To most of the college football world, Saturday night's clash between No. 1 Clemson and No. 4 Notre Dame will feel like the main course at the end of a jam-packed day.
To Charlotte, though, it's hopefully just an appetizer — and the true main course will be served in the Queen City in six more weeks.
I would wager that the ACC championship game in Bank of America Stadium on Dec. 19th will again pit Clemson and Notre Dame, with one trying to avenge the loss that comes Saturday. That December game will come with higher stakes, better drama and a headliner who will be missing Part 1.
I asked Clemson coach Dabo Swinney this week about the odds of Clemson-Notre Dame Part 2 being played in Charlotte.
"Could be very likely," Swinney said.
That very likely would be a lot of fun.
And while Saturday's game is important, the Dec. 19th contest would be utterly essential. The winner in Charlotte will almost certainly advance to the College Football Playoff — for the past six years in a row, the ACC champion has done just that.
And in Charlotte on Dec. 19th, Clemson will in all likelihood have Trevor Lawrence at quarterback. For Saturday's game, due to Lawrence's COVID-19 diagnosis that is causing him to miss two games, freshman quarterback D.J. Uiagalelei starts for the Tigers.
This first Clemson-Notre Dame game of 2020 will pit two undefeated teams in the highest-ranked matchup of two ACC squads in conference history (7:30 pm Saturday, NBC). It will be a true road game for Clemson (7-0), with Touchdown Jesus and all the rest at Notre Dame Stadium, a tradition-soaked place where the Fighting Irish (6-0) hardly ever lose. Then again, Clemson has won 14 straight true road games.
Swinney, oddly, said he has never been to Notre Dame, considered one of the sport's meccas.
"This is college football at its best," Swinney said. "Two top-5 teams. ... To win this league, we've got to get to Charlotte. And so this would be a huge step in that direction for both teams."
Of course, Clemson and Notre Dame still need to win enough after this game to get to Charlotte, which now has an agreement to host the ACC football championship every year through 2030. But that should happen, given the competition.
Entering this weekend's games, North Carolina has been thoroughly exposed on defense and already has two frightful ACC losses.
N.C. State, Wake Forest and Virginia Tech all have two league losses, too. Miami has just one loss, but it was a 25-point blowout to Clemson. The Hurricanes are a threat to get to Charlotte instead of the Clemson-Notre Dame loser and they don't play the Fighting Irish, either. But they do have to play all of the two-loss ACC teams, which makes one Miami stumble seem likely. (The ACC isn't split into two divisions for football this season as it usually is, so the two teams with the best winning percentage earn a spot in Charlotte).
Even when Lawrence has played, Clemson has looked vulnerable. The Tigers' receiving corps isn't bulging with blue-chippers as usual, which has meant that teams can load up the box against all-everything running back Travis Etienne and dare the Tigers to beat them by throwing. The defense has also been spotty by Clemson standards — Boston College led Clemson 28-13 at halftime last week.
But Uiagalelei, playing in his first game in Lawrence's place, led a comeback while throwing for 342 yards and Clemson won, 34-28.
It will be fascinating to see how Uiagalelei plays at Notre Dame. His arm strength is unbelievable, according to Swinney, so much so that the first time Swinney saw him in a football camp he had to take some players out of the wide receiver line so some of the younger receivers didn't get hurt by the throws.
But D.J., as Swinney calls him, hasn't yet had to make dozens of correct decisions in a hostile college environment.
Notre Dame, meanwhile, is playing a full conference schedule for the first time in football in a one-year marriage of convenience with the ACC related to the scheduling problems caused by COVID-19. The Fighting Irish are a veteran team with a strong defense, and they have a legitimate chance to win the league if quarterback Ian Book plays well enough.
Saturday will be a blast. But I think Part 2 will happen, and it will be even better.
