NEW ORLEANS — Marcus Freeman grabbed his six children and made his way to a podium covered in blue and white confetti. Notre Dame’s head coach had already hoisted the Sugar Bowl trophy, capping a Thursday night that consumed everything and everyone. So Freeman took a moment to immerse himself in the scene Notre Dame had hired him for and shared it with his family.

They had all just watched Notre Dame beat Georgia 23-10 and advance to the semifinals of the College Football Playoff.

In Caesars Superdome, Freeman became something greater than the first head coach thrust into the top job three years ago after Brian Kelly’s sudden departure from LSU just because he had Notre Dame behind him. His program played fearless football against the kind of opponents that had made it feel inferior for so long. The Irish tried on fourth down, and when they couldn’t get it, they forced a four-and-out. Looking to run out the clock in the fourth quarter, they panicked Georgia with a crowd substitution that put the Bulldogs offside.

Aided by a Marshall transfer, the Irish scored their first kickoff return touchdown of the season. Notre Dame caused two massive turnovers, one of which was a strip sack by a Duke transfer that allowed a touchdown pass to a Clemson transfer. A transfer from South Carolina made three field goals. And when the Irish needed a fourth-down stop near the goal line, a transfer from Northwestern broke up the pass.

This Notre Dame team did what no Notre Dame team has done in 31 seasons and won a major bowl game. And he only succeeded because his head coach made this scene a reality by pulling every available lever and finding every possible advantage. The Irish needed them all.

“That’s the aggressiveness in terms of our preparation that I want for our program, getting back out there when it matters most,” Freeman said. “That has to be one of our advantages, that we are an aggressive group and are not afraid of making mistakes.”

The final result sends Notre Dame to the Orange Bowl to face Penn State on Jan. 9, a week after that signature win that included so many autographs. It would be impossible to read them all, from the head coach to walk-on receiver Leo Scheidler, who helped lead Jayden Harrison’s 98-yard kickoff return to open the third quarter.

JAYDEN HARRISON

9️⃣8️⃣ YARDS#GoIrish | @j_harrison5

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— Notre Dame Football (@NDFootball) January 2, 2025

Notre Dame needed every lead and supporting role to follow the script. And the entire football program remembered his lines.

“They are incredible kids. They’re the best of the best,” defensive coordinator Al Golden said. “I think they chose Notre Dame for the right reasons. It’s not me, me, me. One of these guys who comes here, commits to the program, puts his ego aside and pursues team glory? That’s rare. Rarely. Rarely. Rarely.”

Golden’s defense was without star defensive tackle Rylie Mills and cornerback Benjamin Morrison, both of whom were sidelined with injuries. And so reserve defensive tackles Gabriel Rubio and Donovan Hinish were in good shape, especially after Howard Cross III left with an ankle injury. Cornerbacks Christian Gray and Leonard Moore continue to replace Morrison. And when All-American safety Xavier Watts missed time, Rod Heard II stepped up.

“All of us who decided to join the team last year were committed to this vision of becoming national champions,” Heard said. “We modeled ourselves on Notre Dame. Whatever I need to do for this team, I will do it.”

In the Notre Dame locker room, RJ Oben held the game ball Freeman had given him. For one night he wasn’t the same other When Oben transferred from Duke, he was the guy who made his first sack in an Irish uniform, dropping Gunner Stockton in the final seconds of the first half and forcing a fumble that Junior Tuihalamaka was able to recover. One snap later, Riley Leonard hit Beaux Collins for a 13-yard touchdown, Notre Dame’s only offensive touchdown of the game.

“If you want to make a game-changing play, now is the time,” Oben said. “We came here knowing that this is a big stage and that’s why we’re here to perform in a season like this. All boys.”

But how Notre Dame beat Georgia said less about the staff and more about the culture that unites them. The Irish got performances from virtually every transfer against the Bulldogs, none of those players wanted from the SEC champions. And Notre Dame also got a lot out of its core, an offensive line that has evolved over the season into a group that could mount a 12-play, 41-yard drive at the 7:36 mark of the fourth quarter bled and left the Bulldogs with no recourse.

A boat has never looked so good.

“It’s Notre Dame football at its best. They did their best when they needed to,” offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock said. “We have probably set offensive football back by 15 years. But we did what we had to do to win.”

Notre Dame did it because Freeman called the biggest game of his life, a day after a tragedy on Bourbon Street pushed the Sugar Bowl back a day.

At breakfast, Golden defensive backs coach Mike Mickens advised that Notre Dame needed to remain aggressive in coverage, even if the Irish were beaten with a deep ball. And they were hit with Stockton’s arm. And they remained aggressive.

Freeman knew he needed something big from special teams, no matter how much Jeter struggled with injuries this season and no matter what he asked of special teams coordinator Marty Biagi. Freeman understood that too. After the game, Biagi wore his father Stephen’s Notre Dame jacket, honoring him after he was diagnosed with lung cancer four hours after the Indiana game late last month. Just a day before Notre Dame beat the Hoosiers, Biagi’s wife gave birth to the couple’s twins. A girl and a boy. Their names are Brooke Renee and Stephen Jacob.

“He wouldn’t have wanted to take any other path as a Notre Dame graduate,” Biagi said. “I know he was up there watching tonight. I’m trying to make him proud.”

It would have been Stephen Biagi as Jeter kicked field goals of 44, 48 and finally 47 yards early in the fourth quarter to give Notre Dame the final score. And Harrison’s kickoff return felt like divine intervention as he weaved his way through Georgia’s coverage units, triggered by a walk-on receiver block after Scheidler subbed in for starter Collins, who needed an IV at halftime.

Even though the punting didn’t work, Notre Dame tried that crowd change on fourth-and-1 from its own 18-yard line early in the quarter, getting the punt unit moving and the offense going to keep Georgia offside bring to. Notre Dame had no intention of actually hitting the ball until Jalon Walker jumped.

The song was called “Got ‘Em.”

“And that’s what we did,” Denbrock said.

In the Superdome tunnels, Denbrock tried to make sense of it all, less the play he had just called and more what it meant for the program he had called it for. This is Denbrock’s third stint at Notre Dame under his third head coach. He was there at these games. Never won it. No one around Notre Dame has done so, amid a major bowl losing streak dating back to Lou Holtz and spanning the tenures of four other head coaches. Most of these games were not close. They were supposedly referendums on what Notre Dame football can be in the modern era.

And now Notre Dame is something completely different.

“We’ve all endured all of this ‘We don’t belong’ and ‘You shouldn’t be here’ and all that stuff that we’ve had to deal with over the years,” Denbrock said. “Seeing these kids erase that, at least for now, and do the things that were about heart and toughness.

“No matter what stage we were on, we stayed true to ourselves. I’m just so happy for everyone.”

Because that’s exactly what was needed.

All.

(Top photo: Jonathan Bachman / Getty Images)