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.