Notre Dame Football: 3 Bold Predictions vs. Clemson in the Cotton Bowl

Notre Dame Holds Clemson under 30

When preparing for the Cotton Bowl, if you’re not talking about Clemons defensive line, you’re talking about their scoring.

The Tigers average 45.4 ppg and didn’t really look like they would ever slow down. Clemson has only been held under 30-points three times this season. Texas A&M, Syracuse and Boston College were the only teams able to do it.

Texas A&M and Syracuse were also the two closest games Clemson has had this season, both resulting in one-score finals. Neither ranks as a top 50 defense.

Mean while Notre Dame has allowed 17.2 ppg, which is tenth in the nation.

The Irish haven’t had to, but they could have had relied directly on their defense all season like 2012. But, this defense is together for this reason.

The graduating trio of Drue Tranquill, Te’Von Coney and Jerry Tillery are still at Notre Dame for one reason — they wanted to finish what they started and play for a National Championship.
All season long you have seen how dominant they have been: Coney with 107 total tackles, Tranquill with 50 solo tackles and two interceptions, Tillery with seven sacks and two forced fumbles.

The successful defensive unit doesn’t stop there, that’s just their leaders. The secondary will be big with Julian Love anchoring the way and Jalen Elliott right behind with this four interceptions this season.

Clemson hasn’t had a problem beating up many defenses on their schedule, but Notre Dame is by far the best defense they have faced this season and that should directly correlate to the result on the scoreboard.