Leprechaun Express – Steve Welsh – Page 39

IRISH NEWSLINK: “Notre Dame vs. Clemson Stats/Box Score” – ESPN

December 19, 2020 Leprechaun Express - Steve Welsh Headlines

File Photo of Football on Turf with Yardlines

Will Notre Dame Play Clemson Three Times?

December 19, 2020 Leprechaun Express - Steve Welsh Headlines

Hard Rock Stadium - Miami file photo, adapted from image at defense.gov

Notre Dame played an opponent twice in the same season fairly early on, when they played Michigan on back-to-back days in April during Notre Dame’s second year of football in 1888.

Yet will Notre Dame play Clemson three times in the 2020 season?

Already the Fighting Irish and the Tigers are on a rematch, meeting up in the ACC Championship Game thanks to Notre Dame agreeing to spend one year in full-blown ACC conference play. The Irish, of course, already beat Clemson in an early November regular season game, a double-overtime thriller at Notre Dame.

The conventional wisdom seems to be that, if #3 Clemson, with several key starters returning, manages to upset undefeated #2 Notre Dame at the ACC championship neutral site in Charlotte, N.C., a one-loss Notre Dame would still be invited to the would-be College Football Playoff. A victorious one-loss Clemson also would be invited, having just defeated a top-2 opponent.

So, in that case, Notre Dame and Clemson could meet a third time on the season, either in the semifinal or in the national championship game itself.

However, there already are voices clamoring that, if Notre Dame wins again, a two-loss Clemson should not be allowed to become the first two-loss team invited to the still quite-young playoff arrangement.

Nevertheless, there is an argument to be made that, because of the unique way that college football is set up, Clemson should still be invited to the playoff, as long as they keep it close in the ACC title game.

In that event, even with two losses, Clemson should still be considered a one-loss team because both losses would be to just one team, the same team, an undefeated top-2 opponent.

Moreover, if Notre Dame beats Clemson again, Notre Dame clearly should be #1, with a stronger season over Alabama, even if Alabama manages to hold off a reeling multiple-loss Florida in the SEC title game.

In college football, while wins and losses are important, they also get regarded as “yardsticks” defining how the relevant teams compare. Even if Clemson picks up a second loss, that does nothing to change the yardstick comparison, to indicate where Clemson stands in the “pecking order” because it was just one elite, top team that would have beaten them.

Meanwhile, one-loss Texas A&M got blown out by more than four touchdowns in their loss to Alabama earlier in the year. Cincinnati would have an argument that, if they go undefeated, they deserve an invitation. But the ridiculous effort by the would-be playoff rankings to keep Cincinnati below Texas A&M implies that there is little rationale to put the Bearcats ahead of the Tigers, within the distorted world view of the somewhat dubiously ad hoc committee responsible for the rankings and invitations.

Another question is whether Brian Kelly and Notre Dame might follow through on their raising the prospect of declining a playoff invitation if families are not allowed at the semifinals or final.

To be truthful, Notre Dame should sit out the playoff just because of the coercive measure of blacking out the games on actual broadcast television, in favor of trying to force viewers to get cable television or, even worse, the pseudo-premium packages that ESPN has now retreated into.

Notre Dame really should look into setting up their own bowl games, heading forward at least, and make sure that the game are broadcast on actual broadcast television.

BYU once won a modern era national championship in the Holiday Bowl.

The would-be playoff already has seen its legitimacy reduced, just as the would-be BCS title game had its own legitimacy questioned. Already, Central Florida won a de facto national championship on the field after being left out of a playoff. Several years ago, an Alabama team that lost late in the year and did not even make it into their own conference title game was invited to the playoff, and awarded a supposed national title, even as an undefeated Central Florida beat an Auburn team that, itself, had beaten Alabama not long before the playoff shenanigans.

IRISH NEWSHUB: “Leprechaun Express: Notre Dame Football Intel Update”

December 19, 2020 Leprechaun Express - Steve Welsh Headlines

Notre Dame Has Rare Opportunity That Might Not Ever Happen Again; Irish Would Be Foolish Not To Seize It

December 19, 2020 Leprechaun Express - Steve Welsh Headlines

Perhaps it is fitting that there will be rare events occurring in the night sky leading up to Christmas, where the planets Jupiter and Saturn might come into close enough alignment to form a partial Star of Bethlehem.

Because Notre Dame Football also will have a rare confluence, or set of confluences “dialed up.” Although Notre Dame might not ever see a repeat of their own combination of circumstances again. The Irish had better seize the opportunity while it happens.

It is not just that Notre Dame has not won a major bowl game in a quarter-century, or a consensus national championship in a third of a century, and find themselves poised for a chance to make a decent post-season run. And it certainly is not the sports trivia curiosity that Notre Dame is playing for a conference championship and likely will never join a football conference again (or that, for ethical and institutional-identity reasons, they probably should leave the ACC for the Catholic-laden new Big East in basketball and other sports).

2020 is the year when:

No Academic Demands and An Empty Campus For A Month-Plus – Notre Dame has more than a month of the regular season, or non-bowl portion of the season (however one wants to label the conference title game) with no classes, no academic demands and an empty campus. Notre Dame excuse-making always includes academics, usually from a recruiting perspective, yet for the latter chunk of the season they are like a pro team, with no excuse not to be well-rested physically and mentally, distracted, with time for additional private workouts and private game film review and the like. And the empty campus means freedom from distractions as well as protection from colds and flus, along with greater protection from Covid.
Easier Schedule by Joining ACC Temporarily – Even as Clemson has been a national title-contending juggernaut, and even as former national championship coach Mack Brown appears to be helping North Carolina regain its footing, much of the ACC has weakened considerably in the past few years. One of the reasons some Notre Dame fans were concerned about Notre Dame’s bowl prospects last year was that, in 2019, the ACC struggled to find a team for the ACC-only Orange Bowl slot that was even ranked. Notre Dame’s schedule as a temporary ACC quasi-member has been weaker than what the Irish often have been used to as a national power conference-equivalent independent with a diverse, uniquely challenging coast-to-coast marquee schedule.
Fifth-Year Quarterback, Also In His Fifth Year Under the Same Head Coach – If memory serves, and it probably does, in a quiet moment during an obscure offseason press conference earlier in his tenure, Brian Kelly said something to the effect that it was a coach’s dream to have a quarterback in his fifth year. While Ian Book has not necessarily been in the precise same offensive scheme for five years, he has been under Brian Kelly for five years. Believe it or not, this might be the first time in Brian Kelly’s roughly decade-and-a-half at the Div. I-A/FBS level when that has happened.
Tenth-Year Head Coach – Brian Kelly, in a positive sense, was already “an old warhorse” as a head coach when Notre Dame hired him, one of their obvious motivations for doing so. He now is an old warhorse, in a positive sense, as a Notre Dame head coach, used to the whole scenario. Quietly in the background is the additional fact that Kelly is getting into that timeframe where longer-tenure Notre Dame head coaches start to look at retiring, either temporarily or permanently. That is not to say that Kelly will, any time soon, yet it should provide added impetus to the seize-the-opportunity urgency of the moment for the program. By comparison, back when Kelly got into his third year, this author observed that, thus far, Kelly had not stayed longer than three years at the Div. I-A/FBS level, having gone through two preceding three-year upward-and-onward crescendos before Notre Dame. Sure enough, after taking Notre Dame to the BCS title game, Kelly did talk with an NFL franchise briefly before deciding to stay.
Veteran Offensive Line – While Notre Dame has had ongoing quality reloading on the offensive line, including with the ongoing development of NFL talent, multiple observers have noted how loaded the current offensive line with quality and career starts. It not only is loaded with size, strength, talent and athleticisim, it also is loaded with experienced upperclassmen, including graduate students, they combine for roughly 160 career starts.
Defensive Coordinator Clark Lea – When Barry Alvarez was defensive coordinator under Lou Holtz, Notre Dame went 24-1, winning a consensus national championship, plus an added non-consensus national title, before Alvarez left to become head coach at Wisconsin. With Clark Lea as defensive coordinator, Notre Dame, thus far, has gone 33-3, with a few more games left. His departure to become head coach at his Alma Mater Vanderbilt means his presence on the sideline as a coordinator is yet another unique element in the bundle of opportunities that has to be taken advantage of while it exists. (Time will tell, of course, whether Lea’s departure will “tee him up” as a hypothetical future Notre Dame head coaching candidate years down the line, depending on how he performs as a head coach at Vanderbilt.)
ACC Title Game Offering Another Late-Year Marquee Game – From time to time, it will be pointed out that the conference title games provide full football conference participants with one added marquee game against an elite, or at least a semi-elite, opponent to cap of their “resume” for playoff rankings and post-season bowl considerations. On the other hand, Notre Dame usually has plenty of opportunities to schedule marquee opponents, including late in the year.

Now, Notre Dame, of course, has multiple special elements to this year’s team that are not listed, such as special contributors, and special units, across all parts of the team and coaching staff. And some of the special elements listed above might return again, such as a veteran offensive line reforming. New coaching hires likely will be of high quality and current coaches will continue to develop.

(By comparison, a few years after the Alvarez departure, with Rick Minter as defensive coordinator under Lou Holtz, Notre Dame went 22-2-1, before Minter left to become head coach at Cincinnati (later, Notre Dame would go 19-6 in rebuilding years with Minter as a defensive coordinator presiding over a severely depleted roster under Charlie Weis).)

Yet it seems unique that all of these elements line up at the same time, and some of them, will, indeed, never reoccur.

Some might be quick to argue that, if Notre Dame does get invited to this year’s would-be college football playoff, that would be the third time in nine years, and the second time in three years, that Notre Dame was allowed into either the playoff or the old BCS title game. Yet it also has been a third of a century since Notre Dame won a non-consensus national championship and a quarter-century since Notre Dame even won a major bowl game. And this year’s alignment is not likely to come back.

IRISH NEWSHUB: “Notre Dame Takes on Clemson in ACC Championship Game”

December 19, 2020 Leprechaun Express - Steve Welsh Headlines

Library of Congress file photo of Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, NC, with attribution to Highsmith, Carol M., 1946- Carol M. Highsmith Archive. - https://www.loc.gov/item/2017880224/

UP NEXT: ACC Championship: #2 Notre Dame Fighting Irish vs. #3 Clemson Tigers, Saturday, Dec. 19, 2020, 4pm ET, 3 CT, 2 MT, 1 PT, at Bank of America Stadium, Charlotte, N.C., on ABC

[PDF] Notre Dame vs. Clemson – extended game notes [62 pages]

The #2 Notre Dame Fighting Irish (10-0) take on the #3 Clemson Tigers (9-1) for the Atlantic Coast Conference Championship on Saturday, Dec. 19, 2020, at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, N.C. Kickoff is at 4 p.m. ET, 3 CT, 2 MT, 1 PT on ABC, with temperatures projected to be near 50 degrees at the start.

The game is a rematch of a double-overtime thriller that Notre Dame won 47-40 back on Nov. 7 at Notre Dame Stadium. It also comes in what is likely Notre Dame’s only conference season before returning to football independence. The Irish arguably are enjoying an easier schedule than they would have faced as an independent. Even as Clemson has been a national title-contending juggernaut, the overall quality of the ACC has seen a bit of downturn in recent years.

The conventional wisdom is that Clemson is favored in the rematch, given that the last game was so close, at Notre Dame, with Clemson missing several key starters, including starting Tigers quarterback Trevor Lawrence. The rematch is at a neutral site, with several of those players back, including quarterback Lawrence. Meanwhile, however, Notre Dame quarterback Ian Book is 30-3 as a starter, the Notre Dame defense all but shut down the Clemson running game the last time and Notre Dame’s offense lit up Clemson for more than 500 yards the first time around. The oldest living Heisman winner, Johnny Lujack, who played for Frank Leahy during one of the greatest dynasties in sports history, is the only Notre Dame quarterback with a higher winning percentage than Book.

Notre Dame and Clemson easily could end up playing three times this year, with both teams potentially heading to the would-be College Football Playoff, even as Notre Dame Head Coach Brian Kelly has threatened to boycott the playoff is player families are not allowed to attend amidst draconian California Covid-19 pandemic restrictions.