IN THE CARNAGE, FREEMAN WAS PREPARED AS KIRBY SMART HAD HIS ARREST SHEET

A game played too quickly was the hallmark of the Notre Dame coach, who had his team praying for New Orleans while Smart had to ask why 10 Georgia players have been busted for driving-related offenses

In the deranged darkness of what Donald Trump described as “violent” scummery — “a laughingstock all over the world,” he said of America — two college teams played football Thursday. We were more interested in a moment of silence than Notre Dame and Georgia. We were gripped by hundreds of police officers inside and outside the Superdome, using dogs to sniff vehicles when they should have worked the French Quarter at 3:15 a.m.

It didn’t matter who won the game except for those in the playoff system, which sends the Fighting Irish to a national semifinal against Penn State. What intrigued me was how the universities would be portrayed amid the horror of 15 dead people, in an act of terror near both teams’ hotels in New Orleans. Marcus Freeman is a man of deep faith who asked his Notre Dame players to pray for the country.

“In the toughest moments,” he said, “the culture of a nation is revealed.”

Then he took advantage of his team’s extra day as one, when life made little sense. “We spent some time together, and I think that’s what you do in tough moments,” Freeman said. “You want to spend time with family, and that’s what we are.”

The opposing Bulldogs were under lockdown Wednesday. If anyone was forced to stop and pause about the killings involving the truck driver, Shamsud-Din Jabbar, it might have been coach Kirby Smart. He has raised holy hell about a series of arrests in his program, including a 2023 car crash that killed a player and a staff member. Yet the numbers keep soaring to 10 busted players for driving-related offenses, which has turned the Georgia program into a slaughter house. Memories are wicked about the night when Jalen Carter, an eventual first-round NFL draft pick, engaged recruiting analyst Chandler LeCroy in a frightening road race after the team had celebrated a second national title in Athens.

Two were dead: Offensive lineman Devin Willock and LeCroy, whose blood alcohol level was .197 as she drove a university-leased Ford Expedition at 104 mph. The funerals and lawsuits should have ended the horror, but players continued to thrust acceleration while shunning brakes. They are mindless in pursuing reckless fun, unlike the sick Jabbar, who wanted blood. But Smart cannot avoid more late-night phone calls from the police, which hasn’t helped a slumping program replaced by SEC newcomer Texas in this year’s final four. He is known for having control of his players but not behind the wheel.

“It’s a great question,” Smart said last summer. “And I’d love every solution possible because we actually write it down every time we talk about it and every time we address it, and we have someone in every meeting that hears that … it was like 162 times it has been mentioned.”

This is not a baseball season. The attacks were “saddening and scary,” he said, as Georgia focused on the quarterfinal. “Things are bigger than football out there,” Smart told ESPN. “Sometimes we get caught up in our own selves and our own moment and you lose sight how blessed we are every day to have an opportunity to play football and to play in a CFP quarterfinal against a historic program. A lot of times when you have gratitude, it takes away a lot of anxiety.”

He’ll return home from Louisiana, a state shaken again, and will repeat the solution for a 163rd time. “It’s been a serious issue on our team,” said injured quarterback Carson Beck, who is off to the NFL. “Obviously there are guys who have made mistakes, and there are consequences.” They aren’t punished nearly enough, or players would junk their autos. Beck is famous, or infamous, for driving a Lamborghini.

Largely because of his two championships, Smart was handed $13 million a year in a 10-season extension. That makes him the highest-paid coach in his sport thanks to university president Jere Morehead, who once taught Smart in business law. “Kirby is in a special class,” he said. “I knew he’d be successful. But his level of success is beyond anything I could have imagined.” Nothing was said about backroad fever.

The Irish won 23-10 behind Al Golden’s defense, a 98-yard touchdown return by kick returner Jayden Harrison and quarterback Riley Leonard, who threw for 90 yards and ran for 80. The Bulldogs failed after backup QB Gunner Stockton was sacked and fumbled, which prompted Leonard to throw a touchdown pass to Beaux Collins late in the first half. The Irish have won 12 straight games after a 16-14 home loss to Northern Illinois. This is where Freeman showed leadership skills that interest the NFL, though his recent contract extension should allow him to stay in South Bend a while. Notre Dame hasn’t won a national title since 1988.

“Our coaches called the game aggressive. Our players executed, put everything on the line,” Freeman said. “I’m really proud of them. Proud of the way they handled the events of the last 24 hours. That’s the aggressiveness in terms of our preparation that I want our program to have. That’s got to be one of our edges, that we are going to be an aggressive group and not fear making mistakes.”

All four top seeds are erased from the Playoff. Remaining are Notre Dame, Penn State, Ohio State and Texas — bluebloods all. Why not the Irish, who have made their NIL community happy with Leonard, Harrison and defensive end RJ Oben? Why wouldn’t Notre Dame cash in with names, images and likenesses? “I've seen their process they've gone through, and I'm just so proud of them to see them come up big,” linebacker Jack Kiser said. “It's been an awesome ride. It just shows that we've earned one more and we're excited for that guaranteed opportunity to come, and we're not going to take anything for granted. We're going to seize the opportunity.”

As for Smart, he was burned by a call late in the first half. He asked Stockton to throw from his 25-yard line with under 40 seconds left. Oben sacked him for a turnover, which led to Leonard’s TD pass to Collins. “Typically, when you're down, you need every possession you can have, and we made a decision that we were going to be aggressive and we were going to try to go two-minute, and that's what everything says you should do,” Smart said. “You can't give up possessions when you're trailing. We felt like we had a little quick-game pass. Certainly not counting on getting beat that quick at left tackle, and got a sack-fumble, which gave them some momentum.

“I don't question that call, because I really agree with the decision to be aggressive. The turnovers are the difference in the game, guys. I mean, you should know when you turn it over twice and they return a kickoff for a touchdown, you’re not going to have a lot of success.”

If you want to know why Freeman is so valuable, as an anchor, study his team since the loss to NIU. “There were some valuable lessons in that loss,” he said. “It's this constant chase for improvement — every week, every day — that we have been able to make, and we still continue to have that mindset.”

“We don’t like that we lost, but we like the reminder,” tailback Jeremiyah Love said. “Keeping the pain with us — it's a drive to be better. We like the little reminder that we fell short in that game, so if people keep doing it, we welcome it.”

Was Notre Dame better prepared for the Thursday numbness, hours after the carnage? You can suggest that. He asked his players to “mourn’’ for America. Kirby Smart’s players were locked in their rooms.

###

Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.