Cole Cubelic addressed this on the Mark packer show yesterday-said he thinks Clemson spent the whole month preparing for Bama, knowing they could get by Notre Dame with a Basic gameplan.
Clemson threw everything that Bama struggled with in the first half of the UGA game and the 2nd half of the Oklahoma game at them. Saban realized in the 2nd quarter that his guys were not prepared for what was happening and it wasn't going to be fixed just through half time adjustments.

The coaching turnover and Locksley trying to do 2 jobs simultaneously finally caught up with them and they were not at a preparation level usual Bama teams are accustomed to.