Southern football teams are not known for venturing to the north with much frequency, especially in November.
One of those rare occurrences came two years ago when ACC foe Florida State visited South Bend on Nov. 10, 2018. The temperature at kickoff for that night’s game was 27 degrees — the third coldest for a Fighting Irish home game since 1980.
Notre Dame easily dispatched of the Seminoles, 42-13, in their march to the College Football Playoff, where it would lose 30-3 to eventual national champion Clemson in the semifinal while playing in the climate-controlled Cowboys Stadium.
Meanwhile, on that same Nov. 10 day back in 2018, No. 2-ranked Clemson played at No. 17 Boston College, and the kickoff temperature there was 34 degrees, the coldest in Tigers head coach Dabo Swinney’s era, which began in 2008.
At that postgame conference in the Tigers' 27-7 win, Swinney had tongue firmly planted in his cheek.
“I was nervous about the weather,” he said with a smile. “I thought it was gonna snow or sleet. I was a little disappointed it was a balmy 38 [sic] out there. I didn’t know what was gonna happen listening to all the reports and all this stuff — that we were gonna forget how to play football or something because of the weather. Trevor [Lawrence] had never been north to play football and all this stuff. Lord have mercy.
“The only thing I was worried about is that we were gonna freeze up and forget how to run and tackle and all that stuff. But somehow, some way, we were able to push through it.”
Sometimes it can be overrated how cold the weather gets in northern Indiana in November. The No. 1 versus No. 2 showdown versus Florida State on Nov. 13, 1993 was in the upper 50s. That also happened to be the most recent victory by Notre Dame over the top-ranked team (a remarkable seventh time from Jan. 1 through Nov. 13, 1993). Nothing would be finer for the Irish this month than to "break the ice" of that 27-year drought.
However, any hopes by Fighting Irish faithful that Clemson would be confronting a harsh climate this weekend in northern Indiana have been dampened, so to speak, by Indian Summer-like conditions forecasted this week. Game-day temperatures for this Saturday's clash with Clemson is projected to reach a high of 69 degrees in the day that will cool down to a still-tolerable (if not toasty) 49 degrees for the 7:30 p.m. ET kickoff.
The Clemson football media guide defines a “cold-weather game” as 45 degrees or less, and revealed the Tigers are 8-0 in such contests under Swinney, with the most recent a 55-10 rout of North Carolina State on a 45-degree night on Nov. 9, 2019 in Raleigh, N.C.
The 2018 Boston College game remains the coldest on record in the Swinney era. The only other games with him that were under 40 degrees were in his first two seasons: On Nov. 22, 2008 the Tigers won at Virginia 13-3 when it was 35 degrees, and the next year on Dec. 27 they defeated Kentucky 21-13 in 39-degree weather at the Music City Bowl held in Nashville, Tenn.
The most recent Notre Dame-Clemson regular-season encounter was an Oct. 3, 2015 monsoon at Clemson in which the Tigers prevailed with a 24-22 victory when the Fighting Irish failed to convert a two-point conversion in the closing seconds. That victory helped propel Swinney's then No. 11-ranked team to the national title contest against Alabama, which they lost before capturing it the following year.
The only other time Clemson visited Notre Dame was on Nov. 17, 1979 — another sunny day with about 50-degree temperatures in which the Tigers rallied from a 10-0 halftime deficit to win 16-10. Clemson head coach Danny Ford was in a short-sleeve shirt.
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