In the second quarter of Thursday night’s Sugar Bowl matchup between the Georgia Bulldogs and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, Georgia walk-on Parker Jones interfered with a sideline referee just as Arian Smith raced 67 yards down the sideline to the Notre Dame 11-yard line. The resulting interference penalty pushed the Bulldogs back 15 yards, leading them to settle for a field goal.
Georgia head coach Kirby Smart commented after the game that while the penalty had an impact, the team’s overall execution was lacking throughout the match.
“Very unfortunate,” Smart told the Athens Banner-Herald. “From what I understand, it was a player in white, and that color is designated for officials. It poses a safety issue. Usually, they would issue a warning for that, but in this case, it cost us 15 yards. We still had a first and 10 but didn’t capitalize on it.”
Although the penalty set the Bulldogs back 15 yards, the game was still scoreless in the second quarter. Georgia had plenty of chances to put points on the board, but Notre Dame’s defense effectively shut them down, limiting the Bulldogs to just 296 total yards and 10 points. Georgia converted only 2 of 12 on third down and was unsuccessful on all three fourth-down attempts.
As a result, the Bulldogs will join other conference champions like Oregon, Boise State, Arizona State, and Clemson in watching the rest of the playoffs from home, while Notre Dame advances to face Penn State.
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