Clemson is finally back to its normal game-week schedule, which means offensive coordinator Tony Elliot, quarterback Deshaun Watson, and a number of other players reported to their weekly Monday interviews in the West Zone. With both SportsCenter and ESPN College GameDay making the trek to Death Valley on Saturday for 11th-ranked Clemson’s battle with No. 6 Notre Dame, there was a lot to talk about.
Here is what we heard:
Elliot hopes he can drown out all the distractions of this high-profile game to make sure his players are fully focused on the task ahead.
“We have to do a really good job because nothing is going to compare them for an 8 p.m. kickoff in Death Valley against Notre Dame. Its our job to make sure that we coach them in a certain way to prepare them and have the mental toughness because really it is going to come down to are you going to maintain your discipline and execute at a high level in a situation where there’s a lot more atmosphere involved,” Elliot said. “That’s our job this week, is to make sure that we drown out the noise. We don’t pay attention to who’s coming in here. GameDay, and not just GameDay, but they’ve got their family and friends, everybody wanting tickets.”
Although the coaches are working hard to minimize the distractions, defensive end Shaq Lawson is working hard to make sure the fans are as loud as they can possibly be in Death Valley on Saturday.
“We need the fans to make it loud on defense so we can affect a freshman quarterback,” Lawson said.
Starting linebacker Ben Boulware has a lot of respect for the Notre Dame program, but he said their name and the hype surrounding them does not intimidate him because Clemson has played in big games before.
“A lot of the starters it doesn’t affect. We played Ohio State, beat them. We played Oklahoma, beat them, LSU, beat them. I’m not saying we’re going to beat the crap out of Notre Dame, but we’ve played big name opponents and it hasn’t really affected us at all,” Boulware said
Many Tigers also feel like the Clemson program is not receiving the respect it deserves. They believe that this game is the perfect opportunity to prove who they are on a national stage.
“From what I have been seeing we have kind of never had that respect,” Watson said. “If they think we struggled against Louisville, and beat a team like Louisville that is very competitive, especially on a Thursday night. It is what it is. We will do what we have to do to get the ‘W’ and move forward.”
Defensive ends Kevin Dodd and Lawson agreed.
“Most people expect us to lose but we’re just going to come out with the mentality that this is a win that we must need to kick off the season,” Dodd said. “I feel like most people don’t respect the previous opponents that we played.”
“They’ve been saying that we played not two good teams and that we struggled with Louisville, but We pretty much don’t pay attention to that. At the end of the day if we do our job, execute on the field and win, we’re going to move up eventually,” Lawson said.
Safety Jayron Kearse had a lot to say about what people can expect from the game on Saturday based off some comments that Notre Dame players have made.
“They are getting a bit chippy. They are talking a lot all through the media,” Kearse said. “I hope the ref lets us play football. Just know this, it is going to be a chippy game. I’m definitely going to be chippy so they can expect that from me. They can expect some trash talking and they can expect all of that. I’m ready to go up against Will Fuller. I’m ready to catch him. I’m going to give those guys all I got. They are talking a lot. Obviously, they don’t know what we do down here in Death Valley. So we are looking forward to this.”