Ryan Clark calls out Cam Newton for refusing to admit he was wrong about Notre Dame

Ryan Clark has had it with Cam Newton’s disrespect of Notre Dame this postseason.

Following the Fighting Irish’s impressive 27-24 win over Penn State in Thursday night’s Orange Bowl to advance to the College Football Playoff national championship game, Clark called out the the Heisman Trophy winner for refusing to admit he was wrong.

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Prior to the CFP quarterfinals, Newton challenged whether Notre Dame had to merit to make the initial 12-team field in the first place saying, “I dont’ think Notre Dame belongs.”

Newton has repeatedly doubled-down on those sentiments, including on Friday morning’s First Take on ESPN, prompting Clark — whose son, Jordan, is a senior safety on the Fighting Irish — to go on a lengthy rant clapping back against the former Auburn and NFL quarterback.

“What I love about sports media, what I love about humans is, you know what’s hard for us to do, and anybody that has ever bend 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 as First Take host Stephen A. Smith guffawed. “I get it, it’s hard to say, ‘Oh wait, they went out and played Georgia, a team that during the week 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 outcoached 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.’

“And then you go and play Penn State, who, by the way, plays in a conference. Who, by the way, played in a conference championship. Which makes this the second team that Notre Dame has played in a row that was in a conference championship and they beat them too,” Clark continued. “It doesn’t matter how you get there in this particular form of the College Football Playoff. Because we can say what we want about Indiana, they played in the Big Ten, they didn’t play in the conference championship, and walked up to Notre Dame and got their face beat in. Georgia played in the conference championship, won the SEC, they won the SEC and finished Gunner Stockton at the quarterback position. They went in there and got their face beat in.

“And in the game where adversity hit, where you lose two more offensive linemen, where you lose another defensive player, all you do is strap up on the backend and don’t allow a touch by a wide receiver. All you do is find a way to get an interception and win with Mitch Jeter. At some point, we’ve got to just say, these dudes can play and their coach is an absolute star.”

With Thursday night’s Orange Bowl victory, the Fighting Irish (14-1) have won 13 straight and will face the winner of Friday night’s Cotton Bowl national semifinal between No. 5 seed Texas and No. 8 seed Ohio State in the CFP National Championship game on Jan. 20 from Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium (7:30 pm ET, ESPN).