Upset win over Notre Dame gives Clemson football ‘momentum.’ Will it last?
Seven years ago, Clemson football coach Dabo Swinney delivered a soundbite for the ages, coining the phrase “Bring Your Own Guts” after a huge win over Notre Dame.
The stakes and the circumstances were far different Saturday. Far different. But after six College Football Playoffs and two national championships and a slide that had the Tigers unranked and undervalued, Swinney’s message did not change.
Once a bruised and battered Clemson team overcame the mistakes it’s been making all season and upset No. 12 Notre Dame, 31-23, at home, he had a message for the college football world from the same field against the same opponent where his Tigers first burst onto the scene en route to their first CFP appearance.
“We ain’t had much go our way this year, but the one thing that has shown up every week is the heart and the fight of Clemson,” Swinney told ABC’s Molly McGrath after the game Saturday. “And I know we’re down and everybody’s throwing dirt on us. But if Clemson’s a stock, you better buy all you freakin’ can buy right now.”
Then it was back into the crowd to celebrate with fans who’d been waiting for something to hang their hats on this topsy-turvy 2023 season and finally had it.
The natural follow-up question: For how long?
Notre Dame (7-3) isn’t a world beater. And Saturday’s win doesn’t change the fact Clemson (5-4, 2-4 ACC) has and will drastically under-perform against its preseason expectations, having been eliminated from any and all CFP and national championship consideration over a month ago.
But for a program taking heat, setting the wrong sorts of records and teetering on the verge of bowl ineligibility, beating the nation’s No. 12 team — and overcoming some big errors in the process — was a reminder that Clemson, although imperfect, can hang with anyone. And they have a strong finish within reach.
“It just propels us,” sophomore quarterback Cade Klubnik said. “It’s momentum. … This is what we needed. Just so proud of these guys and the way we battled from the very start to the end. It’s gonna be great.”
‘All in or all out?’
That, of course, has been the theme of the season: hanging with everyone but still finding ways to lose. Swinney insisted earlier this week that if Clemson didn’t lead the nations in fumbles “we’d be 8-0,” glazing over a number of other critical factors that have contributed to the team’s worst start to ACC play since 1998.
Turnovers are a part of it, but bad quarterback play, bad coaching, bad tackling and bad execution across the board have kept Clemson from reaching its potential. As losses to Duke, No. 4 Florida State, Miami and N.C. State, it became very apparent the Tigers were suffering from more than a few fluky plays.
They’re simply not an elite football team right now, leading to understandable pushes across the board — everyone from national media to “Tyler from Spartanburg” — for a program reckoning, or at least an evolution on sticking points such as Swinney’s lack of transfer portal usage or preference for internal staff hires.
Defensive end Xavier Thomas said Swinney challenged everyone on Monday, “down to the people mowing the grass,” to band together as one, quash external noise and play the way they all knew Clemson could play — with the best of them.
“It was really just, ‘Are you all in or all out?’ ” Thomas said. “It was as simple as that. That’s what it came down to, guys who wanna keep fighting and wanna finish the season. … If you wanna be here and wanna fight and wanna compete, then come bring it every day.”
What followed was an old-fashioned Clemson game, the sort that popped up in bunches when the Tigers were an annual lock for the College Football Playoff and made up for silly mistakes by out-playing and out-talenting its opponents.
Whether it was running back Phil Mafah bulldozing defenders on 36 carries for a career high 186 yards and two touchdowns, or linebacker Jeremiah Trotter Jr. leading a stunning defensive effort, or Klubnik perfectly executing a final clock-burning drive after a few errors earlier, the Tigers were stronger and better prepared and smarter than their opponent.
‘We know we can do it’
And that team, Notre Dame, started Clemson’s slide around this time last year by punching the Tigers in the mouth in South Bend, Indiana. Clemson entered this game 7-7 over its last 14 games dating back to a 35-14 rout against the Fighting Irish last November — a loss after which they really haven’t regained their mojo.
But the Tigers, down to their fewest available scholarship players all season and missing nine starters from the season opener’s depth chart, wouldn’t let it happen again.
They looked the most complete they have all season, a combination of the usual suspects such as Mafah and Trotter (11 total tackles, 2.5 tackles loss and a pick-six) and new faces such as first-time offensive line starters Trent Howard and Harris Sewell, and true freshman cornerback Avieon Terrell and long snapper Philip Florenzo, who had a huge fumble recovery.
“We know what we got and we know we can do it and we know what we’re capable of,” Howard said. “It’s just, we’ve gotta keep doing it and keep moving forward.”
Swinney’s record-setting 166th win as Clemson coach wasn’t a must-win, in terms of bowl eligibility. But it felt like one. And now the Tigers are 5-4 with three games to go against Georgia Tech, North Carolina and South Carolina and a chance at a halfway decent bowl game at 8-4 or 7-5 — not the worst salvage, considering how a loss Saturday would’ve impacted projections and expectations going forward this month.
With less to play for but lots still on the line for this season and beyond, it’s on to the next, Swinney said, with the context of Clemson’s 2015 home win over Notre Dame and what followed it looming poetically large.
“Hopefully it’ll give us a good boost,” he said. “Last time we beat these guys here in 2015, we went on to the best five-year run in the history of college football. Hopefully, we’ll look back five years from now and be able to say, ‘Man, that Notre Dame game, that was where the worm turned a little bit.’”
Key word: Hopefully.
Next Clemson game
Who: Georgia Tech (5-4, 4-2 ACC) at Clemson (5-4, 2-4 ACC)
When: noon Saturday
Where: Memorial Stadium in Clemson
TV: ABC
This story was originally published November 5, 2023 at 6:00 AM.
