The Notre Dame-Clemson gameday experience, from tailgates to fallout

After No. 12 Clemson outlasted No. 6 Notre Dame in a thriller at home, head coach Dabo Swinney broke into a speech that touched on everything from student-athlete stipends to the Lord in Heaven, and just as he reached a triumphant crescendo, ABC’s coverage cut over to the SportsCenter set, where Jay Harris and Kevin Connors were lookin’ at some tablets and stuff. They never appeared to know they were on camera.

Swinney was being mobbed by fans, the field was covered with hurricane water (some call it rain), Notre Dame had just stormed back from 18 down to fall short, and somewhere in there, ESPN’s gear broke.

It appeared Notre Dame had missed its chance late in the fourth quarter against Clemson. Trailing 24-16, the Fighting Irish needed to go on a 32-yard drive to try and tie the game and do it without a time out. To make matters worse, the drive started with a DeShone Kizer fumble that cost Notre Dame six yards and sent the clock ticking down.

Then the Fighting Irish got rolling. One big play turned into two, then the Irish found the endzone.

This Notre Dame defender intercepted a Clemson pass, and he was so proud, he decided to taunt the Clemson fans:

Hey, Notre Dame? You might wanna check that scoreboard:

Clemson leads Notre Dame 14-3 at the half, and for as bad as the Irish offense has been - especially on the ground - they’re only down 11. So while we’re about to have some fun with stats of DOOM about the Irish offense, they’re two scores away from the lead. It’s very much a football game, because only half of it has been played.

1. CJ Prosise, you have 4 yards on 10 carries. That’s not good! Pretty much any run call from the Irish has failed miserably and cost ND yardage - Clemson has 5 TFLs.

The big question for Clemson entering the season: how to replace so much of what might’ve been the country’s best defense last year? Besides end Shaq Lawson, that is. No worries there.

Above, watch as it takes two cheating Notre Dame linemen to keep Lawson off of DeShone Kizer. It took two of them, and they both had to cheat to do it, and one of those guys is presumed potential first-round pick Ronnie Stanley. They were flagged for holding, part of a darn spree of ineptitude by the Irish offense:

Clemson and Notre Dame are about six minutes from kickoff here in the Upstate. A few quick things:

1. It’s really, really wet. The rain has been steady for days, is steady right now and the doppler doesn’t show signs of stopping. The field here is one of best managed pieces of live grass in the FBS and wasn’t tarped at all. It’s actually in really great condition considering the rain.

Busch Light, check. Life vests, check. Unbridled optimism in the face of grave danger? Check.

To the surprise of very few, Lee Corso went with Notre Dame over Clemson on Saturday at College GameDay. Corso looked like he was wearing some kind of robe to cover the leprechaun suit, so this wasn’t exactly a stunner. The actual Notre Dame mascot joined him on stage for a jig.

As you might imagine, Orange Clemson Pope disapproves of this nonsense.

This week gives us two battles of F/+ top 10 teams: No. 1 Alabama at No. 7 Georgia and No. 9 Notre Dame at No. 4 Clemson (Saturday at 8 p.m. ET, ABC).

From a national title perspective, the former is probably the more significant matchup, if only because a second loss would almost certainly knock the Crimson Tide out of the Playoff race. Georgia can probably survive a loss with hopes intact.

I know what you’re wondering: Hey, if this is a column about animals/people/objects fighting to the death, how come there’s a spread involved? Shouldn’t you be picking these games straight up? If you say a tiger is going to beat an eagle, but the Tigers lose to the Eagles but only by 5.5 points, isn’t that still a loss in a fight to the death?

Here’s my advice: Ignore the logical fallacy and just let me help you rack up cash, you big freakin’ dummy.

Ty and Dan run through an absolutely loaded slate of games in college football’s Week 5, including a handful of big match-ups in the Big 12, Notre Dame’s road test against Clemson, Alabama’s first contest as an underdog since 2009, and much more. Plus, a quick Patriot League Lightning Round, and a conversation for parents on talking to children about Iowa football.

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