CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Clemson destroyed Notre Dame in the ACC football championship Saturday, 34-10, at Bank of America Stadium.
And the Tigers embarrassed the Fighting Irish so badly that, by all rights, Notre Dame should get dropped from the College Football Playoff, losing their spot to Texas A&M.
It turned out that Notre Dame needed everything to go right in that first game against Clemson Nov. 7, a 47-40 thriller the Irish won in double overtime. Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence and linebacker James Skalski both had to be out, Notre Dame had to be playing at home and Fighting Irish quarterback Ian Book had to be playing very well.
None of that was the case Saturday night, when we saw what would happen on an average evening when these two teams played on a neutral field in Charlotte.
Lawrence (322 passing yards, 90 rushing yards, 3 total TDs) absolutely dominated on a night that might have leapfrogged him into a comeback Heisman Trophy victory. Book was indecisive and out of sorts, patting the ball in the pocket like it was a puppy as Clemson’s defense played spectacularly well and sacked him six times.
“Everything kind of went like we expected it to go,” Lawrence said on TV after the game.
And, to the nation: “We’re back. We’re back again.”
Clemson coach Dabo Swinney said after the game on TV it would be a “crying shame” if Lawrence didn’t win the Heisman because he was clearly the best player in the country.
On Saturday night, Lawrence sure looked like it, and Notre Dame looked nothing like a team that should be in the CFP.
Clemson (10-1), of course, qualified with this win for its annual spot in the CFP and also grabbed its sixth straight ACC title. When the playoff field is announced Sunday at noon, Alabama, Clemson and Ohio State should all be locks in some order.
The fourth spot will be the question mark. Texas A&M is 8-1; Notre Dame is 10-1. Texas A&M has important wins over Florida and Auburn but got beaten by 28 points by Alabama. However, the Aggies have won seven straight games, all of them against SEC opponents.
Notre Dame has a good win over North Carolina and, of course, the great win over Clemson. However, the Irish got lambasted in this ACC title game, taking a 3-0 lead early and then giving up 34 straight points before a meaningless TD late in the fourth quarter made the final score not sound quite as bad as it was.
Lawrence threw a deflected interception on Clemson’s first drive, and for a short while it appeared we might be in for another terrific game.
Instead, in terms of entertainment, the Clemson-Notre Dame sequel was like one of those bad movie sequels: Caddyshack 2. Grease 2. Mean Girls 2.
Clemson’s scoring plays were a smorgasbord of bigger, faster, better: Lawrence TD passes of 67 and 33 yards; a Travis Etienne run of 44 yards; a Lawrence run of 34 yards. Clemson mostly didn’t bother with the red zone. The Tigers simply scored from outside the 30-yard line. If not for Lawrence missing two games due to COVID-19 this season, the Heisman race wouldn’t be close. As it is, he might just win it anyway.
Clemson just dominated Notre Dame. The Fighting Irish were nowhere close. Notre Dame didn’t pass the eye test to me.
Notre Dame fans will disagree and coach Brian Kelly certainly does disagree.
“This football team is one of the four best teams in the country,” Kelly said of Notre Dame in his postgame press conference Saturday. “We’ve got two top-15 wins. ... I don’t know that anybody has a resume that has those two wins. And we’ve played 11 games. That matters.”
But it looks to me like Texas A&M deserves a playoff slot more — a team that’s hotter and plays in a tougher football conference.
If Notre Dame does make it, I imagine they’ll lose by three touchdowns in the semifinal and just go back home. Again.
But it would make more sense not to send Notre Dame at all.
