Notre Dame has a big opportunity tonight in facing an undefeated Clemson team in South Bend. A win will get the Irish some recognition after the questionable losses to Marshall and Stanford. The Tigers come in at 8-0 for the night time nationally televised game on NBC.

The way the Irish have been playing this year, many, myself included, wish there were more away games. For some reason the Irish are better on the road than at home.

That was even the case in their only road loss this season, - the opener at Ohio State. The Irish have been the only team to slow down the high-powered Buckeyes’ offense so far this season and were leading the game late in the third quarter.

Notre Dame’s three most impressive wins have been away from home - at North Carolina, BYU (Las Vegas) and Syracuse. In those three games, ND’s offense clicked and the defense came up big.

ND has two more road trips, at Navy next week (in Baltimore) and the regular season final at Southern California. The last home game is Nov. 19 against Boston College.

A win tonight could set up the Irish to enter the USC game at 8-3.

The Irish found their running game last week led by Logan Diggs and Audric Estime with some help from Chris Tyree. ND’s run game racked up 246 yards against Syracuse. Because the run game was in high gear there was little reason to throw the football.

The win was another over an ACC team. The win last week was the 26th straight - including 13 straight on the road - for ND against ACC teams during the regular season. The loss ACC regular season loss came at the hands of Miami in 2017.

Tonight, the Irish and Tigers clash for the seventh time with Clemson leading the series, 4-2. The only ND wins have been in 1977 and 2020.

The Tigers eight wins this season have come over Georgia Tech, 41-10; Furman, 35-12; LA Tech, 48-20; Wake Forest, 51-45; NC State, 30-20; Boston College, 31-3; Florida State, 34-25; and two weeks ago, Syracuse, 27-21. That win ended the Orange unbeaten streak at six.

The Tigers have an outstanding quarterback in DJ Uiagalelei who has 1,803 yards passing on 150 completions and 234 attempts. He has thrown 17 TD passes with four interceptions. He also runs the football, piling up 350 yards on 89 carries and four TDs this season. The top rusher is Will Shipley with 739 yards on 123 carries and 10 TDs. Clemson’s top receivers are Antonio Williams with 364 yards on 29 catches and two TD and Beaux Collisn, 290 on 18 and five scores.

As we said, NBC will televise it with a 7:30 p.m airtime and 7:40 p.m. kickoff.

IRISH NOTES ... Diggs finished with 85 yards on 20 carries and one score, Estime had 123 on 20 carries and two scores, and Tyree had 23 yards on eight carries. Drew Pyne completed nine passes on 19 attempts for 116 yards, one TD, and one interception. As we mentioned, there was no reason for him to throw a lot because of the run game. Receiving was led by Michael Mayer with three catches for 54 yards and Deion Colzie with three catches for 44 yards ... Blake Grupe was two of three on field goals hitting from 39 and 31 yards ... Defensively, TaRiq Bracy had six tackles followed by JD Bertrand with five ... ND now has blocked five punts this season. The latest was last week by Clarence Lewis in the fourth quarter. With four regular-season games remaining, Notre Dame already owns the modern program record for blocked punts in a season. The previous mark was four - done in 2000 under Bob Davie, by the 1949 national championship team of Frank Leahy, and in 1938 under Elmer Layden ... There was just seven seconds played in last week’s game when Brandon Joseph had a pick-six for the Irish ... Next week’s Navy game will have a noon start of CBS TV ... ND’s defense allowed the Orange just 73 yards in the first half ... Notre Dame is dead last in the nation in red-zone defense. Last week the Irish allowed Syracuse to score on all three trips it made to the red zone ... Clemson comes with the nation’s 19th-ranked scoring offense at 37.1 points per game. We mentioned the Tigers’ top QB, Uiagalelei, but they also have another fine QB in freshman backup Cade Klubnik. He rallied the Tigers past Syracuse after Uiagalelei was pulled. This could be third straight week Notre Dame must contend with two quarterbacks ... ND’s football team sponsored a “Cleats for a Cause” fund raiser that started the weekend of the UNLV and ended last Monday. Nineteen sets of game-worn cleats brought winning bids of at least $1,000. Head coach Marus Freeman’s size-11.5 shoe led the way at $7,000. Next came record-setting tight end Michael Mayer ($4,900), leading rusher Audric Estime ($2,800), Isaiah Foskey ($2,100) and injured linebacker Bo Bauer ($2,000) ... Although it has not been officially announced, the USC game will have a 7:30 p.m. start ....Clemson comes into the game ranked No. 4 in the first CFP rankings ... In my preseason picks I have Clemson winning tonight. For the Irish to have a chance the offense must be able to run the ball like it did last week, keeping the ball out of the hands of the Tigers’ excellent quarterback. But running tonight won’t be easy, Clemson has one of the best defensive lines in the nation. In fact, coach Freeman said Clemson defensive line is “NFL worthy.” Clemson is currently a two point favorite despite entering at 8-0. I will stay with my original pick of Clemson.