Three reasons Notre Dame doesn’t stand a chance in a rematch with Clemson football
The Clemson football team will take on the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in a matchup of epic proportions this Saturday afternoon in the ACC Championship.
The Tigers and Irish already played once this season and it yielded us a double-overtime thriller that saw Notre Dame pull out a 47-40 victory and, basically, cement themselves as a CFB Playoff participant as a result.
As we get ready for the big-time matchup that has everyone’s attention, here’s a look at three reasons why Notre Dame simply doesn’t stand a chance against Clemson football.
3. There’s no home field advantage this time
In the world of 2020, ‘home field advantage’ is something that has been used loosely.
Many College Football teams around the country didn’t even have a home crowd in attendance and those who did saw the numbers sharply reduced to their normal crowds.
Clemson football actually had the second-most attendees for games this season with an average of around 19,000 in attendance for the Tigers’ home games this year.
That being said, you can’t argue the magnitude of the crowd that was in Notre Dame Stadium in early November. Though it was a crowd that consisted mostly of just students and staff members, they were loud and they made their presence felt.
Clemson certainly had a tough road test- even if it wasn’t as difficult as it normally would’ve been- but that’s an advantage that the Fighting Irish won’t have this time in Charlotte.
2. Those defensive starters are back
We’ve heard over and over again about how Trevor Lawrence wasn’t available to play in the game against Notre Dame, but the truth of the matter is that the Tigers didn’t miss a beat with D.J. Uiagalelei at quarterback.
As a matter of fact, Uiagalelei’s performance at quarterback was statistically the best of the season from the position (439 yards passing, accounted for 3 TDs).
The biggest loss, in my opinion, was the ones we saw on the defensive side of the ball.
The Tigers were without three of their best defenders- James Skalski, Mike Jones Jr. and Tyler Davis– all due to injury and they were down seven starters by the second half. In the end, the defense wore down and they were unable to get stops towards the end of the night and in overtime.
Don’t look for that to be the case this time.
The Tigers will be at full-strength when they take on the Fighting Irish and there’s nothing that will stop that defense from creating pressure and using depth to their advantage, while it wasn’t available last time.
1. Tigers don’t lose rematches
Simply put, Clemson football doesn’t lose rematches.
Do you know the last team to beat the Tiger back-to-back times? You have to go all the way back to 2013 and 2014 when Florida State beat the Tigers during both seasons.
That’s right.
In this CFB Playoff era of Clemson football (five-straight years going on hopefully six), no team has beaten the Tigers twice in a row. No ACC team has done it. No CFB Playoff team has done. South Carolina hasn’t done it.
Clemson has dropped games, but they don’t lose rematches. They circle games (see Pittsburgh, Syracuse and Alabama as examples) when they lose to a team and they take getting revenge seriously.
Brent Venables loves to a second chance at an offense. Dabo Swinney loves a second chance against a team he knows he has the talent and depth to beat.
That, in and of itself, spells trouble for Notre Dame as we head into the ACC Championship.