Beck suffered an elbow injury on the final play of the first half of the SEC Championship Game on December 7. With Beck unavailable, Gunner Stockton will start in his place. Stockton filled in for Beck in the title game, completing 12 of 16 pass attempts for 71 yards and an interception in a 22-19 win over Texas.

“I think his strengths are obviously a little different than Carson’s, but we know that,” Smart previously said of Stockton. “We don’t think we need to change much about it. He gives us the opportunity to do different things with his athleticism, and I thought (offensive coordinator) Mike (Bobo) and those guys did a good job with that. The team has great confidence in Gunner. He’s very smart, very intelligent, so I don’t know that it’s a big change. It’s probably more about getting the volume right and not having everything we have with Carson, but having things that fit Gunner.”

Stockton would make his first career start in the Sugar Bowl, scheduled for January 1 and at 8:45 p.m. ET on ESPN. The Bulldogs had some time off to further prepare Stockton and integrate him into the offense.

Georgia will find out who it will play Friday night when the Bulldogs take on the winner of Indiana-Notre Dame at Notre Dame Stadium in South Bend, Indiana. The game is scheduled to begin at 8:00 p.m. ET on ABC.

“Well, we spent most of this week spending a few days on each team,” Smart said of the game between the two playoff opponents. “It was really special for us because we never had two teams to work on. So we worked on each team. We’ll have a lot of recruits in town tonight and we’ll be able to watch the game with some juniors and some of our young middle graders that are in town. So I will watch it with pleasure.”

Notre Dame fans are hoping they get a chance to face the Bulldogs. The fan base made that very clear on Friday afternoon.

As the “GameDay” crew interviewed Smart, with some encouragement from Pat McAfee, the Notre Dame fans in attendance chanted “We want Georgia” as Smart listened and waited for a question.

Smart heard the chants and responded.

“They have to worry about their first game first,” Smart said. “That’s for sure. And we have to take care of ourselves, that’s the most important thing we have to do. We have to improve ourselves and we have worked really hard here. Our kids had a great attitude towards training and I loved it.”

Notre Dame is a seven-point favorite against Indiana. Notre Dame is the site of the game as the first round playoff games are played on campus.