After beating Louisville by three points on the road on a Thursday night in September, Clemson slipped in each of the next two polls. Never mind that it didn’t matter. Dabo Swinney was insulted.

Swinney is a pragmatist as well as an optimist but the guy has feelings, and it seemed disingenuous of the voters in both polls to discount Clemson’s 3-0 record when it seemed Ohio State didn’t receive the same treatment after skating by Northern Illinois. Will they discount their votes after the Buckeyes and Michigan State escaped Big Ten powers Indiana and Purdue? And does anybody really care who wins in the SEC East?

The only polls that matter are those conducted by the College Football Playoff committee, Swinney cares only about winning. Just winning, and not by how many points or how stylishly, which is why at 4-0 he’s figures this Clemson football team is probably right on schedule.

The mark of Swinney’s team, of any teams with track records of success, is that they will be better in October than in September, better in November and superb by late December or early January. Just ask LSU, Ohio State and Oklahoma – victims of Swinney’s philosophy each of the last three seasons.

Many of the national wags last week couldn’t imagine Clemson giving Notre Dame much of a game, so the concept of Swinney’s team as a playoff team didn’t make much sense. Notre Dame had a better offensive line – one of the best, some said – a better defensive line, most dynamic offensive skill players and one of the best linebacker tandems in football.

Disregarding the fact the Irish lost several key players to injury, the quarterback hadn’t seen a place like Death Valley, this was Notre Dame’s game to lose. Clemson might keep it close, but the Irish would prevail and the legend would remain intact for another week.

In so many words, that was the message Saturday morning from the esteemed panel on ESPN College GameDay, though you’ve got to wonder about a couple of them. One guy picked Minnesota to beat Northwestern. Minnesota didn’t score a point.

Lee Corso donned the leprechaun togs and hopped around the stage to announce his choice of winner. Corso is funny, but anybody who remembers him as a coach, remembers he was pretty much at joke at that, too.

Swinney often talks about how tough it is just to win a game, so he wasn’t pleased when he began hearing after the Louisville game that Clemson hadn’t won by a sufficiently wider margin. And it occurred in the final minutes of Saturday’s game with Notre Dame that might happen again.

There were opportunities to put the Irish down, but with the rain falling and Notre Dame following the template of keeping a lid on the Tigers’ big-play potential, Clemson went into a an offensive shell and put the game on Wayne Gallman’s shoulders. And like an old, bare-fisted Irish fighter, Notre Dame refused to relent.

While anybody in college football, begrudgingly or otherwise, agrees that the game is better when Notre Dame is relevant, there’s always a “but …,” let’s get this on the table. Notre Dame will be relevant as long as grass is green and the sky is blue and Touchdown Jesus keeps a watch over the stadium in South Bend. And Notre Dame is absolutely the best team on Clemson’s schedule this season.

Easily the most revered halftime speech in college football history came from a Notre Dame locker room nearly a hundred years ago. Knute Rockne would use anything to incite his team including lie about a deathbed plea from a former player to “win one for the Gipper.”

Swinney may easily be as good as Rockne in motivating his team, because he convinced this Clemson team it could beat Notre Dame when all the national guys were saying it couldn’t be done, by reminding that nobody was on their side including the Pope and Lee Corso.

If Swinney can squeeze another win over Georgia Tech next week – one point would be enough – Clemson will be 8-0 when Florida State arrives Nov. 7 and 11-0 for the trip to Columbia .

And if he can squeeze out one more then win the ACC Championship game, it would be a shame if the only poll that mattered doesn’t include Clemson in its Final Four.