Clemson played host to Texas A&M on September 3rd, 2005 in the season opener for both the Tigers and the Aggies. In three hours, the two teams would play an instant classic that is still talked about in the annals of Clemson football almost two decades later.
The Dean of Death Valley…
Memorial Stadium rocked and rolled as Clemson junior kicker Jad Dean marked off his steps from the
25-yard line. There were six seconds remaining on the clock, and with a bated and deafening breath, the sellout crowd assembled at Death Valley waited impatiently for jubilation or dejection. The Aggies of Texas A&M met the Tigers at the line of scrimmage, stacking 11 men in the box, in no way masking their intentions to send a tidal wave of humanity towards Dean whose 42-yard kick would decide the outcome of the game, and set the tone for, the seasons to come for both Clemson and Texas A&M. Jad had already delivered a master class on kicking that hot September afternoon. All that was left was for him to administer the final exam.
It was no ordinary season opener…
Clemson has never shied from playing the best teams in college football, but it had been a while since the Tigers had opened a season at home against a team of this caliber. Texas A&M entered the 2005 season ranked #17 in the country, and they would lay that mark on the line against the unranked, upstart Tigers. The Aggies, led by quarterback Reggie McNeal, were the favorites. Clemson, guided by Charlie Whitehurst, was intent on being the burr in the backside of the boys from the Lone Star State. Texas A&M drew first blood on a 35-yard Todd Pegram field goal, but Jad Dean had yet to begin his lecture. Pegram and the Aggies would be the ones left taking notes.
Trading blows with the Texans…
Dean delivered his first point on the first play of the second quarter, a chip shot 21-yard kick to even the score at 3-3. Less than three minutes later the Tigers would score the only Clemson touchdown of the game to take their first lead. Chansi Stuckey fielded a short Texas A&M punt at the Aggies’ 47-yard line, angled down the left sideline, and raced to paydirt in front of the Clemson bench. Chansi’s electric dash sent the Clemson contingent into a façade-rocking frenzy, but A&M would answer right back. On the ensuing drive, Aggies’ running back Courtney Lewis punched one in from three yards out and Pegram’s point after drew the teams back into a 10-10 deadlock.
The Tigers got a leg up, literally…
Clemson took a 16-10 lead into halftime thanks to Dean’s second and third field goals of the game. Whitehurst guided Clemson inside Aggies territory on consecutive possessions, but could not find the endzone either time. Luckily for the Tigers, Jad found the middle of the uprights. A 21-yarder with 4:58 remaining in the period gave Clemson the lead back. With three seconds remaining in the half, Dean connected from 25 to stake the Tigers to a 16-10 lead at intermission.
Picking up where he left off…
Dean upped the Clemson lead late into what had been a rather uneventful third quarter in which neither team garnered great success offensively. But that drive, and fourth field goal of the game, came at a hefty price for the Tigers. Whitehurst went down with an injury and would not return to the game. It was a seismic shift that seemed to have turned the Texas A&M fortunes. The Aggies made their move in the waning moments of the period, jumping right back into the fray on a 1-yard touchdown run from Lewis, his second score of the game, on the last play of the third. The point after sent the teams to the final, fateful 15 minutes with Clemson clinging to a 19-17 lead and without the services of their starting quarterback.
Bringing the Thunder…
Clemson turned to a freshman running back and future Tiger legend to calm the storm. As Will Proctor took over under center, head coach Tommy Bowden made the decision to keep the ball on the ground to shorten the game. James Davis, the thundering running back playing in his first collegiate game, would carry the load. Behind Davis, Clemson again drove into Aggie territory, and again, the Tigers would stall out but within Dean’s range. His fifth field goal of the game would be his longest. The kick, 44 yards from straight away, increased the Clemson margin once more to 22-17 with 10:37 remaining in the ballgame.
The Aggies took the lead…
Capping off Texas A&M’s best drive of the game, McNeal responded by completing the longest pass of the afternoon by either team. A 31-yard strike to Chad Schroeder gave his team their first lead since it was 3-0 in the early moments of the contest. For the remainder of the final period, it seemed as if it would be the last one the Aggies would need. Dean, Davis, and company were not quite ready to end class just yet, though. Clemson took over for one final drive with 3:40 on the clock, and eight Davis carries later were set up at the Aggies’ 25-yard line with just six seconds remaining on the clock. On came Dean, with one final bullet point left to deliver, as the game rested on his right leg. It was a moment that Dean himself had predicted just a few days before.
“I told them we would be down by two and I would get the chance to do this,” he later recalled.
Jad Dean
Tommy Bowden was not nearly as sure, though. Even after five made kicks in a row, the Tigers’ head coach figured the odds would even out.
“I just figured the battle on the odds had run out,” he admitted following the game.
Tommy Bowden
Bowden’s premonition was nearly correct…
As the crowd roared, the snap was delivered. It was not a good one. The ball skidded along the turf just as it arrived to the waiting hands of holder Cole Chason who had but a fleeting moment to react. The sure-handed Chason snatched the ball off the grass, spun it upright, and put down the hold nearly simultaneous to the arrival of Dean’s foot. The final kick of Jad Dean’s day was the scariest, but the result was no different. Right down the middle.
Class dismissed.
It was pure pandemonium…
If the fans who packed Death Valley had been loud and crazy that afternoon, in that moment they were completely outside their minds. The stands shook, swayed, and bent beneath the strain of 82,000 pairs of feet and raucous adulation. Again, Clemson had never turned away from playing the best teams. Texas A&M was just another nationally ranked giant that fell at the paws of the Tigers. In many ways it was a game that gave a glimpse into the future. Davis rushed 19 times for 101 yards. Thunder rolled, but it was Dean’s day. The six field goals made by Jad on September 3rd, 2005 were a new Clemson record. It is a record that still stands over 18 years later.
The final score was Clemson 25, Texas A&M 24, and Jad Dean 18. His final three points would forever ensure that this game would be one of the greatest ever played at Memorial Stadium and that Jad Dean would forever have a piece of Clemson football immortality.
