If it were up to Cam Newton, perhaps the 12-team College Football Playoff would be just another word for an SEC Invitational.
Newton hasn’t been on First Take very long, but he’s already grown sick of the show’s Dallas Cowboys fixation. He deemed them irrelevant during one of his first appearances on ESPN’s premier morning show, and he’s continued to beat that drum.
He’s also beat the drum that nobody wants to see the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in the CFP — calling them “college football’s Dallas Cowboys.”
“Nobody wants to see them,” Newton said Friday. “Do they have a legacy organization and program? Absolutely. Rudy! Rudy! Yeah, that’s about the last time — like, we see these types of teams; there’s no such thing as a Cinderella story in college football. Every time you try to root for the underdog, they get smashed. Come on, now.”
Ryan Clark just absolutely owned Cam Newton and every SEC Homer on First Take today 👀🗣️
Cam Newton just gave us the easiest bookmark ever☘️
📽️Credit: (ESPN) pic.twitter.com/V8Koy8ogPW
— Ryan Fravel (@Fravel_Ryan) December 6, 2024
Well, Ryan Clark would like to see the Fighting Irish play. More importantly, he’d like to see his son, Jordan, play for a National Championship.
“That would be an excellent outing for me if Notre Dame makes it,” Clark said. “This is what I know because I make every game; I go to every single game my son plays. All I know is we was at Texas A&M and we walked out as a winner. There’s other SEC teams that went in there and got their doors blown off. My actual alma mater (LSU) went there and lost the game.”
All Newton could do was shout over Molly Qerim, saying that Mike Elko’s side was the eighth-best team in the SEC.
For what it’s worth, Newton’s jab isn’t entirely unfounded. Texas A&M didn’t crack the final AP Top 25 following the regular season, though it did pick up 75 votes. Meanwhile, seven SEC teams finished ranked in the final CFP rankings, which did back Newton’s “eighth-best” claim.
But Clark’s point — Notre Dame handled its business in a way some SEC contenders couldn’t — wasn’t about rankings. It was about results.
When pressed on Newton’s “college football’s Dallas Cowboys” analogy, Clark didn’t shy away.
“They are; they absolutely are,” Clark responded. “They’re America’s college team… And I can be honest about this, the coolest thing about my son going to Notre Dame is that was my dream school. Because at home, I didn’t watch LSU play every Saturday, but I watched Notre Dame play every single Saturday. The same way there’s so many people that are [Atlanta] Braves fans or Chicago Cubs fans, because those networks broadcast their games all the time. And if you got them, you got to see them.
“And I look at Notre Dame right now, and the difference I’m going to say between Notre Dame and some of these SEC schools is depth. When they get hurt on the top end, they’re not gonna have that five-star always backing up that four-star. They’re not gonna have that player, that once you lose the guy, the next guy stepping up has that experience or can play on that level.
“I agree with that, but top-end? They can line up across from everybody. But here’s the other thing: if you don’t think they’re good, then go beat them. If you’re Alabama and it’s Dec. 21, march Jalen Milroe up there; march Kalen DeBoer up there in that 20-degree weather in that snow and go stand across from those boys and beat them. And if you send them home, you send them home.”
Clark’s comments came Friday, 36 or so hours before the College Football Playoff field was announced — one that controversially left out Alabama in favor of SMU. Instead of facing off against an SEC heavyweight, the Fighting Irish will host Indiana, which is hardly the marquee matchup Clark was inviting.
But even then, Clark’s message to Newton still resonates about not dismissing Notre Dame until you line up against them on the field. And if the Fighting Irish handle their business two Fridays from now in South Bend, they’ll have a New Year’s Day date with the SEC (the Georgia Bulldogs) in the Allstate Sugar Bowl.
[First Take]
