Terry, please forgive me for doing what you normally do. The reason I'm posting the new thread is that I came across this weather forecast for next weekend in South Bend and thought it might be a good way to start the conversation:
Mary and I met this really nice couple on a cruise in the summer of 19. They were big Clemson fans and were really looking forward to visiting our campus for this game. What a shame that they won't be able to attend. It looks like a wonderful fall weekend in South Bend.
Yeah this is one of those games where we would've likely seen a sea of Orange due to ND fans selling out for the $$$$ that they offer. I have read that the justification is that tickets have become so expensive that one game can pay for the whole season, so why not do it.
Much will be made of the absence of Trevor Lawrence, as well it should. He's arguably the best player at the most important position in college football. Thing is that his backup is a terrific young talent, and if you remember Lawrence led the Tigers to a Nat'l Championship as a true freshman, who didn't start till the 4th or 5th game, I forget, when they decided Kelly Bryant who had taken them to the Nat'l Championship game the previous year wasn't good enough. Also the backup, lets call him DJ because I can't spell his last name, besides being the top rated qB in his recruiting class has been able to get meaningful snaps in game situations leading up to the BC game. He was terrific against BC, even though he wasn't named the starter till after Wed's practice. They found out Lawrence was out after that practice, so he didn't have a full week of game prep as the starter, yet he played like a guy who's been the starter all along. Now he'll get a full week of game prep for the Irish. The last true freshman QB to come to South Bend as his first road start was Jake Fromm of Georgia, while it was the Georgia defense that beat ND that day, he played very well and was not going to be the reason that Georgia lost. DJ as we saw Sat, still has the great OL that Lawrence operated behind, he can still hand it off to a high 1st round AA RB in Travis Etienne and still has a fleet of highly rated WR's/TE's to throw the ball. So I don't truthfully expect much of a drop off, if any, from DJ being the Clemson starter. Plus traditionally one of the things you worry about with a freshman in their first road start in a big game is the crowd. There will be 10K at ND stadium. So crowd will not an intimidation factor.
I'm sure the Book has nightmares from that Clemson defense in the playoff game. That D line had high NFL draft picks and one of the reserves also went high. Being a competitor I'm sure he's looking for a second shot at them. I expect that Clemson will overplay the run and try to force Book into passing situations. We're going to have to throw on first down and the O line has got to do a better job at pass protection than they're done lately. Lea has to disguise our D and try to confuse the frosh QB. We've got to win the turnover battle and we need a big play from our special teams.
Irish open, not a big surprise, as underdogs to Clemson, +5 points. I hope Ian Book is up to the pressure of the week. He's pretty much the whole conversation from the ND side with very few feeling he has it in him to play the type of game that is needed to beat Clemson.
Trevor Lawrence will travel with Clemson to the ND game and be on the sidelines. Will be available to play the following week vs FSU. The ACC's medical advisory group requires all players who test positive to remain in isolation for a minimum of 10 days, which Swinney suggested would be concluded Thursday for Lawrence. But in order to evaluate for symptoms of myocarditis or other cardiovascular issues, a three-part testing protocol is also in place that Clemson said can take an additional two to three days. In addition, the school employs a "reacclimatization" period of at least two days to ensure players are healthy enough to return to action.
Latest Covid results at ND. "A total of 240 COVID-19 tests were administered to Notre Dame Football student-athletes last week (Tuesday-Sunday). Of those 240, there was one positive test, according to University Physician Dr. Matt Leiszler. That student-athlete is in isolation, and did not travel to last week's game at Georgia Tech. As of Monday, Nov. 2, a total of two players are currently in isolation, while there is one player in quarantine as a result of having been identified as a close contact from a positive result outside of the football program."
Everything Dabo had to say about the game. As always the opposing coaches always talk up their opponent. In the section where they ask him about Book after the first sentence I'm not sure if he's talking about Book and instead talking about Trevor. He said multiple times how well coached the irish are, again they always say that, but many (not all of course) would just as soon have Kelly fired at the end of the season no matter what he does with the season. There are 11 quotes in the article. ON THE UPCOMING MATCHUP WITH NOTRE DAME “We’re super excited about this opportunity this week. This is college football at its best. Two top five teams. When you sit down and start breaking this thing down, it’s about what you’d expect with two top five teams. A bunch of really good players on both sides and this is again, a very small margin of error type of game. We’ll have to play better for sure and cut out some of the mistakes that we’ve had, especially given up some points to the other team. It’s fun. It’s a great matchup.” Link to the article. Everything Dabo Swinney Said About Notre Dame on Tuesday
Clemson is going to be without, DT Tyler Davis, along with another player, Xavier Thomas for the first half due to a Targeting call last week.
A theoretical question. If Clemson wins this game and then Clemson, Notre Dame and Miami all three win out. That would put Clemson in the Championship game and Notre Dame and Miami at one loss each, both to Clemson. So who would play Clemson for the Championship, Miami or Notre Dame?
Bill these are the tie breakers for 2 teams tied. I think in the case of Miami and ND both finishing with 1 conference loss that #5 will come into play. Two-Team Tie 1. Head-to-head competition between the two tied teams. 2. Head-to-head competition versus the team with the best overall win percentage and proceeding though the conference. Multiple ties within the conference will be broken from first to last using the league’s tiebreaker policies. 3. Overall win percentage versus all common conference opponents. 4. Win percentage versus common conference opponents based upon their order of finish (overall conference win percentage) and proceeding through other common conference opponents based upon their conference order of finish. 5. The tied team with the higher ranking by the Team Rating Score metric provided by SportSource Analytics following the conclusion of regular season games. 6. The representative shall be chosen by a draw as administered by the Commissioner or Commissioner’s designee.
That was a fun game to watch, and NCState certainly did give Miami all they could handle. In the end the Miami defense took over and sealed the win. I was impressed by both QB's esp D'Eriq King of Miami he is fast and elusive as a runner and had a strong accurate arm last night. Now granted that NCState defense isn't to be confused with Clemson, which that same Miami offense was completely ineffective. Miami is likely to be favored in all their remaining games though. UNC will be their only game that I see them being challenged.
With Biden winning today, speculation is that Biden may make a speech tonight and the game may be preempted and the game moved to a cable channel.
Good news for Directv subscribers, the ND /Clemson game on the 4k channel will not be preempted by the Biden speech. That would include me!