ATHENS — Georgia football won the battle against Georgia Tech this season, but it turns out that it came at a very steep price.

Notre Dame coordinators revealed at the College Football Playoff media day on Saturday how Georgia Tech’s offensive success played a role in the Irish’s 23-10 win over the Bulldogs in the Sugar Bowl CFP Quarterfinal in New Orleans.

The Yellow Jackets, essentially, provided a “blueprint” of sorts to beat Georgia.

Georgia Tech offensive coordinator Buster Faulkner helped Georgia win two national titles in his three seasons on Kirby Smart’s staff (2020-22) as an offensive quality control assistant for quarterbacks at Georgia (2020-22).

But now Faulkner’s coaching knowledge is working against Georgia, as a rival at Tech who understands how Smart’s defense works and its tendencies.

Denbrock, a brilliant offensive mind who helped Jayden Daniels when the Heisman Trophy at LSU prior to coming to Notre Dame, was smart enough to pay close attention to how Faulkner attacked UGA.

“We definitely watched the tape,” Denbrock said, referring to Georgia’s 44-42, eight-overtime win over Georgia Tech in both teams’ regular-season finale.

“I don’t know if we’re exactly the same type of team as Georgia Tech.”

Perhaps not, but Georgia players acknowledged in preparation for the Sugar Bowl that Notre Dame quarterback Riley Leonard most closely resembled Georgia Tech quarterback Haynes King with his dual-threat versatility.

King, of course, enjoyed great success against the Bulldogs’ by completing 26 of 36 passes for 303 yards and 2 touchdowns, and he also rushed for 110 yards and 3 touchdowns on 24 carries against UGA in his team’s loss.

Georgia Tech piled up 28 first downs and an eye-popping 563 yards in the loss to Georgia, also dominating the time of possession 37:11 to 22:49.

Notre Dame didn’t enjoy as much offensive success against Georgia — it’s 244 yards of offense were the fewest in CFP history by a winning team.

But the Irish didn’t turn the ball over, and they made timely plays — particularly Leonard, who rushed 14 times for 80 yards, including a key 32-yard scramble.

Notre Dame studied the success King had running the ball against Georgia, and Denbrock knew how to apply that knowledge for the Irish to find similar success with key QB runs.

“I thought they (Tech) did a really nice job of maybe even kind of revealing a blueprint, even though it’s not exactly the same blueprint that we use,” Denbrock said, “to give you an idea of maybe how you could not only stay in the game, but win the game.”

Indeed, and Notre Dame’s ability to make key plays — even if they didn’t have many explosive plays (only one more than 14 yards) — was enough to provide the Irish defense support.

Notre Dame defensive coordinator Al Golden noted the importance of the Irish’s ability to stay on the field against the Georgia defense.

“Everybody forgets,” Golden said, “that we had a lot of time to fix things against Georgia because our offense held the ball …”

It’s not a stretch to say that no former Kirby Smart assistant has come back to hurt the Bulldogs as much as Faulkner.

The Bulldogs also had a special teams breakdown — allowing a 98-yard kick return for a touchdown to open the second half — that proved pivotal.

Denbrock indicated the impact of that touchdown — which capped a 17-point spurt over a 54-second span between the end of the first half and start of the second half — also aided the Irish offense.

“You can’t even measure those things because you don’t really even, from the offensive side of the ball, you don’t even take those things into account,” Denbrock said. “You hope they happen but you can’t really count on them happening, and when they do, you’ve got to be ready to capitalize on it.

“I think that’s really what this football team has done best of anything throughout the year is when people have made mistakes, we’ve been able to capitalize on them and turn them into a real positive for this football team.”

Just as Notre Dame took advantage of the institutional knowledge Faulkner gleaned after Smart provided him a coaching opportunity at Georgia.