Notre Dame Football: 5 bold predictions for Cotton Bowl vs Clemson

CHARLOTTE, NC - DECEMBER 01: Austin Bryant #7 of the Clemson Tigers celebrates with the trophy after their ACC Championship game win against the Pittsburgh Panthers at Bank of America Stadium on December 1, 2018 in Charlotte, North Carolina. Clemson won 42-10. (Photo by Grant Halverson/Getty Images) /

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(Photo by Michael Shroyer/Getty Images) /

2. The Notre Dame secondary will be ready for Trevor Lawrence.

Is there an issue with the Clemson secondary? Are they really championship caliber? I am not so sure. Against Syracuse, they gave up 250 yards passing. At Texas A&M, they gave up 430 yards passing and three touchdowns to Kellen Mond. South Carolina? 510 yards and five touchdowns. None of those are elite teams in the grand scheme of things and as a result, Clemson is a team that many should question in terms of secondary efficiency.

On the other side, you have Notre Dame who has been extremely good in terms of secondary. They gave up two scoring throws to Virginia Tech. Other than that, they haven’t allowed more than one each game this season. Even better? They have only allowed two passing scores in the last six games of their season.

That isn’t exactly something that Clemson is excited about, that is for sure. Of course, the question is if the Notre Dame defense can stand up to Clemson’s running game because Travis Etienne is absolutely going to be a big-time factor in this game.

No matter what though, Clemson will have to get that run game going because the Notre Dame secondary will be ready to go from the first snap to the last.

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