It doesn’t fall under the category of smack talk, and it’s not your typical bulletin board material. Every head coach should feel like his team has a chance to win, and Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly knows his team can beat Clemson.
He also doesn’t mind saying it publicly.
The No. 3 Fighting Irish take on No. 2 Clemson in the Cotton Bowl on Dec. 29th, but the betting lines out of Vegas have Clemson favored anywhere from 10 points to 13 ½ points. The teams don’t have a long history of playing against each other and last played in 2015, a 24-22 Clemson victory that wasn’t decided until Irish quarterback Deshone Kizer was stopped on a two-point conversion attempt with just a few seconds left on the clock.