Part five of our look back at 10 of the most crazy, exciting, and impactful games played at Death Valley in the last 20 years…
By 2015, Clemson football was beginning to mark their spot on the college football map as a burgeoning elite program. Following the 2014 season, that saw the Tigers finish 10-3 and ranked inside the top 20, generational quarterback Deshaun Watson entered his second season recognized as one of the great talents of the college game. There was still skepticism around the Clemson program, and to earn their place they had to prove they could win the big games. The Tigers passed the first test against Notre Dame earlier in the season, and on November 7th, 2015 welcomed the Florida State Seminoles to Death Valley. Florida State had been a source of torment for Clemson for many years, and to finally beat the Seminoles would cement the Tigers as a true College Football Play-off contender. Led by sensational running back Dalvin Cook, Florida State came into the contest ranked #16. Clemson, undefeated still, was ranked #1 in the country for the first time in decades. What happened next was an epic showdown that left no doubt that the Tigers were indeed among college football’s best teams.
Body blow out of the gate…
Clemson entered the game confident, but Florida State seemed less than impressed in the opening moments of the game. The Seminoles received the ball first, and on the second play from scrimmage, Cook took a handoff right up the middle and raced 75-yards untouched to the endzone. It was an opening salvo that caught Clemson completely off guard and tempered the mood of the overflow crowd assembled at Memorial Stadium. The Tigers were new to the stage, and how they handled the moment would go a long way toward determining the outcome of the contest.
Crisis averted…
Clemson came away empty-handed on their first possession, and when Florida State took the ball back, Cook struck again. This time from the Seminoles’ 22-yard line, the speedster took another hand-off between the tackles, broke through the line, and dashed 39 yards well into Clemson territory. The Tigers averted disaster, and a two-touchdown deficit, by shutting down the drive from there. After a Florida State punt, Watson took over again and led the charge. At the Seminoles’ 43-yard line, Watson fired a dart across the middle to tight end Jordan Leggett for 25 yards down to the 18. The drive led to a Greg Huegel 31-yard field goal to put the Tigers on the board with 1:15 to play in the first quarter. Robert Aguayo connected on a field goal of 23 yards early in the second, but the early Florida State body blows had been countered and the game remained manageable. Clemson would trail only 10-6 going into halftime after Huegel knocked home another field goal, from 25 yards, with under 30 seconds to play in the first half. The Tigers went to the locker room feeling good about where they stood.
First lead…
Clemson started the third period just as Florida State had started the game, with a haymaker right to the Seminoles’ body. Just five minutes into the third, at the Florida State 38, Watson dumbed a screen pass into the hands of Deon Cain, the receiver with sprinter’s speed, and Cain found daylight down the left sideline to paydirt. Death Valley roared to life as the Tigers took their first lead of the ballgame, 13-10, following Huegel’s point after kick. On the ensuing Florida State drive, Seminoles’ quarterback Sean Maguire, playing in place of Jameis Winston, hooked up with Travis Rudolph deep inside Clemson territory, but that drive resulted in only a field goal which preserved the tie. It would turn out to be a big sequence. It would also be the Seminoles’ final points of the game.
Slug it out…
The rest of the third quarter and much of the fourth would be a stalemate with both defenses slugging it out and stopping the other team cold. Neither side could find a way to break through and the game remained tied at 13-13 until the final four minutes as the fans at Death Valley sat on pins and needles, praying for the Tigers to find a way. With an undefeated season and number one ranking on the line, Dabo Swinney, who just weeks earlier had proclaimed his team always brought ‘their own guts,’ implored them to do it one more time. The Tigers would do it twice in the final eight minutes. Huegel banged home his third field goal, a 34-yarder, with 7:23 to play which finally broke the tie once more and gave Clemson a 16-13 lead. But would it be enough?
Heck of a way to end it…
Florida State was more seasoned on the big stage, and it appeared they were primed for the final act and curtain call. On the ensuing drive, Maguire and Cook led the Seminoles to the Clemson 39-yard line. On 4th and 1 everyone knew the Seminoles would not only go for it, but they knew exactly who would get the ball. Cook had been a wrecking ball all afternoon, and as the twilight settled in over Memorial Stadium, it was only a matter of whether the Tigers’ defense could stop him just one time. Maguire took the snap and immediately initiated a toss sweep to the left side into the hands of Cook who turned up field. As he raced for the first down marker, All-ACC defensive tackle Shaq Lawson got a hand on Cook’s shoulder and turned him back inside and right into the waiting arms of linebacker Ben Boulware. Boulware slung Cook to the ground a yard short and had there been a roof over Death Valley, it would have surely blown right off. Clemson took over with good field position and a determination to drop the hammer once and for all.
A period and an exclamation point…
Running back Wayne Gallman had been bottled up by the Florida State defense all game, but it would be Gallman who finally popped the top on the Seminoles’ hopes of an upset. Working inside FSU territory on the 25-yard line, Gallman took a straight handoff on first and 10, found a crease, and was gone. With 2:34 left in the game, Clemson led 23-13 and left the Seminoles reeling in their wake. Florida State took over in desperate straits, but would be snuffed out once and for all by Boulware and B.J. Goodson. A completed pass to Rudolph looked to get FSU into Clemson territory again, but Boulware flew in from the back of the pile and ripped the ball clean from the grasp of Rudolph. Goodson pounced on the loose ball, and with the fumble recovery extinguished the Seminoles’ hopes once and for all. The Tigers simply ran out the clock and as the timer hit zero, the frenzied fans rushed onto the field at Death Valley for one of the most joyous meetings at the paw in recent memory. The win clinched the division championship, and Clemson would go on to win their final three regular season games against Syracuse, Wake Forest, and South Carolina before dispatching North Carolina in the ACC Championship game. Finally, Clemson had reached the upper echelon of college football and were headed to the play-offs with the top ranking in the land and unblemished record. The Tigers had officially arrived.
Looking back…
Passing a big test is never easy. It is not supposed to be. The 2015 Clemson Tigers passed many tests on their way to the national championship game. Ultimately, the Tigers fell just five points short of winning it all, losing to Alabama 45-40 to finish the season 14-1. The 2015 season, however, was merely a trial run. Clemson roared back with a vengeance in 2016, again finishing the regular season 11-1 and winning the ACC championship. The Tigers had now been there before. Utterly obliterating Ohio State 31-0 in the Fiesta Bowl, Clemson finally climbed the mountain that Coach Swinney had set his sights on all those years before. The Tigers passed the final test and won it all. In hindsight, the 2015 game against Florida State at Death Valley was a study guide. Clemson used what they had learned on that November afternoon, one of the greatest games of the past two decades at Death Valley, to take their final steps to the top.
