Georgia travels to Notre Dame on Saturday for the first time in history. The Hoosier State will no doubt be painted red and black.

The Bulldogs have faced the Fighting Irish just one time, and that was in the Sugar Bowl following the 1980 campaign. UGA topped ND 17-10 and captured its most recent national championship in the process for legendary coach Vince Dooley.

The Irish have a record of 27-18 against institutions currently in the SEC, including an 11-6 mark at home. No team from the conference has made this particular road trip — six of the 14 schools in the league have never even been before — since Tennessee in 2005. The Volunteers came out on the wrong end of a 41-21 final score.

Missouri is the only program in the SEC over .500 in South Bend (2-0), although that was as a member of the old Big 8.

Needless to say, fans of the Dawgs have been looking forward to this one for quite some time. Dawg Days, a company that puts together premium tailgates, is filling 50 busses with about 4,000 people to make the drive Saturday morning from nearby Chicago.

The Golden Domers have as much tradition as any club in the country, highlighted by 11 national titles, seven Heisman Trophy winners and 97 consensus All-Americans. From the fight song — the most recognizable in the sport — to the “Play Like a Champion Today” sign in the locker room, a trek to Notre Dame Stadium is a bucket-list item.

That being said, Notre Dame hasn’t won it all since 1988. Not one kid on the Georgia roster was alive to see it.

This past season, the Fighting Irish were a disaster at 4-8 and didn’t get anywhere near a bowl game. And that was with a quality quarterback in DeShone Kizer, who ended up being a second-round draft choice and will start Week 1 for the Cleveland Browns.

The Irish have a record of 27-18 against institutions currently in the SEC, including an 11-6 mark at home.

While ND made an undefeated run all the way to the BCS Championship Game in 2012 — many believed it was a paper tiger and shouldn’t have been there, though — Alabama blew out Manti Te’o and Co. 42-14 in a tilt that was even more one-sided than those numbers suggest. Two of the last three seasons, the Irish weren’t part of the final Top 25.

Nevertheless, the Golden Domers are still covered like one of the true powerhouses and have always been media darlings.

“I think you may be right in the lack of recent success that you’re talking about,” Bulldogs coach Kirby Smart said Wednesday on the weekly SEC coaches teleconference, “but there’s also a fact they’re on NBC and these kids grow up watching college football. So every one of our players identifies with the tradition of Notre Dame and the fact that they’re the oldest school that plays on NBC.”

Notre Dame is 1-0 after humbling Temple in the opener 49-16 at home. Coach Brian Kelly’s offense racked up 606 total yards, including 422 on the ground, while his defense held the Owls to just 330 in what was a dominant victory.

Credit: Matt Cashore-USA TODAY Sports

Kizer is now in the NFL and Malik Zaire transferred to Florida, so Kelly’s new QB is a dual threat in Brandon Wimbush (above). He threw for 184 yards, ran for another 106 and was responsible for 3 total touchdowns. Running backs Josh Adams and Dexter Williams — Adams was Kelly’s top rusher in 2016, too — also crossed the 100-yard plateau.

Defensively, a unit that ranked 42nd nationally a season ago had a solid debut for first-year coordinator Mike Elko.

"We're going to use our routine. Our players have routines we do on Thursday and on Friday. On Saturday, we'll follow that same routine. And I think that's certainly a special place. I've been there, seen it and players will get to see it, but we're not going to change our routine up." -- Kirby Smart

“They do play a lot of nationally televised games,” Smart said, “so they associate with that part of Notre Dame and they respect the fact that they’ve got a really good team this year and the quarterback is kind of a new dynamic guy. He’s got a lot of speed and athleticism, and they’ve got a new defensive coordinator that is doing a lot of good things on defense.”

As for UGA, starting signal caller Jacob Eason left last week’s win over Appalachian State early with a knee injury that will sideline him for the foreseeable future. Jake Fromm, a true freshman, makes his first career collegiate start.

The Dawgs were struggling against the Mountaineers with Eason at the controls, as the contest was scoreless when he got hurt, but Fromm — truth be told, he looked better than Eason in the spring game this past April — provided a spark off the bench. He finished 10-of-15 passing for 143 yards with 1 TD and 0 INTs in a comfortable 31-10 triumph.

Fromm wasn’t asked to do too much through the air, as tailbacks Nick Chubb and Sony Michel combined for 183 yards and 3 scores.

Whether it’s App State at home or the Fighting Irish on the road, Smart is similar to most head coaches in that he’s a creature of habit. He has been preparing his depth chart this week like it’s just another game, and in a lot of ways it is.

But one could forgive the Georgia players if they wanted to take selfies with Touchdown Jesus or check out where parts of “Rudy” were filmed. Again, it’s been a dozen years since any team from the best conference in America — its grasp of that title is weakening, but that’s a topic for another column — stepped foot on these hallowed grounds.

There will be no selfies. No recreating scenes from “Rudy,” either. This is a business trip, plain and simple.

“We’re going to use our routine,” Smart said. “Our players have routines we do on Thursday and on Friday. On Saturday, we’ll follow that same routine. And I think that’s certainly a special place. I’ve been there, seen it and players will get to see it, but we’re not going to change our routine up.”

Wake up the echoes all you want, even shake down the thunder if you must. One way or another, the Bulldogs plan to return to Athens doing their own version of the victory march.