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David Hale, ESPN Staff Writer
NEW ORLEANS — Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman said his team met Wednesday morning after learning of the attack on Bourbon Street that killed 15 people and injured dozens more, working through the emotions after such a traumatic event but also still preparing to win a critical game.
“The first part of that meeting was to mourn and pray for our country,” Freeman told ESPN’s Scott Van Pelt on Wednesday’s “SportsCenter.” “But the end of the meeting was to redirect our focus to preparing for this game.”
Notre Dame was set to play Georgia in a College Football Playoff quarterfinal at the Allstate Sugar Bowl on Wednesday night, but the game was rescheduled for 4 p.m. ET Thursday in the wake of the attack, which the FBI is investigating as an act of terrorism.
Freeman said his priority was not allowing Notre Dame to use the additional time before kicking off against Georgia, but instead to “physically and mentally prepare.”
Georgia spent much of Wednesday under lock-down orders in its team hotel on Canal Street, just blocks from where a Texas man drove a truck into a crowd of Bourbon Street revelers before being killed in a firefight with police. At least one Georgia student was among those killed.
Freeman said he had not spoken with Georgia coach Kirby Smart as of Wednesday night, but that athletic directors Pete Bevacqua and Josh Brooks had been in regular communication to ensure the game could be played safely.
The teams will take the field at the Caesars Superdome with a date against Penn State in a CFP semifinal on the line.
“We have to understand there’s a game to play and an opportunity for both programs to play in the college football quarterfinals and we have to make sure we’re ready,” Freeman said.
Georgia, the No. 2 seed, will be playing without starting quarterback Carson Beck, while Notre Dame, the No. 7 seed and fresh off an emphatic win over Indiana in the opening round, is looking for its first national title since 1988.
Still, Freeman said both teams were obviously aware of the larger implications of the game in the city rocked by the attack.
“In the toughest moments, the culture of any program, of a nation, are revealed,” Freeman said. “I have a lot of faith we’re going to rally around the city of New Orleans.”