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The ACC Championship Anti-Preview: #2 Notre Dame Fighting Irish VS #3 Clemson Tigers

Have a holly jolly day

Brendan McAlinden

Welcome to the Anti-Preview! Friends, all of this is strange AF in the middle of December. The Notre Dame Fighting Irish are in the ACC Championship game, and just wrapped up a very successful signing day. So, before we begin, let me take a quick moment to thank everyone for your understanding this week as we covered everything as best we could. By my count, this post and Bagpipe Monday were really the only things missing. While the pipes are still in the drawer, this post was scheduled for a late Friday night because, well... that’s when I felt like doing it after a massive week of coverage and Christmas a week away.

And yeah, we got the Twitter account freed from purgatory.

Moving on...

Clemson Tigers

We’ve heard for a solid month about how different the game in South Bend would have been if Clemson had Trevor Lawrence, James Skalski, Mike Jones Jr., and Tyler Davis — and they’re probably right — it would have looked different. But saying, “if this person was out there, blah blah blah” is theoretically wrong on every level of time travel knowledge we have.

NCAA Football: Miami at Clemson Ken Ruinard-USA TODAY Sports

The butterfly effect is real, and maybe Lawrence breaks his leg in the 1st quarter which causes a huge deflation to the Tigers and ND routs them 45-20? Weird right? Well, so is time travel so let’s move past that shit.

What should you be drinking?

It’s Christmas time. Here’s like 20 different cocktails to kick around. Have yuleself a merry day.

What should you be eating?

There’s a spot in downtown Fort Wayne called The Hoppy Gnome, and it’s one of my favorite spots in town. They serve up a duck confit taco that’s incredible. I just slayed 6 of them on Friday, and it’s the only food I can think about. Here’s something similar.

What should you be wearing?

This is, a CLOTHING OPTIONAL type of game. If you don’t believe me, try watching this and NOT be completely naked and sweating from head to toe.

3 reasons to hate Clemson

  1. The Tigers are 10.5 point favorites with a loss from Notre Dame in hand. All gambling aside... fuck that.
  2. The continued hype of Travis Etienne when Kyren Williams has had a better season.
  3. Dabo Swinney is still employed.

At the end of the night...

There is every reason in the world to pick Clemson to win the football game, and only one acceptable reason (in the eyes of others) to pick the Irish. And yeah — I’m a complete homer that gives zero fucks about needing the credibility of non-bias to have some fun on this here internet. At the same time... the Irish are much more physical than Clemson, and plan on beating down the tigers one snap at a time. Notre Dame wins the ACC, 33-30.

Merry Christmas
Twitter @ndmspaint