Georgia defense on facing Notre Dame: ‘We’re ready to prove a point’

Notre Dame is regarded as one of the most historic programs in college football. It claims 11 national titles and has had seven players win the Heisman Trophy.

Touchdown Jesus. The House That Rockne Built. The Four Horsemen. “Win one for the Gipper.” Rudy. Joe Montana. The list goes on and on.

Many football aficionados covet Notre Dame’s history. Georgia safety Dominick Sanders isn’t too concerned.

“I don’t really know anything about them,” Sanders said. “My main thing is coming out and punishing them from the start. I don’t really care about what they got going on.”

This will be a top-25 non-conference matchup, with Georgia ranked 15th and Notre Dame ranked 24th. As of Tuesday night, Notre Dame is a 4.5-point favorite.

Sanders has, at minimum, heard the chatter that the Fighting Irish are favored. He is also aware of the size of Notre Dame’s wide receivers and tight ends, which was brought up during his meeting with the media Tuesday.

“We can’t worry about what people are thinking out there,” Sanders said. “A lot of people are saying we’re the underdogs. We don’t care about that. We just need to keep our composure and day by day, get better. We’ll come out and prove people wrong on Saturday.”

Defensive end Jonathan Ledbetter appeared to have some similar opinions. Ledbetter acknowledged the size of Notre Dame’s offensive line, which features left tackle Mike McGlinchey and left guard Quenton Nelson — two potential NFL first-round draft picks next April.

Ledbetter also noted that Notre Dame quarterback Brandon Wimbush, who combined for 290 total yards in a win over Temple, is a talented player. Ledbetter expressed plenty of confidence in his unit’s ability to match up with the touted line.

“We’re pretty thorough in our game-planning so I’m not really worried about their front or their quarterback being super athletic because I know what we bring to the table,” Ledbetter said. “We’re going to work as hard as we can to be ready on Saturday.”

And when it comes to mixing it up with Notre Dame’s offensive line, that’s a challenge Ledbetter said he and his teammates are ready to take on.

“I know everybody’s itching to get a lick on every single one of their guys,” Ledbetter said. “We definitely respect them, but good competition is hard to come by. When you see it and everyone’s raving about it, you want to prove a point. We’re ready to prove a point.”

Georgia is coming off of a 31-10 season-opening win over Appalachian State that included the first-team defense pitching a shutout before being pulled from the game.

Notre Dame’s offensive line will certainly be a bigger unit than Appalachian State’s, of course. But Ledbetter, who figures to see plenty of McGlinchey during the game, said the goal will be to figure out where exactly to attack the offensive line.

“There’s always a way to beat somebody,” Ledbetter said. “Somebody will always have a weakness. You have to find it. We’re going to find it and execute off of it.”

Notre Dame’s offensive line, a strength of the Fighting Irish, averages a collective 315.8 pounds. Head coach Kirby Smart has previously spoke about the concern Notre Dame’s size up front could be for Georgia’s defense. But Ledbetter made the point that Georgia has a pretty big defensive front too.

The Bulldogs’ top seven in the defensive line’s rotation averages a collective 293 pounds.

“They do have a big offensive line, but we also have a big defensive line,” Ledbetter said. “We’re just going to go out and play our game of football, play how we play and use our technique to our advantage. And it should go our way.”

Georgia’s defense certainly has an edge heading into Saturday’s game. Sanders has told his teammates to ignore what is being said and to focus on the task at hand.

As for walking into Notre Dame Stadium or brushing up on the Fighting Irish’s history, that’s not anything Sanders is interested in.

“I know nothing about them and I really don’t care,” Sanders said. “My main thing is let’s put the pads on and let’s go to work.”

This story was originally published September 5, 2017 at 7:55 PM with the headline "Georgia defense on facing Notre Dame: ‘We’re ready to prove a point’."