Notre Dame almost started 11-0 back in 2015 and I think about it all the time. Yes, it wasn’t the most difficult schedule to contend with until that final trip to Stanford. We saw Texas flop in the 2nd year of Charlie Strong’s tenure, Virginia lost 8 games, Georgia Tech was coming off an 11-win season and ranked 14th (!) when they met Notre Dame only to finish 3-9 (!!), Navy was very good at 11-2 but also Navy, USC was spinning its wheels with 6 losses under Steve Sarkisian, Temple was at its modern ceiling under Matt Rhule and a tough out, Pittsburgh was decent at 8-5 in the 1st year of Pat Narduzzi, Wake Forest lost 9 games, and so did Boston College.
The October 3rd visit to Clemson was such a big, big game. It was the 2nd year in a row the Irish were traveling to an ACC power with ESPN GameDay in tow carrying a ton of prestige on the line. Today is a look back at this fateful so very close game.
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Folks, it was raining raining for this game. Not quite NC State in a monsoon vibes but I can’t remember many more soaking wet games in my Irish lifetime. I think this was also the first time I learned about Clemson busing their players across the stadium to their entrance hill run. It’s pretty funny to watch everyone in pads squeezing out of seats and down the bus stairs.
1st Half
Notre Dame being ranked (6th) ahead of Clemson (12th) isn’t something I remember. However, this was before Clemson really took off as a program. Before the first play from scrimmage they show a graphic of Deshaun Watson being just 7-1 as a starter. He’d finish his Clemson career 33-5 with a National Championship.
Watson took the first play for 38 yards on the ground, scooting past Joe Schmidt out of the pocket while Cole Luke got juked and ended up in the way of Max Redfield coming down to help. Not a great start! Luke got juked again on a crucial red zone 3rd down to keep Clemson’s drive alive. Clemson’s tight end also jumped over Luke for the touchdown. It’d be an eventful night for Luke.
Notre Dame’s offensive line was absolutely mauled on the first series going three and out.
Elijah Shumate and Luke combined to whiff on a tackle on a slant to Artavis Scott on a touchdown. Before the 1st quarter was even half over Notre Dame was down 14-0 and this had all of the feelings of a classic big game blowout loss.
A 46-yard kickoff return from C.J. Sanders gave ND some life! Chris Brown almost dropped a key 3rd down pass and a pass interference penalty kept the drive alive. Another 3rd down pass went through Amir Carlisle’s hands and Justin Yoon nailed the field goal. It’s 14-3 and the Irish have 6 rushes for -4 yards so far.
A terrible 3rd down fade throw from Watson gave the ball right back to Notre Dame. Kizer would run for 26 yards to give the Irish more life, but things collapsed after 2 runs for -1 yard and a throw behind Nic Weishar was dropped (he wasn’t getting the 1st down anyway) resulting in a punt from the Clemson 40-yard line.
So far, there have been a lot of TV shots with Kelly yelling on the sideline. I wondered if this game was close to the half way mark of the Kelly era at Notre Dame. That would come later in this season in the Boston College game at Fenway Park.
The 2nd quarter didn’t give us much entertainment. Notre Dame finally targeted Will Fuller on 3rd & 17 for a wide open 1st down and the ball slipped right through his hands. The Irish made so many mental errors in this game. That was immediately followed up by Artavis Scott fumbling the punt return but Clemson recovered. Mental errors, plus Notre Dame was arguably very unlucky on this night.
With 1:29 left in the 1st half, Kizer fired deep to Corey Robinson. We never saw a close up replay but this should’ve been a touchdown. Robinson jumped and was landing right at the goal line but the ball just doesn’t stay with him.
Robinson couldn’t bring this in right before halftime.
At halftime, Clemson led 14-3 with Notre Dame only totaling 134 yards of offense.
2nd Half
And, C.J. Sanders fumbled the opening kickoff after the damn kicker put his helmet right into his chest. Three plays later, Watson scored on a 21-yard QB power that was so poorly defended the Clemson right guard was running downfield with no one to block and entered the end zone with the quarterback. It was 21-3 now, and I absolutely remember feeling like the Irish were complete toast.
The very next play from scrimmage and C.J. Prosise fumbled after finally getting some daylight on a decent run. Chris Fowler exclaims, “Clemson, now a chance to blow this open!”
Two fumbles and a touchdown allowed in the 1st minute of the 2nd half!
The Tigers very next 3rd down saw Artavis Scott beat Cole Luke deep (he was not having a good game!) and dropped an extremely catchable ball in the end zone. The door remained ajar, and Clemson punted.
After a couple of Irish punts it was Clemson ball again late in the 3rd quarter when a Keivarae Russell pass interference penalty on Hunter Renfrow moved the ball close to the red zone. It felt like the nail in the coffin was coming soon. And Watson goes for just that on 1st down on a deep pass into the end zone.
Picked off! By Cole Luke! Redemption!
ndmspaint come back.
I will say, the TV booth of Fowler and Herbie must’ve thought by now that Notre Dame had no shot at winning this game (same!) because the Luke interception may be one of the worst calls in any modern Irish game. Here’s the text:
Fowler:
“And now….lob it down deep….Peake!…………………………………………………………………………………………………………..Juggled it. And Luke was defending. And it’s…picked off!?”
Herbstreit:
“See I gotta tell ya something. You’re down 21-3. Right? Isn’t that the score? It’s 21-3. And you just made a play and you’re still talking to the crowd.”
Truly bizarre stuff. It’s 2015 but apparently Herbie isn’t comfortable enough understanding the Cornerback’s Creed. And I would maybe wonder if Fowler didn’t have a great live angle to the corner of the end zone from the booth and was slow to look at the monitor? Otherwise, it’s just so, so weird to hear this call.
Luke’s interception was a turning point and 4 plays later, Kizer found Prosise on a swing route for a 56-yard touchdown. Then, the controversial decision to go for a 2-point conversion with 14:13 remaining in the 4th quarter. Of course, Notre Dame also burned a timeout when Corey Robinson wasn’t lined up on the field and ruined the initial chance. Robinson then let the ball fly through his hands when Kizer found him in the back of end zone on the 2-point try.
Clemson answered with a field goal, curiously running quarterback power with Watson on 3rd & 10 just outside the Irish red zone. The score was now 24-9 with 10:52 remaining in the game.
Notre Dame’s offense was fully alive and out of its slumber as it took just 4 plays to go 64 yards thanks to 3 Kizer rushes for 26 yards and a 33-yard crossing route to Chris Brown. Although, Kizer fumbled big time on the first play of this drive, luckily the ball bounced directly to Prosise. The Irish kicked the PAT this time and were down 24-16.
Correcting this brief stumble was huge.
Clemson was stoned on their next drive and now the feeling of an incredible comeback started to come into focus.
Kizer picked off by linebacker B.J. Goodson! First play of the drive! The ball was well behind Chris Brown and an easy pick for the trailing defender. Luckily, Clemson missed the ensuing field goal (they tried QB power again on 3rd down) from 45 yards out.
Kizer would be sacked on 1st down to start the next drive but another crossing route to Brown went for 34 yards, followed up by 2 more nice completions. Cordrea Tankersley had a healthy handful of Brown’s jersey on a nice fade route in the end zone from Kizer and on the very next play disaster struck. Brown got wide open on a crossing route (again!), cut up-field, and just as he was crossing the 1st down line a mere 2 yards from the goal line, he lost a fumble.
There was 2:09 remaining in the game and it felt like it was all over. But, Notre Dame had 2 timeouts and Clemson was backed up on their 4-yard* line.
*I would like to point out that B.J. Goodson recovered this fumble dead-on right at the 3-yard line. He was even lying horizontally across the width of the field so there could be no confusion about where the ball was recovered. The ACC officials nevertheless spotted the ball a full yard further up-field.
Notre Dame in fact got the 3 & out after Watson failed a QB power (again!) getting the ball back with 1:05 after the second and final punt return of Will Fuller’s career brought the ball to Clemson’s 32-yard line. The ending of this game was thus:
- The ball slips out of Kizer’s hands and it’s scored as an official team sack.
- A drop by Chris Brown (actually it was a saving grace–he would’ve gained maybe half of the yardage for 1st down but the clock would’ve been running with 0:37 seconds remaining).
- An absolute clutch throw from Kizer to a sliding Amir Carlisle for the 1st down.
- The ball is spiked, 2nd & 10 from the Clemson 18-yard line.
- Prosise catches a pass in the flat, makes 3 guys miss, and takes the ball down to the 2-yard line with 15 seconds remaining.
- Kizer spikes the ball and gets Clemson with an illegal substitution penalty, bringing the ball to the 1-yard line with 12 seconds left.
- A pitch-perfect fade route is caught in the end zone by Torii Hunter.
Now, I’ve watched the game-ending 2-point conversion a thousand times. I have always been firm that on these do-or-die plays down at the goal line I hate play-calls that don’t incorporate a run/pass option. Particularly not rolling the quarterback out to see if a throw is open with the option to run. Notre Dame opted with QB power, a play that worked well with Kizer so many times in 2015, and even in this game, but was really asking the whole offense to block perfectly in such a crucial situation.
A PAT would’ve tied the game 🙁
If there’s blame I pointed the finger then and now at Steve Elmer at right guard. He tries to double team Clemson defensive tackle Carlos Watkins with the help of center Nick Martin and Watkins gets entirely across both of them pushing both right at the hole Kizer was running through. Kizer sees that mess, puts his hand out to brace for contact, stops moving his feet, and it’s finally game over.
Final Thoughts
- This was pretty much a tale of 2 halves for both teams. Notre Dame’s offense looked asleep until the 2nd half and Clemson’s offense kind of sucked after the initial early lead was built. I know a lot of people blamed the rain or blamed Clemson getting needlessly conservative in front of a home crowd while nursing a lead. Still, the Tigers finished with 15 first downs, 296 total yards, and 4.6 yards per play. I’d guess Notre Dame wins 95% of the time when the opponent has those modest numbers.
- Did this game “lose” Deshaun Watson the Heisman? He rushed for more yards (93) than he threw for (84) and Kizer finished with 199 more total yards in comparison, with 6 or 7 blatantly terrible drops by receivers. I always thought if the bulk of the nation tuned into this game in the 2nd half during the Irish comeback attempt they wouldn’t have watched Watson do a whole lot down the stretch. Clemson went 14-0 until a loss in the National Championship (barely) to Alabama and this always felt like a year Watson probably should’ve won the Heisman. But he finished behind winner Derrick Henry and also Christian McCaffrey.
- For a very brief second, Kizer got some future no. 1 overall pick hype, often in comparison to Watson. It didn’t last long but you could see in this game the promise of what made him stay as a 1st round hopeful right through the end of the 2016 season. Watson was taken 12th overall, and he’s gone through some, uh issues, while looking to bounce back with a full season in Cleveland. Kizer has not played in a NFL game over the last 4 seasons.
- We could drive ourselves crazy with a lot of what-ifs from the outcome of this game. Damn, just 1 sustained touchdown drive in the 1st half could’ve done wonders. Yet, as I re-watched I couldn’t help but think about Brian VanGorder on the sidelines. This is weird to say (because this may have been the most talented Brian Kelly team) but I don’t really enjoy this 2015 season that much knowing what happened at the end of the year and into the debacle of 2016.
That Kizer declared for the draft after only one full season as the starter was very disappointing to me, but I get the allure of being drafted high and getting the money now. It is to bad he went to the Browns, where QB’s go to die.
That Brian Van Gorder remained on staff was a huge error, but Kelly, I think, was way to comfortable after that 2015 season. One could argue that if 2016 didn’t happen, we wouldn’t see the 2018 to 2020 seasons.
Kizer was on a podcast (I’ll see if I can find it) where he shed a lot of light into his days at Notre Dame. He said he didn’t have much of a relationship with Kelly and there was never enough communication regarding the situation at quarterback against Zaire (sound like Kizer thought he wrapped the job up after 2015 and I get that), and he wasn’t too keen on a potential battle with Wimbush in 2017 if Kelly was going to play the same game of not naming a starter.
Even back to the 2 QB days in Cincy, Kelly’s always been weird about his QB’s. Like he doesn’t want them to get too comfortable. Ian Book was about the only exception to the rule, and that might have only because he didn’t have much of any alternative..Considering Book WAS the alternative.
That said, in essence and though choppy, I always think of Kizer as just about a two-year starter for 2015 and ’16. It was def time for him to go at the point he did.
I think Kelly did this with the thought that competition brings out the best in the QB, which is something that I can understand, however, I also think that it can be overdone, when you have a returning starting QB, it is their job to lose, i.e. you can tell the young gun, Kizer is QB1 unless you can definitively prove you belong in front of him. But you can’t tell Kizer, we are going to have a competition to see who starts. Somehow it feels like Tommy Rees was entrenched as QB1.
I remember writing about this game at our old haunt and I think I took some flak in the comments for flatly saying ND gave it away. But I stand by it. After the customary BVG defense disaster to start the game, the Irish were by far the better team and should have won. I’m glad you mentioned the Robinson drop, as I feel like no one brings it up but it wasn’t that difficult a catch and should have been made.
My other standout memory of this game was Dabo yelping about “Bring Your Own Guts” in the postgame and thinking it was a really ironic thing to say after a game in which you blatantly turtled for the last 2.5 quarters and tried not to lose.
Dabo’s ability to make an ass of himself at pressers is unmatched.
This game doesn’t haunt me in the same way that, say, 2005 SC or 2011 Michigan does, because, well, it’s Clemson. But man, what a blown opportunity. The 2015 team with Elko or Lea at DC could have done great things.
I totally forgot the Robinson drop, but it was brutal.
The will fuller 3rd down drop killed me, I’ve never been more devastated over a dropped pass before.
I also wanted to cry after the 3rd quarter fumbles… you’re so right, the irish gave this one away. Gosh, I forgot too about the failed 2 point attempt before the last one. There are times I want to slap head coaches when they go big brain 9000 on the point differentials. Dude, TAKE THE POINTS!
this must have been an agonizing article, but it’s a nice rewind/revisit. Clemson became a for real team after this, much the same way that UGA game 2017. By the laws of cosmic justice, are we due for ours? Can we have our “here we are in the spotlight” moment? Certainly there are enough opportunities on the schedule this year
Yes tough game that we should have won but my definition of giving a game away falls more in line with a game you are winning and should have won. You could argue they should have won, but they were never winning in this game. They were always playing catch up, regardless if they were the better, more talented team. Mistakes and turnovers killed them.
I completely agree that 2005 SC and 2011 Michigan felt worse than this loss. Even the loss to Stanford at the end of 2015 felt worse because the stakes were higher.
Of course, it was a big game that we should have won. Big game losses that we should have won always sting and the opportunity to finally win a NY6 bowl game we also gave away…
I was at this game. It was very wet. I believe it was the tail end of a hurricane (that even resulted in a few deaths in SC), as opposed to the NC State game, which was more of right in the middle.
Corey Robinson also got first-round pick hype going into that season!
Showing the value and accuracy of “way too early!” mock drafts. But I guess you can’t be too mad when they are what they say they are.
Love this, Eric. A wet and rainy walk down a muddy memory lane. Concur with all comments, and LOVE this one:
“By the laws of cosmic justice, are we due for ours? Can we have our “here we are in the spotlight” moment? Certainly there are enough opportunities on the schedule this year”
A little win at Clemson would be fitting payback!
Also, related to nothing but my own amusement and looking into it: pretty bizarre that ND/Clemson played 4 times from 2018-22 and all 4 were either at Notre Dame or neutral sites. But that’s that pandemic madness for ya. 2023 will be the eighth all-time game between them and only the third in faux-Death Valley.
(Also if anyone was curious like I was with all these games lately there, aren’t any more scheduled ND/Clemson after this year until 2027. Though I suppose with 12-team playoff coming, reasonably decent odds to see each other again before that).
I think SC this year is going to be that opportunity. Hopefully we take it.