Notre Dame opened the season with a one-sided win over Temple last week, 49-16, in which the Irish displayed a hard-nosed run offense using the big ND offensive line to punish the Owls.

The win was impressive enough to get Irish fans excited about the 2017 season. There were many good, but also some bad moments in the game for the Irish, The Irish completely dominated the first quarter of the game streaking out to a 21-3 lead. Then the second quarter came and gone was the offense that seemed to flow so naturally in the first quarter and the new ND "run defense" had trouble stopping Temple on third-down plays. But things improved in the second half for the one-side win.Quarterback Brandon Wimbush did more than a creditable job for his first start ever. The junior's running bailed the Irish out on several occasions in the contest. That was also a problem. Wimbush took a lot of hits when he did run. As the South Bend press noted, Wimbush has to learn how QBs "slide" when he is about to get hit to avoid injury. I'm sure head coach Brian Kelly worked with his QB on that part of the game this week.ND's 422 rushing yards against the Owls were the most in any game by the Irish since a 2015 rout of UMass.It was the first game. Things were not perfect, as expected, but the seeds have been planted for what could be a successful season.The Temple game is now history and in my opinion tonight's clash with Georgia under the lights in the refurbished ND stadium will be the true test of the 2017 team and how successful it will be.Georgia comes into the game ranked No. 15. The Bulldogs will present a challenge for Wimbush.Tonight he will face a faster, bigger and more experienced defense.Georgia will be playing with a freshman QB tonight. Jake Fromm will take over for the injured starter, Jacob Eason, who strained his knee last week in opening romp by the Bulldogs over Appalachian State, 31-10. Fromm won't be completely "green" as a starter. He played extensively in relief of Eason last Saturday.This will be the second game between the schools, but the first regular-season match. Georgia beat the Irish in the Sugar Bowl in 1981, 17-10, in their only prior meeting,The game will be televised nationally by NBC-TV with the kickoff set for 7:40 p.m.IRISH NOTES .. ND player's helmets have "Ara" on the front in honor of former head coach Ara Parseghian, who passed away last month in South Bend. There are other tributes to Ara, who won two national championships for the Irish, in the stadium and will be there for the entire year ... For the day Wimbush completed 17 of 30 passes for 184 yards and two TDs with one interception. He ran for 106 yards and another score. He became the first ND QB since Tommy Rees, now a QB coach for the Irish, responsible for three or more TDs in his first start ... Other game stats includes workhorse running back Josh Adams rushing for 161 yards on 19 carries and two scores followed by Dexter Williams with 124 yards on six carries and a score. Williams needs more touches in this game. Equanimeous St. Brown had four catches for 80 yards and a score and Nic Weishar had 20 yards on three catches and a score ... ND's total offensive yards were 606 ... Defensively Nyles Morgan led the Irish with eight tackles followed by Te'von Coney and Greer Martini with six each ... A sellout crowd of 77,622 was on hand in the stadium. As I mentioned last week, with the work done in refurbishing the stadium, the seating capacity dropped from 82,000 ... Georgia is the first Southeastern Conference (SEC) team ND will be playing during the regular season in 12 years. ND has played SEC teams during that span in bowl games. ND will play other SEC teams in future years at the urging of Kelly. Kelly wants more exposure in southern states for recruiting purposes ... Kelly confirmed this week that the NCAA has denied the appeal for immediate eligibility for Navy transfer Alohi Gilman. The 5-foot-11, 199-pound sophomore from Laie, Hawaii, likely would have been a starter for the Irish this season had he been granted eligibility. He now must wait until the 2018 season ... Two players battling injuries appear ready for tonight. Starting tight end Durham Smythe, who took a blow to the head last Saturday against Temple, successfully pass through the stages of concussion protocol and backup defensive tackle Micah Dew-Treadway, who was held out of the Temple game with a knee strain, both practiced this week ... Georgia fans are in South Bend in full force. The Georgia game ticket has been harder to get than the Oct. 21 matchup with arch-rival USC. Georgia was given 8,400 tickets but it is expected that there will be 20,000 Bulldog fans in South Bend paying big prices for tickets to the game ... ND's defense will be tested tonight with the run-first offense of Georgia and its two very good running backs - Sony Michel and Nick Chubb ... Georgia will be the 75th different opponent to visit Notre Dame Stadium (opened 1930). The Irish are 59-14-1 (.804) against first-time visitors to Notre Dame Stadium ... With the win against Temple, the Irish improved to 10-2 since 1985 when a first-time starting quarterback made his debut start at Notre Dame Stadium ... Meanwhile, with the victory in Wimbush's debut, the Irish have won six straight games with a first-time starter at QB and are 18-6 in starting debuts since '85 ... Notre Dame has seven regular-season home games on the schedule for the first time since 2010. It marks the first time since the 2011 campaign without an official Shamrock Series game and the first time since 2007 Notre Dame will not play a single neutral-site game ... As I mentioned, Georgia likes to run the football first. The Bulldogs also have a big and experienced defensive front so tonight is a real test for the Irish. It is also a really big test for Kelly. This is the first BIG game for him since the dismal 2016 season and all the revamping of the coaching staff. He needs a win bad tonight. ND is a six-point favorite, In my preseason picks I have the Irish winning tonight. I still believe ND will prevail.