Notre Dame Football is Still a Big Deal to Clemson, But for How Long?

Notre. Dame. Football.

Those three words resonate in sports like the Green Bay Packers, New York Yankees and Boston Celtics. To many people, when they think of college football, they think of those three words.

Those three words represent the sixth-winningest program in the sport. The Fighting Irish have won 11 claimed national titles and produced seven Heisman Trophy winners. NFL legends like Joe Montana and Tim Brown saw their careers take off in South Bend, under the watchful eye of "Touchdown Jesus."

Aside from this year, the Irish don't have to play in a conference to get consideration to be the College Football Playoff, which they made in 2018. They have their own television contract with NBC. They have "Rudy."

Being a Catholic university, it has a fan base that reaches from one end of the country to the other. For generations, it was THE team on television every Saturday.

It's a huge deal that No. 1 Clemson is taking on No. 4 Notre Dame at 7:30 p.m. It's a game the Tiger faithful circled years ago when the schedule came out. Even though they won't be in the stadium, there's still a certain cache to playing this historic team.

Stadiums sell out when they go on the road. Visiting Notre Dame Stadium is a bucket-list item for college football fans. The tradition, pageantry and legacy are all that's great about the sport.

However, why haven't the Irish won a national title since 1988? Why is the program just the 11th-winningest FBS school in the last 10 years? How do you explain a 1-18 record against top-5 opponents since 2000?

Academics certainly play a role in ND's lack of elite success, but this is still a program that shouldn't be an underdog at home to anybody. Not even Clemson.

But this is a different era of college football, and the name Notre Dame doesn't resonate with recruits like it used to. Clemson starting quarterback D.J. Uiagalelei was one of the most sought-after prospects in the 2020 recruiting class, yet he was never offered a scholarship by the Irish. And the true freshman making his first career start summed up what a lot of today's football players think of this program.

"Notre Dame is a great program. They have their own movie," Uiagalelei said.

That's what a California QB thinks of when he thinks of Notre Dame football. Not Montana or Brown. Not Nute Rockne or Lou Holtz. Not gold helmets and leprechauns.

Nope, a movie based on a true story made in the 1990s about an undersized underdog is how an 18-year-old soon-to-be-star in college football thinks about one of the most storied names in all of sports.

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