How Georgia and Notre Dame handled tragedy, uncertainty and then a football game over 36 hours in New Orleans
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David Hale, ESPN Staff Writer
NEW ORLEANS — Notre Dame athletic director Pete Bevacqua woke up Wednesday at 5:30 a.m. and checked his phone. Several news alerts popped up. The words “domestic terror attack” flashed across his screen. He clicked the first link wondering where the incident happened.
“It turned out,” Bevacqua said after Notre Dame’s 23-10 win over Georgia on Thursday in the Allstate Sugar Bowl, “that it happened just a few blocks from us.”
Wednesday, Jan. 1 was supposed to be game day for the coaches and players at Georgia and Notre Dame. Instead, most had a similar sense of dread and confusion as Bevacqua when they awoke to phone messages from family and friends, all asking about the attack in New Orleans, where a man drove his pickup truck down Bourbon Street a little after 3 a.m., killing 14 people and injuring dozens more before being shot and killed by police.
In the 36 hours that followed, officials, coaches and administrators from the schools and bowl game worked around the clock — first to confirm the physical safety of hundreds of players, staff, family and friends, and then to simultaneously make sure everyone could process the tragedy while also finding a way to play a college football game that would be the biggest of the season for both teams.
SEC commissioner Greg Sankey received a call from Sugar Bowl CEO Jeff Hundley a little after 6 a.m. on Wednesday. Hundley explained that an incident had occurred on Bourbon Street, just three blocks from Georgia’s team hotel. Details were sketchy, but there was already talk that the game’s scheduled kickoff on Wednesday night could be in jeopardy.
Sankey has been through similar uncertainty before, he said — the COVID-19 season, a bomb threat before a bowl game — and his first instinct was to let the dust settle, to avoid the rumors and speculation in favor of hard facts. So, he decided to go for a run. He left his hotel, turned down Canal Street in the heart of the French Quarter, and quickly understood just how grim the situation was.
“You see the coroner’s wagon,” Sankey said, “and I realized pretty quickly the scope of the scene.”
Earlier in the week, Notre Dame quarterback Riley Leonard had gone around the locker room asking each of his teammates if they had spare tickets for the game. Leonard is from Fairhope, Alabama, less than a three-hour drive from New Orleans, and this was the closest he’d ever had to a home game in his college career. He had close to 100 family and friends, including the mayor of Fairhope, planning to make the trip.
By Wednesday morning, he was just hoping few had yet to get into their cars for the drive.
Leonard’s father, Chad, awakened to the sounds of emergency vehicles just after 3 a.m. but assumed it was the typical background noise in a city like New Orleans, where the revelry doesn’t end until the sun is up, and the sirens are part of the soundtrack of the party. His wife, Heather, also noticed all the text messages popping up on her phone but assumed it was friends saying, “Happy New Year” and didn’t check until morning.
“It was just a sad, bizarre day trying to communicate with everybody,” Heather Leonard said.
Chad Leonard did a quick roll call, scrolling through his phone to reach out to everyone he knew who was planning to be at the game. Everyone was safe.
Meanwhile, Chad and Heather were being pinged by the staff at Notre Dame. After accounting for players and support staff, head coach Marcus Freeman turned his attention to the cadre of family members he knew were in town to support their sons.
“They wanted every parent to check in and make sure their group was OK,” Heather Leonard said. “They told us the players were all OK, and they just wanted to make sure we were good.”
Georgia and Notre Dame players were effectively under lockdown at their team hotels through the early part of the day, still unsure if there was a game to be played.
Figuring out that part fell to a small group of law enforcement, government officials, conference and team personnel and Hundley, the Sugar Bowl CEO.
“It was a whirlwind,” Hundley said. “I was questioning what it meant, were we going to be able to play?”
Hundley was a centerpiece in a phone tree that extended from Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry to the city’s police chief, New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell, leadership at the FBI and state police department, Sankey and the teams’ athletics directors, along with the staff at the Caesars Superdome, which was scheduled to host the Sugar Bowl on Wednesday and then immediately make room for another event happening Thursday.
By midmorning, Hundley said, it was clear the game couldn’t be played as scheduled. The bulk of the city’s law enforcement was focused on investigating the attack. And as of a Wednesday afternoon news conference, investigators still believed the attack could involve more than just the driver of the pickup truck. So, safety concerns for the city remained, and there would be insufficient security for the game.
Landry quickly got to work connecting city and Sugar Bowl officials with law enforcement around the region. Hundley said he was convinced the game could safely be played the following day. Unlike in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, when the Sugar Bowl was moved to Atlanta, there was never any serious discussion of changing venues.
“There was confidence from law enforcement they’d have the necessary assets in place,” Hundley said. “And this is a big-event city. When it comes to logistics, we can do almost anything. We knew it would be a matter of just working through details.”
Still, those details were massive. Sugar Bowl officials had to work to ensure there were enough hotel rooms for the teams for an extra night, work with law enforcement to beef up security, adjust the Superdome’s event schedule, and work with ESPN and other media partners to find a broadcast window that worked.
The initial plan was to move the game back 24 hours and kick off in a prime-time TV window Thursday, but both teams were eager to play the game as soon as it was safe to do so. Sankey had been on a text chain with Georgia president Jere Morehead, AD Josh Brooks and head coach Kirby Smart throughout the day. Bevacqua said he traded more than 20 texts with College Football Playoff executive director Rich Clark, hoping to find a path to get the game played as quickly as possible. Ultimately, city and state leaders were able to gather support from the FBI, ATF and other Louisiana and out-of-state police departments to cover security needs for the game.
“The winning team would’ve already lost a day in that,” Sankey said. “So, there were some questions that produced more phone calls and text messages. About 3 or 4 p.m. we understood that there’d be enough time for security preparations [for a 3 p.m. CT kickoff].”
In the team hotels, coaches were working to find a course of action that allowed the teams to process the tragedy of the day while still focusing on a game that needed to be played.
Smart set up a FaceTime call with coaches and team leadership and came up with a plan. “We brought the players down and met with them and said, ‘This is the plan moving forward,'” Smart said. “They said, ‘Let’s go. Put the ball down and get ready to go play.'”
Freeman’s initial thought was to keep the team as dialed in to football as possible but changed his mind.
“Once you found out more details about the tragedy, the emotions took over each individual differently,” he said.
Notre Dame team chaplain Rev. Nathan D. Wills held a team prayer service that afternoon.
“It’s OK to mourn for what happened in this city and what happened to these victims,” Bevacqua said of the prayer service message. “But you can also enjoy what you have tomorrow and this opportunity. That’s the human condition, right? Dealing with the worst of the worst and this unbelievable moment in the lives of these young student athletes, almost simultaneously. I think that was tough on them, but it’s to the credit of Coach Freeman and his staff, I think the team handled it so well.”
Freeman held a normal walk-through and a team meeting, but then he gave the team three hours Wednesday night to visit with family.
“Being a parent myself, in times of tragedy, you want to be around your children,” Freeman said. “I think that helped the parents as much as it helped the players to be around each other, and to help them reset and get their mind into a place that it needed to be.”
It was a necessary escape, defensive end R.J. Oben said.
“It was good to take time off to spend with our families and clear our minds,” he said. “We woke up with the intention to play a game. We didn’t really know we weren’t going to be playing until about 3 in the afternoon. Once we talked about it, Coach gave us a schedule, guys stayed together and stayed locked in.”
A number of players stayed in — some watching movies on Netflix, some getting extra rest, and a number investing in more film study of Georgia, including Leonard.
After team meetings, Leonard texted quarterbacks coach Gino Guidugli and asked to get in some extra work. They spent more than four hours sifting through tape of Georgia.
“Every single person in our locker room is praying for those families that are out there,” Leonard said. “But as a Notre Dame player, you recruit the right people for a reason. And I think adding another day is just helping our superpower out. We say our superpowers all the time: our preparation and the character in our locker room. Those are two intangible things that we have that we utilize.”
If Leonard thought the extra time benefited the Irish, Smart was quick to dismiss any notion that the tragic events had any impact on how his team performed when it finally took the field.
“That was a very traumatic event,” Smart said. “But this team was focused and ready to go play. So, I’m not going to sit here and talk about the tragedy affecting our team. Notre Dame played well. We didn’t play great. But when we turned the ball over twice and have a kickoff returned, that’s what I attribute the loss to. Not to the tragedy or what happened. And that’s not any disrespect to the community of New Orleans or the people with tragic losses.”
By Thursday morning, Bourbon Street had reopened to foot traffic. Revelers — many in Georgia red and black or Notre Dame green and gold — enjoyed lunch and cocktails before making their way to the stadium for a midafternoon kickoff.
But around the Superdome, it was clear things had changed. Most streets surrounding the stadium were closed to vehicle traffic. K-9 units and armed police were omnipresent. SWAT team trucks were parked on nearly every corner, and photographers snapped pictures of the eerie scene.
Inside the stadium though, the reverie continued.
More than 57,000 fans came through the gates — about 80% of what had initially been expected — for a robust turnout that surprised even Hundley.
New Orleans native Samyra sang the national anthem, and the crowd erupted in chants of “U-S-A, U-S-A.” Before the game, Notre Dame players decided they wanted to make a gesture of support. They ran onto the field carrying the American flag.
“It was a hard day for many reasons but the teamwork with [local, state and bowl officials] — everybody came together and said, ‘Let’s try to make the best situation out of a really horrible moment in time for the city and America,” said Bevacqua, who spent Wednesday from 5:30 a.m. to midnight on the phone trying to make the game happen. “And there was such energy in the stadium. That was comforting to see.”
Notre Dame won. That won’t be what most fans remember about this year’s Sugar Bowl. As Hundley stood on the field amid postgame confetti and celebrations, having barely slept in the past 40 hours, he thought that perhaps they won’t remember it entirely for an act of terrorism either. Instead, they might also think of the resilience of a city and the effort of so many people who came together to ensure the game could be played.
“Sports can really be a healing exercise,” Hundley said. “I don’t know if this was or wasn’t, but I sure hope it was.”
Mark Schlabach contributed to this story.
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Alden Gonzalez
Less than two years ago, the Texas Rangers rode a potent offense to the first World Series championship in franchise history. Since then — on paper, at least — that group has only improved. Established sluggers were brought in. Young, promising players accrued more seasoning. Core stars remained in their primes. And yet, over the course of 10 baseball months since hoisting the trophy on Nov. 1, 2023, the Rangers have fielded one of the sport’s worst offenses, a sobering reality that continues to vex team officials.
The circumstances of 2025 have only intensified the frustration.
The Rangers have received Cy Young-caliber production from a rejuvenated Jacob deGrom, who had compiled fewer than 200 innings over the last four years. Their rotation went into the All-Star break with the second-lowest ERA in the major leagues. Their bullpen, practically rebuilt over one offseason, ranked third. Their defense (16 outs above average) was elite, as was their baserunning (10.8 runs above average). But the Rangers, despite back-to-back wins over the first-place Detroit Tigers this weekend, find themselves only a game over .500, seven games out of first place and 2 1/2 games out of a playoff spot, because they can’t do the one thing they were expected to do best: hit.
Bret Boone, the former All-Star second baseman who was installed as the team’s hitting coach in early May, has been tasked with fixing that — but he is also realistic.
“I’m not gonna come in here and ‘abracadabra,'” he said, waving his right arm as if wielding a magic wand. “That’s the big misnomer about hitting. Hitting is really hard. The bottom line is — you can prepare as much as you want, but when you get in the box, it’s just you and that pitcher.”
Boone isn’t here for an overhaul. He’s here to encourage. To simplify. One of his prevailing messages to players, he said, has been to “watch the game” — to put away the tablet, come up to the dugout railing and see how opposing pitchers are attacking other hitters. Boone has emphasized the importance of approaching each game with a plan, whatever that might be. He has occasionally blocked off the indoor batting cage, worried that hitters of this generation swing too often. And he has encouraged conversation.
“That’s what great offenses do,” Boone said. “They’re constantly interacting.”
There might not be a more interesting team to watch ahead of the trade deadline. Rangers president of baseball operations Chris Young is not one to give up on a season, particularly with a team this talented. But one more rough patch might force him to, at least to an extent. Young would prefer to add, but it’s hard to envision a way to improve the lineup from outside.
He won’t find a better middle-infield combo than Corey Seager and Marcus Semien. Or a better outfield than Evan Carter, Wyatt Langford and Adolis García. Or a better designated hitter than Joc Pederson, who could return from a hand fracture before the end of this month. Or a better catching tandem than Jonah Heim and Kyle Higashioka. Or a better crop of corner infielders than Josh Smith, Josh Jung and Jake Burger, though Burger returned to the injured list with a quad strain earlier this week.
Any offensive improvement will probably come internally, signs of which emerged recently. The Rangers got Carter back from the bereavement list on July 4 and Langford back from the IL on July 5, making their lineup as close to whole as it has been all year. Over the ensuing week, they scored 53 runs in seven games heading into the All-Star break. Maybe it was a sign of things to come. Or, if recent history is any indication, a short burst of false promise.
Below is a look at five numbers that define the Rangers’ surprising offensive downturn.
1. Semien and Seager’s combined OPS on June 22: .671
The Rangers’ rise began in late November 2021, just before the sport shut down in the leadup to an ugly labor fight, when Semien and Seager secured contracts totaling $500 million. Their deals came within days of each other, ensuring they’d share a middle infield for years to come. And when the Rangers won it all in 2023, it was Semien and Seager hitting back-to-back at the top of the lineup, setting the tone for an offense that overwhelmed teams in October.
Some things haven’t changed: Semien and Seager are still the driving forces of this offense. For most of this year, though, that hasn’t been a positive thing.
As late as June 22, with the Rangers 78 games into their season, Semien and Seager had combined for a .229/.312/.359 slash line. Their combined OPS, .671, sat 44 points below the league average.
Semien, traditionally a slow starter, finished the month of May with the second-lowest slugging percentage among qualified hitters and at times batted ninth. Seager made two separate trips to the IL because of the same right hamstring strain and eventually fell out of whack, batting .188 in June. If the Rangers are looking for good news, though, it’s that Semien and Seager finally got going in the leadup to the All-Star break. From June 23 to July 13 — with Seager and Semien settling into the No. 2 and No. 3 spots, respectively — they slashed .313/.418/.592.
“We all want to be on at the same time,” Semien said. “It’ll never happen like that, but if Corey and I are on, this team goes.”
2. Texas’ slash line against fastballs: .236/.312/.372
One of the Rangers’ coaches recently recalled some of the most iconic homers from the team’s championship run — García’s grand slam in the American League Championship Series, and Seager’s blasts against Houston’s Cristian Javier and Arizona’s Paul Sewald.
They all had one thing in common: turning on high fastballs and pulverizing them.
The Rangers were one of the best fastball-hitting teams in 2023. That has been far from the case since. The Rangers slashed just .233/.315/.379 against four-seam fastballs in 2024, worse than every team except the Chicago White Sox, who lost a record 121 games. This year, it isn’t much better.
The Rangers’ slash line against four-seamers was only .236/.312/.372 heading into the All-Star break, good for a .684 OPS that ranked 27th in the majors. Burger (.473 OPS), Heim (.500), Pederson (.620) and García (.660) were especially vulnerable. Against four-seamers that were elevated, no team had a higher swing-and-miss percentage than Texas (55.5%).
Being in position to hit the fastball has been one of the points of emphasis from the hitting coaches in recent weeks. It doesn’t mean every hitter will look fastball first — approaches are individualistic and often alter based on matchups — but it does underscore the importance of narrowing the focus. Opposing pitchers are too good these days. Hitters can’t account for everything. And the best offenses are able to take something away from an opposing pitching staff. The 2023 team took away the fastball as an attack weapon. But the Rangers, in the words of one staffer, have been “stuck in between” ever since — late on velocity and off balance against spin.
It’s a tough way to live.
3. Rangers’ chase rate with RISP: 32.2%
When asked about the biggest difference between the 2023 offense and the 2025 version, Rangers manager Bruce Bochy mentioned the approach in run-scoring opportunities. The team from two years ago, he said, was much better at situational hitting with runners in scoring position. This team seems to chase too much in those situations.
The numbers bear that out.
The Rangers’ chase percentage with runners in scoring position was 32.2% coming out of the All-Star break, fourth worst in the major leagues. Their strikeout percentage, 23.7%, was fifth worst. Their slash line, .230/.304/.357, was down there with some of the worst teams in the sport. The Rangers’ lineup has some strikeout in it — with Burger, Jung and García at the top of that list — but team officials believe it should be much better adept at driving in runs.
Not being able to has led to some dramatic highs and lows. The Rangers have scored eight or more runs 13 times, including two instances over a 72-hour stretch in which they hung 16 runs on the Minnesota Twins. But there have also been 25 games in which they have been held to one or zero runs, third most in the major leagues.
4. Carter’s and Jung’s wOBA ranks since 2023: 205th and 264th
Entering the second half, 380 players had accumulated at least 300 plate appearances since the start of the 2024 season. Among them, Carter ranked 205th with a .308 weighted on-base average. Jung, with a .295 wOBA, ranked 264th.
Jung looked like a budding star at third base in 2023, making the All-Star team and finishing fourth in AL Rookie of the Year voting. Carter came up in September and surged throughout October. With those two and Langford, Texas’ draft pick at No. 4 earlier that summer, the Rangers had three young, controllable players they could surround with their long list of established stars. It seemed unfair, yet it hasn’t come close to panning out.
Carter struggled through the first two months of 2024, was diagnosed with a stress reaction in his back, couldn’t fully ramp back up, got shut down for good in August, didn’t look right the following spring training and started the 2025 season in Triple-A. Carter appeared in just 45 games in 2024. Jung played in only one more, after a wrist fracture held him out for most of the first four months.
Then came a stretch of 101 plate appearances this June during which Jung notched just 15 hits, 5 walks and 27 strikeouts. Eight of those strikeouts came over his last four games, when his chase rate jumped to 45.9% — 12 percentage points above his career average. A Rangers source described him as “defeated” and “lost.”
On the second day of July, Jung was optioned to Triple-A Round Rock.
5. Rangers’ wRC+ since 2023: 94
There might not be a better representation of the Rangers’ drop-off than weighted runs created plus, which attempts to quantify total offensive value by gathering every relevant statistic, assigning each its proper weight and synthesizing it all into one convenient, park- and league-adjusted metric. The league average is 100, with every tick above or below representing a percentage point better or worse than the rest of the sport at that time.
During the 2023 regular season, the Rangers put together 117 wRC+. In other words, their offense was 17% above league average. Only one team — the Atlanta Braves, another currently underperforming club — was better. From the start of the 2024 season to the start of the 2025 All-Star break, the Rangers compiled a 94 wRC+, putting them 6% below the league average. Only eight teams were worse.
Five every-day players from that 2023 team are still on the Rangers — not counting Carter, who didn’t come up until September — and all of them have seen their OPS drop by more than 100 points. Seager? 1.013 OPS in 2023, .856 OPS since. García? .836 in 2023, .681 since. Heim? .755 in 2023, .605 since. Semien? .826 in 2023, .693 since. Jung? .781 in 2023, .676 since.
For Young, it’s not just the individual performances but how they coalesce.
“What we had was just a really balanced approach and a collective mindset in terms of the way we were attacking the opposing pitcher,” Young, in his fifth season as the head of baseball operations, said of the 2023 offense. “We had other guys who could grind out at-bats. We had guys who could hit for average. We had guys who slugged. And I still think we have that in our lineup. It’s just, for whatever reason, a number of them have had bad years to start the season. When you have a couple guys having down years, you can survive. When you have a majority of them having down years, it’s magnified. And then guys start pressing and putting pressure on themselves, and it makes it even harder.”
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