Dabo expects ‘unbelievable matchup’ as Clemson gets rematch with Notre Dame
This year’s ACC championship game has a little different feel to it.
The Clemson Tigers are going for their sixth consecutive ACC title. But unlike the previous five years, Clemson will have to go through another top-5 team to clinch a spot in the College Football Playoff.
Clemson’s previous five ACC championship wins were against: No. 10 North Carolina, No. 23 Virginia Tech, No. 7 Miami, unranked Pitt and No. 23 Virginia.
In the 2020 title game, which will take place two weeks from this past Saturday, Clemson will face an undefeated and No. 2-ranked Notre Dame team that has already beaten the Tigers once this year, albeit without quarterback Trevor Lawrence.
“It should be an unbelievable matchup in Charlotte,” Clemson coach Dabo Swinney said.
This year’s ACC title game will also be different in that Clemson has a bye week before the game.
The Tigers will use the week off to prepare for Notre Dame, while also trying to get healthy. Clemson had several players get banged up and leave the game during Saturday’s 45-10 win over Virginia Tech, including starting Mike linebacker and defensive leader James Skalski. Receivers Joseph Ngata and Frank Ladson and cornerback Andrew Booth were unable to play against Virginia Tech at all but could be back for the game against Notre Dame in Charlotte, Swinney said.
“The number one thing is hopefully we can have our team, everybody healthy and ready to go,” he added. “Obviously, we had a bunch of guys that didn’t play in that game, so getting those guys ready to go is No. 1.”
In addition to players having to prepare for Notre Dame, Clemson also has exams this week. That will alter Clemson’s preparation just a bit.
There was talk last month that Clemson could play a game this coming Saturday after Clemson’s game against Florida State was postponed, but ultimately the ACC opted to give Notre Dame and Clemson this week off. The Irish had been scheduled to face Wake Forest.
“Our guys have finals this week, so it’s a big week. I’m glad it worked out that we didn’t have the championship game this week. We’ll probably have to tweak our schedule just a little bit practice-time wise to work around the finals of our guys,” Swinney said. “We’ll work all week. We’ll give them off Friday and Saturday. We have a ton of finals on Friday. Guys will be off Saturday. Bring them back in Sunday. Have our testing and all that stuff and then have a normal game week.”
This will also be a busy week for Clemson’s staff, which will be looking back at Clemson’s previous matchup with Notre Dame for ways to improve.
“We’ll go back and study that tape. We’ve already done that. But we’ll go back and study that tape again. We’ll crossover and study it,” Swinney said.
He already knows some areas Clemson needs to improve, even without watching the tape again.
“We’ve obviously gotta eliminate the big plays. We gave up a lot of big, big, big plays in some costly situations,” Swinney said. “Penalties, a critical turnover. We fumble the ball and score for them. So we’ve gotta do a better job and play a cleaner football game than what we played the last time to have a chance to beat a good team like that.”
Next Clemson football game
Who: Clemson vs. Notre Dame
Where: ACC championship game
When: 4 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 19
TV: ABC
