Clemson vs Miami: Setting the Scene for a Classic Game
Part three of our look back at 10 of the most crazy, exciting, and impactful games played at Death Valley in the last 20 years…
Sometimes the best plans fail to reach fruition. Sometimes the best effort is not quite enough. Some moments in time that you attempt to capture slip just out of reach. Shooting stars sometimes fall. For the #20 ranked Clemson Tigers, their game against the #13 Miami Hurricanes at Memorial Stadium on September 17th, 2005 must have felt like all those thoughts and emotions rolled into one big ball of disappointment after the final down was played. Sports are a fickle thing. No matter how much we want our favorite team to win, as the saying goes, anything can happen on any given Saturday. The Clemson Tigers’ match-up with the Hurricanes, on that day, is still talked about inside Clemson circles to this day. Regardless of the final score, and how the game arrived there, it is still remembered as one of the wildest, oft-remembered, and above all, loudest games ever played at Death Valley.
Coach Bowden made a plea…
Several days prior to the game, at his mid-week press conference, head coach Tommy Bowden implored Clemson fans to show up and be as loud as they had ever been. Nobody needed reminding how big this game was. Clemson was two weeks removed from upsetting Texas A&M in their home opener, and following a close 28-24 win at Maryland the next week, stared down the fabled Hurricanes program of the early and mid-2000s in what already promised to be a raucous atmosphere. Tiger fans were already going to show up and show out. Bowden’s plea was mere semantics. Miami entered the game 0-1 following a season-opening 10-7 loss to Florida State. In the era of BCS rankings, their season hung in the balance. It was a win or bust.
An early defensive affair…
It appeared as if the game might be one decided by the defense in the early going. The Hurricanes’ unit stymied the Tigers in the game’s first 15 minutes, and the ‘Canes drew first blood on a 37-yard Jon Peattie field goal with 26 seconds to play in the first quarter. The lead, and Miami’s momentum, would not last long. Clemson found a crack in the façade of the Hurricanes’ armor and went to work behind quarterback Charlie Whitehurst. With the running game locked down, Whitehurst took to the air in the second quarter with success.
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Air it out…
The Tigers struck back just 46 seconds into the second period. Whitehurst guided Clemson down the field quickly before finding Cole Downer in the end-zone for an eight-yard score. Following two defensive stands, the Tigers added to their lead on a Jad Dean field goal of 34 yards, again set up by Whitehurst’s passing proficiency. Miami, though, would dig into the deficit just before the half. Peattie connected on his second field goal in as many tries, again from 37 yards, to make it a 10-6 ballgame in favor of the Tigers, a margin that would carry into the halftime locker room.
Category 5 trouble…
What offense Clemson could muster in the first half was through the air, not necessarily the Tigers’ bread and butter. The run game fared no better in the second half, as James Davis could find precious little running room against a stout Miami defensive front. Meanwhile, the Hurricanes made themselves right at home on the ground and it spelled big trouble for Clemson. Miami running back Tyrone Moss chewed up yards and clock, setting the Hurricanes up deep into Tiger territory, before quarterback Kyle Wright found his dependable receiver Quadtrine Hill for a touchdown pass of eight yards with 4:25 to play in the third. That touchdown also gave Miami a 13-10 lead which they would carry into the fourth. The Hurricanes took possession again in the waning moments of the third, and less than a minute into the final quarter, Moss scored his first touchdown of the game on a one-yard run to up the Miami advantage to 20-10. Unfortunately for Clemson, it would not be Moss’ final score of the afternoon.
Here come the Tigers…and the crowd…
Bowden had urged the Clemson faithful to be loud. With their backs to the wall, the fans at Death Valley roared to life to will the Tigers back into the fray. Clemson responded with a furious rally. With under three minutes to play and still trailing by 10, Whitehurst constructed another good drive inside the Miami 10. This time, Charlie would take it himself, powering in from one yard out. Dean’s kick was true and the Miami lead was cut down to 20-17. With only 2:58 remaining on the clock, the Tigers were in the precarious position of having to force a three-and-out on defense. They did just that, giving Whitehurst and the offense one final chance to either win in regulation or send the game to overtime. For a fleeting moment, it looked as if Clemson might stun the college football world again. Chansi Stuckey slipped his defender and was wide open in the back of the end-zone, but Whitehurst airmailed the throw. The drive stalled, but far enough into Miami territory for Dean. In the Texas A&M game two weeks before, Dean’s kick in the final seconds secured the Tigers’ victory. This time, with 15 seconds on the clock, it kept the Clemson’s hopes alive. Splitting the pipes from 27 yards out with 15 seconds to play, the game was headed to overtime and a finish nobody would ever forget.
How loud can they get…
The frenzy of noise that descended upon Memorial Stadium in overtime needs some perspective. Both teams traded touchdowns in the first extra stanza. Miami took over on offense first and Moss punched in his second score from six yards. Clemson responded with Whitehurst connecting with Curtis Baham from five yards to even the score at 27-27. And then things went nuts. The Clemson offense managed just three yards on the first possession of overtime number two. Again, Jad Dean found his touch. A 39-yard field goal gave Clemson their first lead since the third period, 30-27. As Miami took over, so did the frenzied sea of orange-clad humanity. Again, perspective. A fully throttled engine on a Boeing 747 produces 140 decibels of noise from 100 feet away. In that moment when Miami took the ball in the second overtime, the Tiger faithful were so loud that a decibel meter inside Death Valley spiked at 132.8. For about a minute, Death Valley was as loud as a jet engine from point blank range. Those who were there have since described their ears ringing and the stadium physically shaking.
Just not meant to be…
Despite their best effort, it would not be Clemson’s day. After a Clemson sack, at the crescendo of the crowd’s onslaught, Peattie knocked home the tying field goal. Overtime number three saw a 30-30 game still hanging in the balance until Moss struck again, scoring on the first play of the third overtime on a 25-yard run. The Tigers had another shot, especially after the Hurricanes’ mandated two-point conversion attempt failed, but Whitehurst was intercepted to end one of the most excitingly insane games in Memorial Stadium history. Disappointed was probably an understatement, but Bowden praised his team in the aftermath.
“There’s no quit in them,” he said of his Tigers.
Tommy Bowden
Football is a funny game…
In the sense that one game, one play, can make or break a team’s fortunes, the meeting between the Tigers and Hurricanes on September 17th, 2005 was a crusher for Clemson. The Tigers would lose their next two games to Wake Forest and Boston College and fall to 2-3 on the season. Clemson would rebound, winning six of their last seven contests including a bowl victory over Colorado to finish the season at 8-4. But what could have been? In an alternate reality, one where the Tigers defeat the Hurricanes, perhaps the momentum would have carried the day against the Deamon Deacons and Eagles. Maybe Clemson would have danced with an undefeated season. It is easy to look back 18 years later and speculate on what could have happened.
What did happen, however, was a game that will be forever etched in the minds of Clemson fans who were there, possibly suffered hearing damage, and who endured the heartbreak of that day. Winning is always fun, but losing comes with the territory, too. The Tigers would have their day many times in the years to come, but on that September afternoon a memorable game belonged to Miami.
