Saturday night in Charlotte, the Clemson Tigers and the North Carolina Tar Heels will play one of the two biggest games in the history of their ACC series.
A thorough survey of the history of Tigers-Heels reveals only one other mountaintop moment the two schools shared on the gridiron. That it occurred 34 years ago shows how long these programs once wandered in the wilderness, but it also shows how relentlessly excellent their coaches have been in 2015.
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The year was 1981. The quarterbacks were Homer Jordan and Scott Stankavage. Clemson was ranked No. 2, North Carolina No. 8. North Carolina was the lower-ranked team because it lost to South Carolina while scoring only 13 points against the Gamecocks.
Two teams met on the summit for the ACC championship and a spot in a New Year’s Day bowl.
Hmmmm… sound familiar?
On that day — November 7, 1981 — Clemson and North Carolina engaged in a rock fight. The Tigers won, 10-8, when Stankavage threw a lateral on an attempted swing pass in the final 75 seconds of regulation. Clemson recovered the lateral, and a UNC drive — 25 yards short of field goal range — abruptly ended.
This year, over a third of a century later, you’re not going to see a 10-8 game. The Vegas total for this game is in the area of 67 points. One quarterback — Deshaun Watson of Clemson — is certain to be a Heisman Trophy finalist a week from now. The other — Marquise Williams of North Carolina — owns a skill set which greatly exceeds what Stankavage brought to the table. Points should be plentiful, shaping Tigers-Heels as a new-age shootout more than an old-school, bare-knuckle brawl from a time in college football when running backs, defenses, and field position held sway.
The sport, in 1981, was still your grandfather’s version of college pigskin. While offenses have not dominated in college football the way they did in 2013 or 2014, they dictate matchups and decisions in ways 1981’s coaches — Danny Ford of Clemson and Dick Crum of UNC — never could have dreamed of. In terms of the style of play, 2015 will be very different from the other supreme Clemson-Carolina clash in the series’ history, which has involved continuous ACC play since 1957 (with nearly annual meetings) but stretches back to 1903.
The other details about Clemson-UNC? They’re strikingly similar.
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If 1981 pitted the No. 2 Tigers against the No. 8 Tar Heels, this year’s game matches No. 1 Clemson against No. 10 North Carolina. The Tar Heels are the lower-ranked team in the matchup because they lost to South Carolina. Again, as in 1981, North Carolina scored 13 points in its loss to the Gamecocks. You can’t make this stuff up. As mentioned above, UNC lost its last best chance to beat Clemson in 1981 because of a very preventable turnover. A swing pass which should have been thrown forward was instead thrown backward. An incomplete pass would have given North Carolina at least one more bite at the apple, and very possibly three or more, to move the ball into field goal range from the Tar Heels’ 40-yard line.
This Saturday, the need to avoid turnovers is — without question — the central tension point of this game. Sure, on one level, it goes without saying that turnovers are the most important element of any football game. However, with North Carolina and Williams, the centrality of this topic simply cannot be overstated. When Williams bombed against South Carolina, the Tar Heels couldn’t overcome their signal caller’s worst performance of the season. When Williams lost the plot in the fourth quarter against Virginia Tech, what had been a comfortable lead turned into an overtime game the Tar Heels had to sweat out before ultimately prevailing by an eyelash.
If Williams is right, North Carolina has a great chance to pull the upset. If he’s wrong, Clemson will win big. If Williams is REALLY WRONG — as in “Georgia Tech will win the ACC in 2015” wrong, the way I was this past season — we could see a second straight year with a 59-0 conference championship result in prime time, following Ohio State’s skunking of Wisconsin in 2014.
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Beyond the battle for the College Football Playoff, this game means a lot simply within the context of the ACC itself. As great as Dabo Swinney has in fact been as Clemson’s head coach, he’s won only one ACC title — in 2011. Getting a second title in a year when Florida State has regressed (read: not had Jameis Winston) is extremely important in the Palmetto State.
North Carolina hasn’t won the ACC since 1980, one year before the first landmark clash involving the Tar Heels and Clemson. North Carolina came close under Mack Brown in 1997, going 11-1, but that “1” came against Florida State in the Seminoles’ heyday under Bobby Bowden. North Carolina has finally regained a position of prominence, with Larry Fedora coaching in his second main-event conference title game; the first one was Southern Mississippi’s upset of Kevin Sumlin and Houston in 2011.
If Clemson wins this game, Dabo Swinney very likely wins the Coach of the Year Award for the 2015 season. If UNC wins this game, Fedora would substantially strengthen his case for being the head coach of the year. He might even steal the award if Kirk Ferentz and Iowa are wiped out by Michigan State in the Big Ten Championship Game.
A Clemson win could keep defensive coordinator Brent Venables in the market for an open head coaching job (though to be honest, that possibility seems very remote at the moment). Filed under “things much more likely to happen if Scenario A occurs,” a North Carolina win might also cement the Broyles Award for defensive coordinator Gene Chizik, a Broyles finalist whose presence in Chapel Hill has done more than anything else to reshape the trajectory of the Tar Heel program.
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Clemson was able to throw a party at the end of the 1981 season, en route to an unbeaten record and a national championship. Over a third of a century later, the Tigers once again meet North Carolina for the ACC title, with the Tar Heels trying to overcome a “13” loss to South Carolina.
So much about college football is different in 2015, relative to 1981. That so much else remains the same is precisely what makes Tigers-Heels so utterly fascinating and fun.
