Clemson football prepares for a ‘heavyweight battle’ against Notre Dame
Laid out game by game, Clemson-Notre Dame reads less like a college football series and more like the answers to a “Jeopardy!” category on niche sports trivia.
What is The Catch?
What is BYOG?
What is ostarine?
Who is DJ Uiagalelei?
The Tigers and Fighting Irish have a knack for making history when they meet on the gridiron, and coach Marcus Freeman expects more of the same when his Notre Dame program hosts undefeated Clemson on Saturday night in primetime.
“That’s what you get when you get teams like Notre Dame and Clemson,” Freeman said Monday. “It’s a heavyweight battle. When two great historic programs get to go and clash it out, it’s probably going to be one of those games that comes down to the last couple series and who executes the most.”
It’s also rich in narratives, as these matchups between orange-and-white and blue-and-gold often are, with Clemson (8-0, 6-0 ACC) gunning for another conference championship and College Football Playoff appearance and Notre Dame (5-3) engineering a late turnaround under Freeman, the boy wonder tasked with replacing now-LSU coach Brian Kelly.
Even with the Fighting Irish, one of the sport’s most recognizable brands, falling well below their preseason ranking, you couldn’t ask for much more.
“I think that’s what makes college football great,” Clemson coach Dabo Swinney said. “As a competitor and someone who’s been a part of college football since 1988 as a player and a coach, I love that.”
After playing only twice in the former team’s first 119 seasons of existence, Clemson and Notre Dame will meet for the fifth time in eight seasons on Saturday night, adding another footnote to a (mostly) non-conference series Clemson leads 4-2.
In 1977, the first Clemson-Notre Dame game saw Fighting Irish quarterback Joe Montana and Tigers wide receiver Dwight Clark meet on opposite sidelines five years before they’d connect for “The Catch,” one of the most memorable plays in NFL history, as San Francisco 49ers teammates in the 1981 NFC championship game.
In 2015, a rain-soaked Swinney coined the phrase “Bring your own guts,” or BYOG, in an emotional postgame interview after Clemson upset Notre Dame early in a season that ended with the program’s first ever College Football Playoff appearance.
In 2018, star defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence and two other Clemson players were suspended from the CFP after testing positive for the banned substance ostarine, dominating national news cycles ahead of the Tigers’ rout of Notre Dame in the national semifinals.
And 2020 was a book in itself, as the No. 4 Fighting Irish knocked off No. 1 Clemson 47-40 in double overtime despite an opponent record 439 passing yards, three total touchdowns and zero turnovers from then-freshman quarterback Uiagalelei in his second career start.
Uiagalelei was starting in place of star Clemson QB and future No. 1 overall NFL Draft pick Trevor Lawrence, who’d tested positive for the coronavirus two weeks earlier and was just a few days removed from a mandatory quarantine. Clemson avenged that loss by blowing out Notre Dame, a temporary ACC member due to COVID-19, in the conference title game.
“I think it’s an amazing place and an amazing program that’s done an amazing job this year and in years past,” Uiagalelei said. “It’s going to be really cool to see the stadium packed.”
Historic Notre Dame Stadium seats nearly 81,000 people, but it was only operating around 15% capacity during Clemson’s last visit in November 2020 before COVID-19 vaccines were widely available. (Thousands of students rushed the field after Notre Dame’s upset win anyway, prompting national criticism).
Even under pandemic circumstances, the sights and sounds of Clemson’s first football game at Notre Dame in 41 seasons weren’t lost on its players and staffers, many of whom remain on the 2022 roster and marveled this week at the university near South Bend, Indiana.
“I was thinking about Rudy the whole time,” safety Tyler Venables said with a laugh, referencing the classic 1993 sports movie starring Sean Astin as a lovable football underdog and filmed on Notre Dame’s campus.
Clemson enters Saturday seeking a bounce-back game from Uiagalelei, who got benched in the second half of the team’s comeback win over Syracuse two weeks ago, as well as a résumé-boosting win against a prominent non-conference opponent after debuting at No. 4 in the College Football Playoff selection committee rankings Tuesday night.
It won’t be easy sledding against Notre Dame, which was fifth among other teams receiving votes in this week’s AP Top 25. The Fighting Irish have won five of their last six games and dispatched two ranked opponents (BYU and Syracuse) as well as currently ranked UNC after a 0-2 start under Freeman.
Come Saturday night, expect lots of back-and-forth blows between two teams trying to out-physical one another — and, based on series history, more trivia fodder.
“I know we’ve got a battle coming, a tall task ahead of us, but I want our guys to understand we’re Notre Dame, right?” Freeman said. “This is what we do. We play in big games. You know, it’s not a David versus Goliath. This is a heavyweight fight.”
Clemson vs. Notre Dame football game
Who: No. 5 Clemson (8-0, 6-0 ACC) at Notre Dame (5-3)
When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday
Where: Notre Dame Stadium, South Bend, Indiana
TV: NBC
Line: Clemson by 4
