New Orleans cops use bomb-sniffing dogs to secure Superdome for Notre Dame-Georgia Sugar Bowl after terror attack

Sugar Bowl officials and local authorities are cautiously proceeding with the rescheduled college football game in the aftermath of Wednesday’s terror attack that killed 15 and left more than 30 injured in the French Quarter.

Teams of bomb-sniffing dogs and their handlers are out in force around the Superdome, where hundreds more police officers are now expected ahead of Thursday’s matchup between seventh-seeded Notre Dame and second-seeded Georgia. Dogs were seen sniffing vehicles entering the Superdome garage, as well as the personal belongings of anyone entering the stadium. 

The Superdome was on lockdown for security sweeps on Wednesday morning, but the doors were scheduled to open at 1pm local time, with pre-game festivities beginning at 2:15 CST. Kickoff is now scheduled for 3pm in New Orleans, 4pm EST. Bourbon Street, the site of the attack, has re-opened ahead of the game, New Orleans mayor LaToya Cantrell told reporters. 

New Orleans Police Chief Anne Kirkpatrick has promised ‘hundreds of officers’ will be lining the city streets prior to Thursday’s rescheduled Sugar Bowl.

‘We are staffing up at the same level, if not more so, than what we were preparing for the Super Bowl [in February],’ Kirkpatrick told NBC Today.

The pivotal College Football Playoff quarterfinal matchup was postponed Wednesday after Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a 42-year-old US citizen, rammed his vehicle into a crowd on Bourbon Street during New Year’s festivities. Jabbar, who allegedly had an ISIS flag attached to his truck, was killed in a firefight with police following the attack at about 3:15am, according to the FBI.

Police and political leaders vowed to capture any accomplices or related crimes, although authorities currently believe Jabbar likely acted alone.

There had been speculation that Wednesday’s terror attack at Donald Trump’s Las Vegas hotel may be connected. In that attack, 37-year-old long-serving Green Beret Matthew Livelsberger is said to have driven a rented Tesla Cybertruck armed with a bomb to the hotel entrance, where he was killed by the blast.

Both Jabbar and Livelsberger spent time at North Carolina’s Fort Bragg (now Fort Liberty), although it remains unclear if the two had any contact with each other prior to their respective attacks on New Year’s Day.

New Orleans police found weapons and a potential explosive device in Jabbar’s vehicle, while two potential explosive devices were found in the French Quarter and rendered safe, the FBI said.

‘We do not believe that Jabbar was solely responsible. We are aggressively running down every lead, including those of his known associates,’ FBI Assistant Special Agent in Charge Alethea Duncan told reporters, adding that investigators were looking into a ‘range of suspects.’

Officials fanned out to serve search warrants and spent hours at a Houston-area home thought to be connected to the investigation. But as of Thursday morning, no additional arrests were known to have been made, and it was unclear if the FBI was still actively looking for more suspects.

The rampage turned festive Bourbon Street into a macabre scene of maimed victims, bloodied bodies and pedestrians fleeing for safety inside nightclubs and restaurants. In addition to the dead, dozens of people were hurt.

The victims included the mother of a 4-year-old who had just moved into a new apartment after getting a promotion at work, a New York financial employee and accomplished student athlete who was visiting home for the holidays, and an 18-year-old aspiring nurse from Mississippi.

The decision to postpone Wednesday’s Sugar Bowl to Thursday afternoon has left some Notre Dame and Georgia football fans surrendering their seats before a disappointing return flight home.

‘We can’t get new flights,’ said Lisa Borrelli, a 34-year-old Philadelphia resident who came to New Orleans with her fiancé, a 2011 Notre Dame graduate.

Postponing the game ‘was absolutely the right call,’ she said. ‘I completely understand.’

She said they paid more than $250 per ticket and hadn’t bothered listing them for resale yet because prices were so low: ‘Of course we’re disappointed to miss it and to lose so much money on it, but at the end of the day it doesn’t matter. We’re fortunate enough that we’ll be fine.’

Some seats on StubHub were as low as $11 after Wednesday’s tragedy as scores of fans unloaded tickets on the secondary market. Even the top seats were selling for $446 on StubHub.

Earlier Wednesday, field-level seats were going for as much as $1,700 on Ticketmaster before officials opted to postpone the game in the wake of the terror attack.

Like Borrelli and her fiancé, many football fans were forced to return home Thursday rather than remain in New Orleans for the postponed Sugar Bowl.

Included in that group is 72-year-old Darrell Huckaby of Athens, Georgia, who was in a hotel room overlooking the corner where the attack took place. He was asleep when it occurred, but when he woke up, he could see pink blankets covering the bodies of the dead, and later saw them being placed in bags and loaded onto trucks bound for the Orleans Parish Coroner’s office.

‘It was heartbreaking,’ he said. ‘I think the first instinct of most people this morning was wanting to be home. As important as football is to our Georgia culture, for a little while, the game just didn’t really seem to matter.

‘And I think there was a lot of uncertainty, and I understand,’ Huckaby said. ‘It took them a long time to decide on the game time and people kind of had to make decisions without all the information.’

He added that he would ‘probably eat’ the $360 per ticket he paid.

Instead of taking the field on Wednesday, the coaching staffs of Notre Dame and Georgia were left to speak with their players, first about the gravity of the situation unfolding around them, and then about the game itself.

Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman told ESPN about the meeting he held with his players.

‘The first part of that meeting was to mourn and pray for our country,’ Freeman said. ‘But the end of the meeting was to redirect our focus to preparing for this game.’

It’s a game that will feature an inexperienced quarterback starting for Georgia with the season on the line. The winner will play No. 6 seed Penn State in the Orange Bowl, scheduled for January 9 in Miami Gardens, Fla.

Sophomore Gunner Stockton will start for the Bulldogs (11-2) against the No. 7-seeded Fighting Irish (12-1) after Carson Beck underwent season-ending surgery to repair an elbow injury suffered in the second quarter of the SEC Championship Game on December 7.

Stockton replaced Beck and completed 12 of 16 passes for 71 yards with an interception in Georgia’s 22-19 overtime win against Texas. The victory solidified a playoff bye and extra preparation time for the Bulldogs, though they didn’t know their opponent until almost two weeks later when Notre Dame advanced with a 27-17 first-round playoff victory against Indiana on Dec. 20 in South Bend, Ind.

Georgia head coach Kirby Smart said the extra time helped Stockton by giving him added reps with the first team, though the Bulldogs’ game preparation was limited until they knew their opponent.

‘I think the biggest thing (for Stockton) is just competition and practice, the situations we put him in,’ Smart said. ‘All those things allow him to get better as a quarterback.’

Stockton has completed 25 of 32 passes for 206 yards and no touchdowns this season, with one interception. Freshman Nate Frazier leads the running game with 634 yards and eight TDs on 129 carries.

Freeman said he and his staff have ’80-something plays’ of Stockton to study.

‘He can run their offense,’ Freeman said. ‘He does things a little bit differently. He can extend plays with his legs; he’s a good athlete. The thing I probably noticed most about him, he’s an ultra-competitive individual.’

Smart downplayed the possibility that Stockton’s running ability will lead to much difference in the Bulldogs’ game plan.

‘We are who we are,’ Smart said.

The flip side to the break between games is that Georgia will have had the equivalent of 3 1/2 byes while Notre Dame stayed sharp by winning its 11th consecutive game.

‘It’s really just hard to manage how you keep your players in football shape and game shape,’ Smart said. ‘Do you lose some rhythm? You watch it most times in bowl games, people that have those long breaks, it can affect how you play.’

Notre Dame, like fellow first-round winners Penn State, Ohio State and Texas, is adjusting to playing back-to-back postseason games as part of the 12-team CFP.

‘Obviously, this is a first for me,’ Freeman said. ‘You almost prepared for this first round like it was maybe even a bowl game-ish-type opportunity. But then you realize once the game was over, you get back to preparation. …

‘In the playoffs, you’ve got to prepare in a way that gives your program the best opportunity to win. Put everything on the table and then, if you’re able to get the outcome you want, you’ve got to go right back to preparation.’

The Irish will go through the rest of the season without defensive tackle Rylie Mills because of a knee injury he suffered against Indiana.

‘The value (Mills) provided this team is tremendous,’ Freeman said. ‘And he’s done an excellent job as a football player and a leader.

‘You’ve got to replace what he did for our defense in different ways. We have capable guys that will step up, that have stepped up all year that we’re very confident in.’

Mills had 7 1/2 sacks this season, and he and preseason All-American Howard Cross III helped the defense overcome the loss of another preseason All-American, cornerback Benjamin Morrison, who sustained a season-ending hip injury in October.

Cross missed the final three regular-season games because of a high ankle sprain but returned against Indiana.

On offense, Notre Dame’s Riley Leonard has thrown for 2,293 yards and 17 touchdowns against six interceptions, and Jeremiyah Love averages 7.4 yards per carry, posting 1,057 rushing yards and 16 TDs on 142 attempts.