Instant Reaction | Notre Dame 47 Clemson 40

“Championship DNA” is something that feels fairly new. I don’t know who coined it, but it gets used an awful lot in team sports. In college football, Clemson gets labeled with having it for good reason.

They win championships. They don’t lose games. They recruit 5-stars and are one championship away from being called a dynasty. They are exactly what Notre Dame and every other program wants to be.

They also just got beat.

It happened. It finally happened. Notre Dame finally won a monster one under Brian Kelly. They finally won a monster game for the first time since 1993.

The Irish did it and they did by repeatedly overcoming adversity in the second half. A fumble into the end zone taking away points. Getting a flag picked up that would have given Notre Dame a first down. Having to score a touchdown in a two minute drill to get it to overtime. Then when they got there, giving up a touchdown on the first play of overtime (that was eventually ruled down at the one).

There were so many ways Notre Dame could have lost this game and come oh so close again to beating a juggernaut. This was set up to be Nebraksa in 2000, USC in 2005, and Florida State in 2014 all over again.

But this time it didn’t go down that way. Ian Book wouldn’t let it happen.

The critics have been loud with him this season and some of it has been fair, most of it not. I heard a college football writer say that Ian Book was going to go pro in something other than sports. I bet he wants to reassess that after this game.

This was a career defining game for a guy who has made clutch plays throughout his career, just not against the best teams. He flipped the script tonight and changed the narrative when it comes to how he’ll be talked about the rest of the season and beyond.

- Like Jerry Orbach said in Dirty Dancing, when I’m wrong I say I’m wrong. I was wrong thinking this was going to be a low scoring game.

Brent Venables and Clark Lea might be the two best defensive coordinators in college football. They both had two of the best defenses in college football heading into this game. Clemson averaged 6.1 yards per play. Notre Dame averaged 6.5.

These are two great coaches, but they were outclassed by the offensive coordinators tonight. Tony Elliott called a mostly brilliant game until the final overtime (I’m sure he wants that fake screen call back) and Tommy Rees was phenomenal with his use of formations.

I think many would have predicted that Rees would get schooled by Venables in this game given the difference in experience. It was Rees who won the battle of the minds and this should immediately get him mentioned as one of the top rising coordinators in the game.

- Lea’s plan was to make someone other than Travis Etienne beat them and his defense did a fantastic job of shutting down the best back in the country. Etienne ran 1.6 yards per carry. He caught eight passes for 57 yards, but 22 of those came on one play. They shut him down.

The problem was that Cornell Powell emerged as the guy Clemson had been missing at receiver all season. He is supposed to be the possession guy for the Tigers. He toasted TaRiq Bracy and Nick McCloud in man coverage and had two catches over 50 yards.

- Wow, what a game from DJ Uiagalelei. His decision-making was as impressive as his arm. He’s mature beyond his years.

- Notre Dame couldn’t get enough pressure with four rushers consistently and if they blitzed more, it would leave their corners vulnerable in one on ones like the ones they gave up to Powell. It took awhile, but did the pass rush ever come through in overtime. Sacks don’t get bigger than those two.

- If I told you before the game that Ian Book would throw for 300 yards, Kyren Williams would run for 100, and the team as a whole would run for over 200 against Clemson, how many points would you think Notre Dame would win by?

They did all of that and it took double overtime to get the W.

- Williams didn’t have the second half production, but he got the yards when he needed it and that first run to start the game was massive. The Irish weren’t getting points without big plays and that 65-yard run was critical.

Javon McKinley, Avery Davis, and Michael Mayer all had big plays as well and without those Notre Dame isn’t getting anything.

- Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah is special and special plays are expected from him in games like this. The same goes for Kyle Hamilton. The play of the interior defensive line against the run was outstanding and needs to be praised, though. The play of the inside linebackers, Drew White and Shayne Simon, needs to be as well.

Simon has been getting ripped by fans and media for almost the entire season. He stepped up huge in this game with strong tackling and three total Havoc plays.

- Outside of the fact that Notre Dame won this game, the way I knew this was different and that the Irish were just as good as Clemson was the fact that Elliott had to practically empty the playbook to produce big plays. They couldn’t march down the field with efficiency. They needed to scheme stuff up to create and that’s something you usually see from Clemson against Alabama, not Notre Dame.

I think that says a lot about how they viewed the Irish (and a lot about them missing certain personnel).

- ACC refs...they never get better. I don’t need to rehash every call. They did that already with 40 booth reviews.

- Clemson had been allowing 3rd down conversions only 27.5% of the time before this week. Notre Dame finished 10 of 19 (52.6%). The Tigers were only 4 of 15 on 3rd down.

- We know that if Notre Dame wins out, they are going to see Clemson again in the ACC title game. They’ll probably have many of the players they were missing in this game (although they might have lost a couple after tonight to add to the list).

It’s going to be very difficult to beat them twice.

But as of this moment, all that matters is that Notre Dame won this game. They beat the number one team in the country. There will be a number one and that should be Brian Kelly’s team. They have earned it after this win.

I don’t know if anyone truly believed that Notre Dame had the team that could win it all before this game. They still might not have the roster to do it. We did learn one important thing tonight, though. They have a quarterback who is good enough if he plays like this.

No one would have believed that six hours ago, but here we are.

- I couldn’t be any happier for every Notre Dame fan who has been waiting for a win like this for almost three decades. I couldn’t be any happier for the players and the coaching staff as well.

What. A. Win. What a night. Enjoy it!