The Notre Dame Fighting Irish made a dramatic return to the top of the college football world with a 47-40 double-overtime win over Clemson on Saturday night at Notre Dame Stadium in South Bend, Indiana.
The Irish defense was able to clinch the victory by harassing Clemson freshman quarterback D.J. Uaigalelei into an incomplete pass on 4th-and-long, igniting a passionate rush field by the Notre Dame students for a party immediately criticized on social media for not being social-distancing friendly in the midst of a COVID-19 pandemic.
Kyren Williams had the final score of the game with a three-yard touchdown run in the second overtime. The win for Notre Dame was the first for the Fighting Irish since the Lou Holtz era, when Notre Dame beat Florida State in 1993. Clemson had a 36-game regular season winning streak snapped, adding to a historic loss of streak-busters in South Bend that includes Notre Dame’s 1988 win over Miami in the famed “Catholics vs. Convicts” game, and a shutout of Oklahoma in 1957 that ended OU’s 47-game streak under coach Bud Wilkinson.
Notre Dame, playing in the Atlantic Coast Conference in 2020 as a result of the pandemic, improves to 7-0 overall and 6-0 in the ACC, dropping Clemson to 7-1 overall and 6-1 in league play.
In the other major Top-25 showdown on Saturday afternoon, the Florida Gators took down the Georgia Bulldogs in Jacksonville, Florida 44-28. The 8th-ranked Gators ended a three-game losing streak in the rivalry series known as “The World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party” behind a four-touchdown game from quarterback Kyle Trask. The win gives UF a stranglehold in the race for the SEC East title, improving Florida to 4-1. Trask threw for 474 yards in throwing himself into the Heisman Trophy conversation at the season’s midway point.
The loss was damaging for the injury-riddled Bulldogs, dropping Kirby Smart’s team to 4-2, with losses to SEC powers Alabama and Florida, the odds-on favorites to meet in the conference’s championship game next month in Atlanta.
The weekend results had major effects on the Associated Press Top 25 poll, released Sunday morning. Alabama surged to #1 for the first time in 2020, while Notre Dame moved up two slots to No. 2. Ohio State stayed at #3, with Clemson sliding to #4.
Texas A&M moved up two spots to #5, followed by Florida, moving up two spots to #6. The loss to the Gators dropped Georgia down to #13 ahead of the Bulldogs trip to Missouri to take on the Tigers this Saturday morning, November 15th at 11 o’clock.
BYU, coming off a statement win on Friday night at Boise State, moves up to #8, followed by Miami and Indiana. The Hoosiers Top 10 ranking is IU’s first since 1969. Indiana beat Michigan on Saturday, the Hoosiers first win over the Wolverines since 1987.
Photo credit – Tysto / WikiMedia Commons / South Bend, IN
