Notre Dame-Clemson II Countdown: 10 To 1
10 Times Notre Dame has reached 10-0 since 1918, the start of the Knute Rockne era: 1924, 1930, 1949, 1973, 1988, 1989, 1993, 2012, 2018 and 2020.
For head coach Brian Kelly, it also is his fourth 10-0 achievement in the last 12 years, as he was 12-0 at Cincinnati in 2009 before accepting the Notre Dame position. He also had 12-0 regular seasons with the Irish in 2012 and 2018.
The Fighting Irish have achieved 11-0 five previous times: 1973, 1988, 1989, 2012 and 2018, and reached 12-0 in the latter two plus 1988.
9 Games Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence has started against ranked opponents in his career, with the lone defeat coming to No. 1 LSU in last year’s national title showdown. His career record as a starter is 33-1 (.971 winning percentage) — topping the previous 32-3 mark of DeShaun Watson (.914) by one during their Clemson careers.
Likewise, Lawrence's counterpart at Notre Dame, Ian Book, on Dec. 5 became the first Notre Dame quarterback to record 30 victories as a starter. His 30-3 (.909) ledger is the best at the school by anyone with at least 25 starts. Book is 7-3 versus ranked teams.
8 Ranking of Notre Dame nationally among 127 FBS teams in run defense (99.7 yards per game), with Clemson not far behind at No. 12 (105.4 yards per game). However, in the first meeting the disparity was dramatic with the Fighting Irish totaling 208 yards on the ground compared to Clemson’s 34 — most notably all-time ACC rushing leader Travis Etienne managing only 28 yards on 18 carries.
7 Ranking of Notre Dame nationally in both third-down conversion percentage (.514) and time of possession per game (34:09).
Next to out-rushing Clemson 208-34, the most impressive stat in Notre Dame’s 7-point win over Clemson on Nov. 7 (notice all the sevens?) was the Irish converted 10 of 19 third-down situations (52.6 percent) compared to Clemson’s 4 of 15 (26.7 percent).
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6 This is the sixth consecutive appearance in the ACC Championship by Clemson, which has won each of the previous five against different opponents: North Carolina (45-37 in 2015), Virginia Tech (42-35 in 2016), Miami (38-3 in 2017), Pitt (42-10 in 2018) and Virginia (62-17 last season).
The Tigers averaged 46 points per game in those five, with the last three held in Charlotte (today's venue), where its average margin of victory has been 37.5 points.
5 Previous meetings between the two schools, the first in 1977 at Death Valley in which the Fighting Irish rallied from a 17-7 deficit in the fourth quarter for a 21-17 victory en route to capturing the national title. Clemson then won in 1979, two years before the program won its first national championship.
Each of the other three meetings since 2015 also had national title implications. In 2015, Clemson’s 24-22 win at home in a monsoon helped propel it to its first championship game appearance since 1981. Next, the Tigers' 30-3 win over the Irish in the 2018 College Football Playoff semifinal (Cotton Bowl) set them up for their third national title, and second in three years.
This Nov. 7, Notre Dame cut the Tigers’ series lead to 3-2 with the dramatic 47-40 double-overtime win at home, ending then-No. 1 Clemson's 36-game regular season winning streak (just like Notre Dame ended No. 1 Miami’s 36-game regular season winning streak in 1988, the last time the Irish won it all).
4 Straight years that the team that debuted at No. 2 in the first College Football Playoff poll went on to win the national title: Clemson (2016) Alabama (2017), Clemson (2018) and LSU (2019) — and this year it was Notre Dame each of the past four weeks.
The No. 2 ranking also is the highest for the Irish in the seven-year history of the CFP.
3 Times, per ESPN research, since the advent of the Associated Press poll in 1936 that two teams ranked in the top 4 met during the regular season — and then again in a postseason contest while still ranked in the top 4. This Notre Dame-Clemson matchup will make it the fourth. In each of the first three, the losing team won the rematch by at least 21 points:
• In 1959, No. 1 LSU defeated No. 3 Ole Miss at home, 7-3. Then in the Sugar Bowl, No. 2 Ole Miss defeated No. 3 LSU, 21-0.
• In 1996, No. 1 Florida lost to No. 2 Florida State, 24-21. In the Sugar Bowl, the No. 3-ranked Gators then captured their first national title with a 52-20 demolition of the No. 1-ranked Seminoles.
• In 2011, No. 1 LSU won at No. 2 Alabama, 9-6 in overtime. Then in the BCS Championship in New Orleans (and eerily similar to 1959), the top-ranked Tigers this time lost to the No. 2 Crimson Tide, 21-0.
2 This will be the second time since 1902 that Notre Dame will have played the same school twice in football during the same season. In 1997, the Fighting upset No. 11 LSU in Baton Rouge 24-6 (the lone game ever where Notre Dame committed neither a turnover nor a penalty), but lost 27-9 in the rematch a month later at the Independence Bowl.
In 1901, Notre Dame began the season with a scoreless tie against South Bend Athletic Club, but ended the season 8-1-1 with a 22-6 defeat of SBAC.
1 Notre Dame is playing for a conference championship in football for the first time in its history dating back to 1887 – mainly because this is the first time it is a league member in the sport before its expected return to independence in 2021.
The Fighting Irish own a 14-game winning streak against ACC foes, and the current 16 wins in a row overall are tops in the country. A victory today would tie the second longest winning streak by the Irish since 1948, behind only the school record 23 in 1988-89.
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