South Band, Indie. – At 12:10 a.m. Sunday, the last student around the playground at Notre Dame Stadium took off his sweatshirt and walked away as soon as safety was off. The four men were dressed as nuns and had green pajamas with the girls. Hundreds of already-departed chest bumpers, random hugs, picture takers and other wild celebrants also came out.
The Irish of No. 4 Fighting had 27 minutes to beat No. 1 Clemson in 47-40 double overtime in the biggest and best game of the season. The final play that followed was a joyous, carefree, ugly, mindless, spontaneous celebration. It was a scene of easy times, before 2020.
The COVID-19 social distance will be reprimanded, with a high percentage of the declared crowd of 11,011 attacking the area and turning it into an old-fashioned mosh pit. In a completely unusual season, it was a joyous moment of a completely normal college football football mayhem. Months of sticking to the button-down existence flowed to the side by an emotional tidal wave created by a huge and dramatic victory.
Was this a super spreader event, or a super sweet moment? Check back after a week or two and hope for the best.
“It was crazy,” said Notre Dame wide receiver Avery Davis, whose last-minute two catches helped prevent defeat and push the game into the OT. “It’s different than when you see it in movies. You are beaten by the fans. “
Mike Collins, 75, who made public appearances at Notre Dame Stadium, attempted a diplomatic approach to disperse the crowd. This is his 38th and final year on the job, and since the Irish defeated No. 1 Florida State in 1993, he clearly didn’t want to be the cutie at the biggest football party in this historic historic building.
“We want everyone here to be safe and healthy,” Collins said. “Please make your way to the ground. Please, use any open wing. … And if Ashoro can help a little, it will be helpful. ”
No one heard.
“Okay, the band is moving,” Collins said a moment later. “Fans should too. The players left. ”
The boys raced from midfield to the goal line. Others jumped to touch the crossbar. A young woman made cartwheels. Eventually, Collins left the final boost on the Dwelling Revelers.
He said, “If you stay too long, it will be the last phone somewhere.”
This was simply a threat. About 45 minutes later, the bars on Eddie Street were still buzzing. The Notre Dame campus and surrounding area were to go long and strong early Sunday morning.
College College football and epidemic best practices are incompatible. Ultimately, the spirit of the big moment is going to win.
And this was a very big moment for Notre Dame, which seems like an endless unfinished quest to awaken the echoes of its glory.
Coach Brian Kelly has done a great job of returning consistency to the program, but there is a gap between consistency and dominance. He had not yet closed that distance. There were a lot of wins – Kelly mentioned several times last week that his team had 12 wins in a row and 29 in its last 32, but not the kind of wins Clemson and Alabama had.
Clemson, riding on a regular-season winning streak of -36-games, represented the same kind of juicy goal. And the Tigers were sensitive, lacking the most talented player in the college ledge game (quarterback Trevor Law Rance) and many key defensive players.
Against an opponent who increased his team by 27 points in the 2018 college football playoffs, Kelly played a prophet of positivity for his players throughout the week. He predicted the scene of the postgame.
“When we win this thing, our fans will storm the field,” he told the team on the bias walkthrough Friday. “So when they do, we’re on the field. We have to go into the tunnel. ”
After the kickoff, Kelly’s confidence returned immediately. On the first official play from Scrimigage, running back Crane Williams bounced off the left and went 65 yards for a touchdown.
Notre Dame will not make another offensive touchdown until the regulation of its final offensive game. Building a 23-10 lead between the Irish, saw it disappear in the 26-all tie, then Clemson was left behind 33-26 after a fabulous patient and clutch touchdown drive engineered by freshman quarterback DJ Yuagaleli.
The Notre Dame defense was refusing to give big plays and would be able to confirm that the Tigers ran a series of short gains to get on the field. It was yet another sign of Yuagaleli’s stardom, whose cannon hand is one thing but peace in the larger settings is something else. One night when Travis Etienne was running behind the Irish shut down star, Yuajelli threw 439 yards.
“The DJ is a special player,” Kelly said. “Trevor Lawrence is also a special player. Boy, I want to do left issues. ”
But Kelly’s quarterback Ian is a special player in the book. He doesn’t have the professional future or physical gifts of his Clemson counterparts, but he is a very successful operator of Kelly’s crime. And he had the best moment of his college night on Saturday night – not long after his darkest college moments.
The book disrupted potential moving possession in the end zone in the third quarter. But Kelly told him he was going to win the game, and the senior chose to trust his coach.
“Things happen,” the book said. “Playmakers forget about it. Quarterback is really hard. You face a lot of pressure, but when it gets right you get a lot of love. ”
Within the final minutes of the game, below the Notre Dame-43-yard line, the book stopped passing and saw a gift: Clemson let Davis go deep without safety assistance. Book fired a pass from the middle and Davis made that catch, eventually facing it on a 4-yard line. Three plays later, hit the book Davis for Tying Touchdown.
He sent the game to overtime. After a trading touchdown in the first OT, Notre Dame took a 47-40 lead using seven methodological plays. That length of possession gave the Irish defense time to rest, and that unit came out of turbocharging, fired Yuagaleli twice and gave big hits to the receivers.
When the fourth and 24th play was closed, the game was won and the stands filled with about 14 percent capacity. Empty. It was a kind of endless celebration that you will see a handful of somewhere in the game every year – except this year.
“It was a lot of fun,” the book said.
It could be more fun for both teams to come. They are the two best teams in the Atlantic Coast Conference, so Charlotte’s rematch for the league championship looks perfectly possible next month – and with Lawrence, Clemson will be solidly favored. This result will do nothing to reduce the chances of both teams making the league football playoffs.
And there is some growing competition between the two programs. Kelly said last week that he was familiar with Clemson’s expertise on signs of theft, and arranged accordingly – Irish hooded and plays called wrist bands. Kelly said Taig had an “OK” correlation with blocking his play calls.
Then came the moment when the crew of Swin ACC was intimidated in the fourth quarter in which the flag of the main pass interference was taken in the fourth quarter. This led to a “f—-you left!” Chant the students of Notre Dame.
Please contest more.
Of course, for that they both have to take care of the business the rest of the way. Clemson’s schedule isn’t too difficult (Florida State, Pittsburgh, Virginia Tech) Notre Dame will play its final four games on the road, starting at Boston College on Saturday.
And let’s just say there are some worrying prerequisites for dealing with the Irish. His last win over the No. 1 team came in the ’93 Florida State game, following a losing streak to Boston College. Notre Dame was wounded at the expense of the national title.
Calculate on Kelly that she will bring about 200 times in six months.
“I’ve got to back up in this team,” he said. “We’ve got a target on our back now.”
Let’s hope the array of challenges that lie ahead don’t even include a new COVID outbreak from the turbulent realm. This one moment of college college football in 2020 will be great without paying the price.
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