Notre Dame prepared for massive crowd, tough opponent in Georgia

 

The 7th ranked Notre Dame Fighting Irish will face off against the third ranked Georgia Bulldogs on Saturday in Athens, Georgia. Head Coach Brian Kelly says the key to the game will be preparation.

Approximately 92,000 fans are expected for the sell out crowd at Sanford Stadium. The Bulldogs added extra bleachers to seat an additional 1,000 fans inside the stadium.

With so many people, the atmosphere in the stadium will be incredible.

Coach Kelly says his team will be prepared for Saturday.

"The most important thing will be how we prepare. I mean, it will be in our preparation. If we do a great job preparing, we can go play the game, play fast, play free and then the best team wins. So it will be in our preparation. It won't be because the crowd was loud or that it was hot or it will be because they executed better than we executed. So at the end of the day, it is still about our preparation and how we execute," Coach Kelly said.

The Irish have faced similar situations in Miami in 2017 and Virginia Tech in 2018.

No matter what how much preparation they do, it is extremely difficult to truly prepare for that type of atmosphere until they're in it, but Coach Kelly says his guys are road warriors.

Coach Kelly was also asked about his defensive line against Jake Fromm. The last time the Irish played Fromm it was his first start as a freshman, two years ago at a home game at Notre Dame Stadium.

That was a modest performance for the Bulldog, but he's at home this time with a few years under his belt.

"The quarterback. The quarterback. He's efficient. He's unflappable. You can pressure him, and he doesn't panic. He makes great decisions. He's sound with the ball. Generally, look, when you get down to the really great teams, you're going to get Trevor Lawrence. You're going to get you know, you're going to get the great quarterbacks that are the reason why they start to separate. Fromm is one of those guys that gets you to start to separate," Coach Kelly said.

This game features two quarterbacks in the top ten in career efficiency - Ian Book 9th and Jake Fromm 2nd.

Coach Kelly says don't forget about this defense. He calls it an SEC elite defense with the most depth he's ever faced.

You can watch ABC57 Saturday Kickoff on the road from 11 a.m. to noon on Saturday.