Hold Your Breath and ‘Bring Your Own Guts,’ it’s Clemson vs. Notre Dame

Starting with Dan Devine’s antics in the 1977 game, to Ben Boulware’s game-saving tackle during a hurricane in 2015, to the Irish’s double-overtime thriller during a globe pandemic, the Clemson-Notre Dame series has provided plenty of drama. So much so, one might think the two college football powers have played more than six times.

Sure, there have been a couple of Clemson blowouts, but those came on neutral fields. The Tigers routed the Irish, 30-3, in the 2018 Cotton Bowl and in the 2020 ACC Championship Game, 34-10.

But the four on-campus meetings have been decided by one possession with each school going 2-2 in those four meetings.

These days Clemson and Notre Dame play because of a contractual obligation between Notre Dame and the ACC. However, the series began when Notre Dame legend Moose Krause and Clemson legendary football coach Frank Howard brokered a deal to play a home-and-home series in 1977 and ’79.

The 1977 game was perhaps the most controversial game between the two schools. Though Krause was excited to see his Irish go on the road to play a traditioned-rich-team from the South, head coach Dan Devine was not.

He did not like the idea of playing in Clemson, especially with the Tigers having their best season in almost two decades. Divine heard through some of his coaching friends how passionate Clemson’s fanbase is and how they make playing in Death Valley extremely difficult.

Trying to get out in front of the situation, according to the Greenville News, Devine called the head of officials at the ACC and wanted to express his concerns about the crowd noise when they visited Death Valley.

Word of Devin’s call to the ACC was leaked to the Greenville News. Word traveled fast around the Upstate of South Carolina and somehow Clemson united to pull off one of the best demonstrations in the history of sports. And keep it mind, this was long before social media, so for 55,000 people to pull this off in a few days was quite impressive.

Prior to the game, when both teams were warning up, no one in the stadium was talking. The band was not playing. It was just silent. Those in attendance said it was kind of eerie and it had the Notre Dame players flustered as they looked around to see what was going on.

Tiger fans finally broke the silence all at once when Clemson came running down the hill and they never let up. The Clemson fans especially got after Devine, who at one point stopped the game and yelled for officials to penalize the Tigers because the crowd was too loud.

Playing with the momentum from the crowd, Clemson built a 17-7 lead through three quarters. But a guy by the name of Joe Montana rallied the Irish to two fourth-quarter touchdowns for a 21-17 victory. Notre Dame went on to win the national championship that year, while Clemson earned a berth in the Gator Bowl.

Two years later, Clemson got its revenge on Devine and the Irish. And they did it on Senior Day in South Bend.

The Tigers used four second-half turnovers to rally from 10-points down at halftime for a 16-10 victory. Clemson became just the second team in 43 years to beat the Irish on Senior Day,

Clemson and Notre Dame attempted to renew their series several times between 1980 and 2012, but the two could never come to an agreement. However, that changed in 2013, when the Irish agreed to join the ACC in basketball and non-revenue sports. Part of the deal was playing five ACC teams per year in football.

However, playing in a tropical storm was not part of the deal. Besides the torrential rains from Hurricane Joaquin, then Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly was amazed by the atmosphere at Death Valley, as more than 82,000 fans packed Memorial Stadium.

“It was just a great collegiate environment,” Kelly said. “I had never been to Clemson. We’ve been to so many different venues, but to never be on their campus and to just see the tailgating and the pregame and the team run out, I mean, there’s a lot of traditions at Notre Dame, but I had never seen the traditions at Clemson.

“And it was just such a collegiate atmosphere. And it was loud, and it was one of the louder environments that we had played in. And to watch those kids battle, it was — you know, it was one of those games you remember because it was college football at its best.”

The Tigers went up 21-3 early in the third quarter when quarterback Deshaun Watson raced into the end zone from 21 yards out. However, DeShawn Kizer slowly led the Irish back by throwing two touchdowns and running for another in the second half.

Kizer pulled Notre Dame within two points, 24-22, thanks to a one-yard touchdown pass to Torii Hunter with seven seconds to play. But Boulware and Carlos Watkins stuffed the two-point try that followed to secure the Clemson victory.

Before the game, Swinney told his team that this was a “bring your own guts game.” After the game, he told the world during a postgame interview on ABC.

“I told them, ‘We give you scholarships, we give you stipends and meals and a place to live. We give you nice uniforms. I can’t give you guts, and I can’t give you heart.’ And tonight, it was BYOG: Bring your own guts!” Swinney said.

In 2020, Clemson returned to South Bend for the first time since 1979, and they did as the No. 1 ranked team. The Irish was ranked No. 4 and because of the COVID-19 pandemic, they had temporarily joined the ACC. And that meant it was the first game in the history of the conference to involve two teams ranked in the top four of the polls.

The game lived up to its billing.

Notre Dame ended Clemson’s 36-game regular-season win streak and a 28-game ACC win streak with a 47-40 double overtime victory.

The loss came despite an incredible statistical performance by then freshman quarterback DJ Uiagalelei, who threw for 439 yards and two touchdowns in place of Trevor Lawrence, who was out because of positive test result for COVID the week before.

Uiagalelei’s 439 yards were the most ever thrown by a quarterback against Notre Dame in history. He returns to the scene on Saturday as the Tigers’ starting quarterback.

If history has taught us anything in this series, we should expect some kind of drama on Saturday night.