Cam Newton has been repeatedly criticizing Notre Dame football, and his ESPN colleague Ryan Clark has had enough. Clark insinuated that the former Heisman winner at Auburn doesn't hold himself accountable when he makes a bad call on-air.
"What I love about sports media, and what I love about humans is, you know what's hard for us to do? And anybody that has ever been in a relationship know this—it's hard to say, 'Baby, I was wrong.' And that's what Cam Newton can't do," Clark said, per Sports Illustrated.
"I get it, it's hard to say, 'Oh wait, they went out and played Georgia, a team that during the week, you knew Gunner Stockton was going to be the quarterback, and they went out and beat them. Not only did they beat them, they beat them by two scores, and they beat them physically up front on both sides of the ball. And they beat them mentally because Marcus Freeman out-coached the gold standard for coaching now that Nick Saban has retired in Kirby Smart. But it’s hard to say after the game, ‘You know what, this Notre Dame team is different, just like RC said.’"
Newton undermined the Fighting Irish's strength of schedule after Notre Dame defeated Georgia in the Sugar Bowl.
“Notre Dame played six top 25 teams in their year this year. You want to know who those top 25 teams were? Texas A&M, Louisville, Navy, Army, Indiana and a depleted UGA team,” Cam Newton said, per On3.
“They have the 58th strength of schedule. … Notre Dame has had a cakewalk to their situation, playing the teams that they’ve played, versus the teams Texas played, versus the teams Ohio State even played. So that’s what I mean when I say certain things like that. You haven’t earned the right.
“This is the weakest University of Georgia team that we’ve seen in the last five years. And you know that. And they played with their backup quarterback. On top of, they had two turnovers, on top of that they had to muster special teams touchdowns to win.
“OK, cool. Did they control the line of scrimmage? Yes. But was that the best UGA team? No.”
Newton took the SEC apologist route, offering sour grapes about Notre Dame defeating his home state's biggest program.
Clark took the objective route, for even though he went to LSU, he didn't attack the Fighting Irish for no reason.
At the end of the day, it doesn't change the fact that Notre Dame and Ohio State will meet in the College Football Playoff National Championship on January 20.