The biggest game of the Clemson football season is still two months away.
By now, anyone that has followed Clemson football under the watchful eye of head coach Dabo Swinney knows that the current game of the week is the programs most important. You can’t win them all unless you win the one in front of you.
Thankfully, none of us here at Rubbing the Rock have to follow that motto, so we have the luxury of looking ahead.
We have been on the record many times talking about how improved the ACC will be in 2020 but because of the all ACC schedule in 2020, teams won’t get a chance to show how’d they fair in the cross-conference competition until bowl season gets here.
The good news for the ACC is that they should have at least one game featuring two top-five ranked teams when Clemson heads to South Bend to take on the fighting Irish in November.
As good as Notre Dame is expected to be in 2020, the truth is they will need the luck of the Irish to have even the slightest chance at taking down the Tigers.
Notre Dame falls into that category of pretender with programs like UGA, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Texas, Florida, Penn State, Michigan, USC, and Auburn. Teams that have a ton of elite talent but can’t get it done in games that really matter.
Sure, they can beat up teams like Navy, Rutgers, Kentucky, and Kansas but can’t beat the truly elite teams in the country with elite coaching and talent.
Clemson football should have no issues beating Notre Dame this season.
Notre Dame seems to be the sexy pick because they have a three-year starter at quarterback in Ian Book and Brian Kelly at head coach – who is among the most overrated college football coaches on any level. They lost 19 guys from the 2019 team that went 11-2 and also replaced their offensive coordinator.
Other than tackle Liam Eichenberg, the Irish don’t have a whole lot of talent upfront, which has been a staple under Brian Kelly.
With Covid-19 threatening every college football team in 2020, the depth of every roster will be questioned at some point over the next three months. Not only is Clemson football one of the most talented teams in college football, but they are also one of the deepest. The same cannot be said for Notre Dame.
Notre Dame will be a good team in 2020 but they aren’t elite and they are not on Clemson’s level. Clemson has shown over the last five years that they are heads and shoulders better than the rest of the conference and Notre Dame will be nothing more than any other ACC team in the way to another Clemson football national championship.