georgia Bulldogs. Seemingly half of those people are predicting a MASSIVE loss.

The wonderful @phillykelly

I’m not here to throw those people a bunch of shade — it’s just that the certainty that so many fans have in regards to the outcome of this game has really sucked the air out of the excitement. Well... kind of.

I’m still here and I’m still kicking up dirt because THIS IS COLLEGE FOOTBALL AND NOT COLLEGE BRAIN SURGERY. So, let’s have some fun you magnificent bastards.

Georgia Bulldogs

Notre Dame wishes it had everything that Georgia has — respect from across the land despite not really winning anything. Seriously though... they have some PLAYAS on this squad. While much of the focus is on quarterback Jake Fromm, running back D’Andre Swift, and kicker Rodrigo Blackenship — it’s that BBW style offensive line that makes everything work. Solomon Kindley, Andrew Thomas, Ben Cleveland, Trey Hill, Cade Mays, and Jamaree Salyer (I realize that’s 6, so calm down) are ferocious and will most likely still be incredible if Isaiah Wilson is unable to go.

It’s about to get beefy, so we better get started.

What should you be drinking?

I went back and forth on this a lot over the last few days. This is an important game, and I thought maybe it would be wise to pull a gallon of Trojan Blood out of the cabinet. I finally came to the decision that I just can’t do something so egregious. I did, however, still like the thought of some Code Red though, so...

Irish Redhead

• Jameson
• Mountain Dew Code Red

Mix to your personal taste in a Collins glass filled with ice.

What should you be eating?

There’s a wide variety of different things we could do here with all of that Southern flavor, but I have been craving shrimp and grits for a few days now — and I need some satisfaction.

Shrimp and Grits

You can make shrimp and grits about a million different ways, and almost all of them are fantastic. I simply submit this recipe — which is also the best video I’ve seen about cooking shrimp and grits. Meyhem Lauren is my new guru now.

What should you be wearing?

It’s going to be HOT AF Y’ALL. I highly recommend a #dadlife and Brian Kelly favorite, the humble visor.

Rich Barnes-USA TODAY Sports

STATS ON STATS ON STATS

We have something new this week. Here is a tool to compare Notre Dame and Georgia statistically — and any other school should you choose to do so.

3 reasons to hate Georgia

1. SEC. SEC. SEC.
2. They totally invaded Notre Dame Stadium 2 years ago, and although they were well behaved (and pretty awesome actually) they overstayed their welcome — and that shit is unforgivable late at night.
3. The college football playoff tweets. Hey Georgia... you lost two games, one of those losses was by 20+ points, and then the team you can’t seem to beat (Alabama Crimson Tide) got beat worse than Notre Dame in the playoffs. And oh yeah... and then there’s the loss to the Texas Longhorns.

Keys to the game

I went on record pretty fiercely on the OFD Podcast that I felt if Notre Dame was going to have a chance to win this game, they were going to have to try and stretch the field in the passing game to help clear out the box to get something out of the running game.

I also feel if Bo Bauer plays a big role on defense IT’S NOTRE DAME BY A HUNDRED. Okay... that’s a little nuts, but the point is that it’s going to be brutal defending the Bulldog running game, and I want/need hitters inside. BRING ME THE BEAR!

At the end of the night...

I’m not making or losing any money on these picks, and I don’t have some kind of code to follow either. That preamble should already tell you what I’m doing, but here’s a bit more:

Notre Dame gets down 10-0 early and starts airing it out to go into halftime down 17-14. It’s 30-27 Irish with 8 minutes left in the game after Jonathan Doerer hit a 44 yard FG. The Bulldogs methodically drive down the field, and with just 58 seconds left in the game, Blankenship comes in to kick the tying FG — a 23 yard chip shot. Instead, Georgia runs a fake and the ball is intercepted by Kyle Hamilton and returned to the Georgia 38 yard line. Victory formation... 00:00... Irish win 30-27.

Leave me alone. This is my dream and I don’t care what it sounds like to you.

NDMSPAINT