The last word: Final thoughts before Notre Dame football vs. Clemson

Turns out, Dabo Swinney‘s “bring your own guts” spiel came eight years too soon. When he ranted and raved about the heart No. 12 Clemson showed to hang on and beat No. 6 Notre Dame in a rain-soaked Death Valley in 2015, he was talking about a Tigers team that ran the table and had Alabama on the ropes in the national title game.

Heart and guts go a long way. That Clemson team was going to be just fine with a normal amount of both. It’s a different story all these years later.

Clemson hasn’t needed more heart and more guts than the Tigers do right here, right now. Today. Against No. 12 Notre Dame (7-2) as an unranked, .500 football team that has not even come close to living up to the expectations that came with being the preseason No. 9 team in the country.

There is trouble in paradise in the Palmetto State. Troll callers named “Tyler from Spartanburg” are harassing Swinney on his weekly radio show, and Swinney is giving it him back to them. He didn’t have to deal with that when Clemson was up 24-21 on the Crimson Tide entering the fourth quarter of that first national title appearance of his tenure. He definitely didn’t have to deal with it when Clemson went on to win two of the next three national championships.

But it’s his reality now. Now, more than ever, the Tigers need to bring their own guts. Rewrite the narrative. Get back on people’s good side. Give their head coach a reason to brag on them in an emotional on-field postgame interview. Doesn’t it just feel like the stage is set for something like that?

If you saw my prediction of today’s game posted at BlueandGold.com on Friday, you already know I picked Notre Dame to lose this game. Not because I have any sort of firm belief in this version of Clemson. I don’t. Tyler from Highland Village, Texas, has that in common with Tyler from Spartanburg. But I do have the utmost respect for Swinney as it relates to his knack for coaching, and something in my brain and my, for the lack of a better term, gut, is telling me that Clemson has a get-right game cued up against the opponent that really put the Tigers on the map in 2015 and sprung them into a run only Alabama and Georgia have been able to match lately.

Get-right game is relative, by the way. All Clemson needs to do is win and it would be considered a major success. Obviously, victories have been hard to come by for that squad this year.

There is just something telling me that the problems Notre Dame had offensively in its last two road games are going to show up again in Death Valley. Let’s not kid ourselves, the Irish were atrocious on that side of the ball against Duke and Louisville. They dang near went 0-2 in those games. Clemson has a better defense than both of those teams. It could very well come down to the final possession.

Who’s going to bring the guts? Don’t be shocked if it’s the home team again.

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