You can say a lot of things about Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney but you can’t question his vision. Following Notre Dame’s 35-14 victory over No. 4 Clemson on Saturday night which wasn’t as close as the final score indicated, Swinney confirmed exactly what we all watched.
“That was an ass-kicking. Period,” Swinney said. “I mean that’s what it is. Just flat-out got our tails handed to us. In 14 years it hasn’t happened a lot, but it’s happened a couple of times.”
Clemson’s defensive line is widely regarded as one of the nation’s best. Their 89.7 rushing yards allowed per game entering Saturday night at Notre Dame certainly spoke to that. The 263 rushing yards they allowed to the Fighting Irish told a different story though and one that Swinney was clearly not happy with.
“I don’t even want to comment on it right now,” Swinney said of the issues Clemson had stopping Notre Dame’s three-headed rushing attack. “They just physically kicked our butt. Period. The end.”
Notre Dame benefited from a blocked punt that was returned for a touchdown early and never looked back as the win was the first by an unranked Notre Dame team over a top-five opponent since the Irish upset Dan Marino’s No. 1 Pitt team back in 1982.
“Sometimes you just have a night where it all goes against you and all you can do is give Notre Dame credit for that.”
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More Notre Dame-Clemson postgame coverage:
Instant takeaways as Notre Dame routs No. 4 Clemson
5 stars: Great, good, and bad of Notre Dame’s thrashing of Clemson
Twitter reacts to Notre Dame’s upset blowout win over Clemson
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