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CLEMSON -- Clemson's football team had a long weekend off for the open date, a chance to get away and detach after not just eight straight weeks of football but more like 13 straight weeks of all-consuming devotion.

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But surely plenty of coaches and players, even apart and in parts unknown, found some time to get a look at Notre Dame for a few hours Saturday afternoon.

And the Irish's most recent 60 minutes of football surely crystallized a game-within-the-game challenge that will be thrown in the faces of a certain position group all week.