Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1305649
www.BLUEANDGOLD.com NOV. 7, 2020 43 BY PATRICK ENGEL T wo head coaches of top-five programs held dueling Zoom media sessions some 500 miles apart on Oct. 24, each of their teams fresh off hanging 40-plus points on inferior opponents. In Pittsburgh, Notre Dame's Brian Kelly shoved aside clichés about one week at a time and leaned into the importance of an upcoming game. "We're interested in being a cham- pionship football team, and just play- ing to win games is not good enough anymore," Kelly said following a 45-3 beatdown of Pitt. Meanwhile, in Clemson, S.C., Dabo Swinney pushed back after his team's 47-21 victory over Syracuse, one in which Clemson took a 17-0 lead, saw it shrink to six points — and then received some inquiries on what went wrong and why his team was not more dominant. "I want to make sure I'm at the right press conference here," Swinney said, with a hint of incredulity. "We did win the game, I think. I want to make sure I'm at the right spot. Am I in the right spot? OK. I think we won the game." He echoed Kelly's stance the week before, when Kelly's postgame out- look on an uninspiring 12-7 win over Louisville was, "Winning is hard." Clemson and Notre Dame, two un- beatens with title dreams and estab- lished stability under their respective coaches, will face each other Nov. 7 in a game that will boost one team's championship résumé and deal the other's a dent. It's their first meeting since the 2018 Cotton Bowl, a Col- lege Football Playoff semifinal game Clemson won 30-3 on the way to its second national title in three seasons. In the 27 months since, the Tigers have remained at that level. They won 14 straight games last season, including toppling Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl, before becoming LSU and No. 1 overall pick Joe Burrow's final victim in the College Football Playoff championship game. Notre Dame, in a way, has stayed where it was then, too: Good enough to defeat every team it should, but not quite there in terms of beating teams who obstruct the path to a title. The Irish and Tigers have not played a regular-season game since 2015, a 24- 22 Clemson win in Death Valley. That game propelled the Tigers to a national championship game appearance, their first under Swinney. It was a moment of arrival and swatting away of the "Clemsoning" tag that poked fun at their inability to win big games. For Notre Dame, it was a loss in a high- profile game, a trend that still persists. Clemson's visit to South Bend, likely the first by a No. 1-ranked team since USC in 2005, is the chance to change that standing and erase a narrative. And the point of Kelly's postgame assertion in Pittsburgh was in order to beat Clemson, the Irish need to dominate lesser teams like Clemson does — win by three or four touchdowns with the fourth quarter a time for backups instead of suspense. In short, to beat them, you have to act like them. One observer who has faced both thinks the Irish sure did. "They're as good a football team I have seen walk on the field in the last six years," Pitt head coach Pat Narduzzi said. It's worth noting those six years include games against a pair of title- winning Clemson teams. Clemson is so used to games against unranked teams all but ending at halftime that any exceptions evoke some ruffled players and less posi- tive questions. The question Swinney took exception to was prompted by junior quarterback Trevor Lawrence's claim that the Tigers' energy wasn't "what it needed to be" to start the game. Clemson still took a 17-0 lead before it dwindled to 27-21 midway through the third quarter. Swinney's reaction to it all: "It's not easy to win." Kelly ditched that line because win- ning doesn't always have to be hard, and shouldn't always be for teams that fashion themselves as title contenders — especially when playing an oppo- nent staring at a sub.-500 finish. In this game, though, he knows it will be true no matter who starts at quarterback. QUARTERBACK UNCERTAINTY Lawrence, the favorite to be the No. 1 pick in the NFL Draft next spring, was leading another potent Clemson of- fense through six games before it was announced on Oct. 29 that he tested positive for COVID-19. He did not play against Boston College and, after the Tigers rallied from an 18-point deficit to beat the Eagles 34-28, Swinney told the media that Lawrence would not be available to play against Notre Dame. Clemson will turn to its other five- star quarterback, freshman D.J. Uiag- alelei. He was the top-ranked quarter- back and the No. 3 overall recruit in the 2020 class and widely expected to take over for Lawrence after this season. He GAME PREVIEW: CLEMSON CATCHING THE TIGERS BY THE TAIL No. 1 Clemson enters the showdown against Notre Dame without the services of its star quarterback, but the Tigers still are loaded and very dangerous It was announced on Oct. 29 that junior quarter- back Trevor Lawrence — the presumptive No. 1 overall pick in the 2021 NFL Draft — tested posi- tive for COVID-19, and two days later he was ruled out for the showdown versus the Irish. PHOTO COURTESY ACC MEDIA