SOUTH BEND — When the final of four College Football Playoff quarterfinals game kicks off in New Orleans on Wednesday night, one of the sport’s oldest programs will be making a first.

And if they play well, they’ll make another.

And another.

When No. 7 Notre Dame (12-1) and No. 2 Georgia (11-2) meet at the Allstate Sugar Bowl, it’ll be the 14th game for the Fighting Irish this season, the most by any team in program history. If Notre Dame can knock off the Bulldogs for the first time in four tries, it will also be the first time the Irish have reached 13 wins in a season.

Head coach Marcus Freeman isn’t missing out on the moment but notes the ever-changing attitude to coaching in the new era of postseason play.

“This is a first for me, and really anybody in college football, as you talk about a 12-team playoff,” Freeman said. “You almost prepared for this first round like it was maybe even a bowl game opportunity, but then you realize once the game was over, you gotta go back to preparation.

“During the season, you know you have the next one. In the playoffs, you gotta prepare in a way that gives your program the best opportunity to win, put everything on the table. If you’re able to get the outcome you want, you have to go right back to preparation. It’s been unique. You’re grateful to be part of this thing, to be a part of the last eight teams in the College Football Playoff.”

As a result of the longer-than-normal season, injuries are becoming a storyline. Most notable, is the absence of Georgia starting quarterback Carson Beck.

The signal caller was 11th in the country with 3,485 passing yards before going down on the final play of the first half of the SEC Championship game, now nearly a month old.

In his place is sophomore Gunner Stockton. The appropriately named quarterback will man the Bulldogs’ offense going forward with Beck out for the playoffs. Stockton drove Georgia down out of halftime of the SEC title game and led them to an upset of Texas. He finished 12-of-16, tossing for 71 yards but took a pair of sacks and threw an interception.

Notre Dame defensive coordinator Al Golden said that’s enough to know what the Kirby Smart-coached Bulldogs think of their new starter who has played in just three games this season and thrown 32 passes.

“I think more importantly, when he came into the game, did they change their structure or did he execute the system that’s there?” Golden said. “That’s usually pretty telling that they believe he can execute the system as it exists.

“I think the system is a great system. They have talent around him, three running backs, three or four tight ends, excellent wide receivers that can beat you down the field vertically. I think there’s a lot of weapons there.”

Whether the Irish can spook Stockton and lock up Georgia’s offense will likely determine the winner. The Beck-led Bulldogs owned the 11th-best passing offense in the country. Notre Dame’s defense is first in pass efficiency and takeaways (29) and third in scoring (13.8 points per game).

Part of that will be how well Notre Dame matches up in the trenches. The Fighting Irish took their biggest hit in their first-round win, losing sacks leader Rylie Mills for the season. A combination of Howard Cross III, Donovan Hinish and Gabriel Rubio will likely be the biggest producers now. It’s not too shabby of a unit but is clearly a bandaged group without Mills.

“The same way you do it after you lose to Northern Illinois,” Freeman said of the team recovering from its most recent defensive starter lost for the season. “You find out the most about your team and yourself as an individual in tough times and the lowest moments. What I learned about this program in its lowest moments is that they are resilient and tough. They continue to battle, and they choose to find ways to elevate.”

Cross has some personal grievances with playing an SEC opponent in the playoffs. He’s hoping for a change of tune this time.

“My first actual taste of an SEC team was unfortunately prime Alabama my sophomore year in the playoffs,” Cross said, referring to Notre Dame’s 31-14 CFP semifinal loss to Alabama in 2021. “It was a surreal experience, but I’m just trying to make sure that the guys, the younger guys know, make sure you get it out the first play because after that, we’re moving.”

Elsewhere on the defense, safety Xavier Watts continues to be one of the top defensive players in college football through the past two seasons. This year especially, Watts has been a premiere defender who has had to gain the ability to put the cape on when needed.

After Riley Leonard’s first pass was tipped and intercepted in the first round, Watts came away with his 13th interception since the 2023 season. No player in the FBS has more, and the next closest has nine.

“It’s a mixture of both,” Watts said, explaining how his instincts and film prep have guided him this season. “First, it’s really just my instincts, just seeing something and being like, ‘Just go.’ I just know what’s coming and just trusting what I see, what I feel — then, obviously, what I see on film.”

If Georgia can find success on the ground with backfield mates Trevor Etienne and Nate Frazier, Notre Dame could be in danger.

“I just think they’re balanced …,” Golden said of the Bulldogs’ run game. “They just have a lot of ways to get to it. And I’m sure they look at some of their screens as runs, even though they go in as passes, or some of the different little ways they get the ball to the back. That’s just a different way of getting to a run, so I don’t look at it like that. I look at it like they have explosive potential at running back and obviously three good ones.”

Kickoff is set for 8:45 p.m. The winner will get either No. 6 Penn State or No. 3 Boise State in the Orange Bowl semifinal on Jan. 9.