Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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www.BLUEANDGOLD.com DEC. 19, 2020 9 UNDER THE DOME Our life plan community for those over the age of 62, provides residents with exceptional personalized services, a secure atmosphere and carefree luxury lifestyle – while making it possible to ease into further healthcare levels as needs change throughout retirement years. For the second time this season, the Notre Dame-Wake Forest game is off the docket. This time for good. Originally slated to be played Sept. 26 in Winston- Salem, N.C., it was postponed until Dec. 12 — the designated makeup day for ACC football this year — because of a COVID-19 outbreak at Notre Dame. Two months later, it's the Demon Deacons who experienced setbacks with the pandemic, first with not playing the scheduled Nov. 21 game with Duke and then their slated Dec. 5 clash with Miami. The dominoes began to fall when the postpone- ment of the Clemson at Florida State game on Nov. 21 also was potentially designated for Dec. 12. Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney, however, indicated his Tigers would not return to play FSU after the Seminoles backed out a few hours before the Nov. 21 game because of concerns about a Clemson lineman testing positive for the COVID-19 and making the trip to Tallahassee. On Dec. 1, the ACC announced a reshaped schedule that indeed did not include Clemson at FSU on Dec. 12. That meant the final league game for the No. 3-ranked Tigers would be at Virginia Tech on Dec. 5, and a victory would clinch their spot in the ACC Championship versus Notre Dame Dec. 19 at Charlotte, N.C. Following his team's Dec. 1 practice, Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly received the news that be- cause Clemson would have a bye Dec. 12, so would Notre Dame — and therefore no game with Wake Forest on that date. "Our earlier conversations were much in line with if we're playing Wake Forest [on Dec. 12], Florida State is playing Clemson," Kelly said. "There needs to be balance. Everybody has to play everybody. It wasn't posturing of any kind of, 'Let's try to get out of this Wake Forest game.' I have no problem play- ing Wake Forest any time or any place, and our guys would be excited about that opportunity as long as everyone was playing the same amount of games." Notre Dame and Clemson had each played nine games heading into the Dec. 5 weekend, but 7-1 Miami had played only eight. Had Clemson suf- fered a major upset at Virginia Tech Dec. 5 for a second league loss, it was important for the ACC to give Miami a chance to earn its way with two more wins Dec. 5 (at Duke) and Dec. 12 (North Carolina) for the right to play the Irish Dec. 19. That became moot after the Tigers defeated the Hokies 45-10. "As long as all things were equal from that per- spective and Miami understood they had a chance to get in … then why not protect the championship game?" Kelly said. "That was the conversation that we had. There was never a posturing from our end. We were prepared to play Wake Forest if that's what the ACC requested us to do." With both Notre Dame and Clemson idle Dec. 12, that is the "balance" the Irish sought. Traveling to North Carolina for weekend games on both Dec. 12 versus Wake Forest and then Dec. 19 for the league title game would not have provided equal footing. "The only thing that we would have probably pushed back on was that we wanted equity on the same weekend if Clemson was going to push back," Kelly said. "That never seemed to be the case." — Lou Somogyi Notre Dame-Wake Forest Cancellation Stems From 'Equity' Issue Head coach Brian Kelly was pleased with the ACC's decision that allowed both Notre Dame and Clemson to have a bye on Dec. 12 before meeting for the ACC Championship on Dec. 19. PHOTO BY ANDRIS VISOCKIS