For Those About To Rock, Death Valley Awaits
September 29, 2021 | Football, #ForBoston Files
Clemson hasn't lost a home game since 2016, but BC is preparing for Memorial Stadium.
The final moments before the start of a Clemson home game offer a theatrical glimpse into one of college football's greatest traditions. The Tigers leave their locker room and exit the stadium entirely in order to board buses while in full uniform to travel to the opposite end of the field. They part a sea of rabid fans until they reach their destination, at which point they exit the buses and enter Memorial Stadium atop The Hill.
There they stand and wait like gladiators entering the Roman Colosseum. Head coach Dabo Swinney leads them, and he - along with the rest of the team - touches and rubs the statuesque Howard's Rock as they soak the wild roars of 80,000 fans blended into a nameless, faceless mob. In an instant, an invisible dam breaks, and the Tigers sprint down the hill as their fans explode. Orange balloons fly high into the South Carolina sky, and pure adrenaline ripples through the stadium.
It is billed as "The Most Exciting 25 Seconds in College Football," and it's the constant harbinger of a dooming loss for an opponent. On Saturday night, it will welcome Boston College, and as the Eagles descend on South Carolina, a streak more than four years long could be in its most serious jeopardy.
"We know it's going to be loud," BC head coach Jeff Hafley said. "I was only there last year with half the stadium full because of COVID, so I hear it's going to be loud. We tried to simulate it for a few periods in practice, and my ears are still ringing. I felt like I was at a concert, my head was spinning, and my ears are still ringing. But we'll do the best we can. There's nothing we can totally do to simulate it, but we'll work on it in a couple of periods, at least."
Clemson's home dominance is well-documented and dates back over a decade to Dabo Swinney's first ACC championship in 2011. The Tigers went undefeated at home that year and beat both Auburn and Florida State in September before scoring at least 35 points against BC, North Carolina and Wake Forest.
It was the last undefeated home schedule for two years until the 2014 season, but going unbeaten at home helped the Tigers tie Florida State for the Atlantic Division crown during a season that ended with a 40-6 win over Oklahoma in the Russell Athletic Bowl. The next year, Clemson went undefeated again as it ascended to the No. 1 overall ranking before losing to Alabama in the College Football Playoff National Championship.
The Tigers won the national championship a year later, but they lost in Death Valley for the first time in 21 games when Pittsburgh earned a surprising, 43-42 upset. It was an unthinkable ending, but it touched off a new streak two weeks later when Clemson beat its SEC rival South Carolina, 56-7.
Clemson only lost two regular season games over the next four years, but the 2017 upset by Syracuse and last year's loss to Notre Dame were both on the road. The Tigers kept winning at home, and they stretched the streak to 30 games this year with wins over both South Carolina State and Georgia Tech. They lost their other two games against Georgia and NC State, but they enter Saturday having not lost at home in 1,785 days.
"They have a good atmosphere and a good fan base," running back Patrick Garwo said. "We just have to go in there and stick together. That's the biggest part when you're away at any venue; you have to stick together. It's only us. We're not expecting a lot of support from our crowd because we're in their territory. So feeding off of our energy, we have to bring energy and we're good at that."
To the surface level, it feels like this BC team is uniquely qualified to handle the noise and atmosphere of playing at Clemson. This year marks the third consecutive season with a road trip to Death Valley, and each year seemingly brought the team closer than the previous iteration. The 2019 team was blown out, 59-7, but was two years removed from dragging the undefeated Tigers into the fourth quarter.Â
In 2020, BC led and controlled game tempo against a small stadium crowd but lost a 28-13 halftime lead when quarterback DJ Uiagalelei engineered 21 second-half points. The Eagles, meanwhile, endured a power outage and failed to post any points, and the No. 3 Tigers rallied for a 34-28 win. Through the first two home games of this season, it remains the second-smallest margin of victory behind only Syracuse's four-point loss in 2018.
"It's the same staff against the same staff," Hafley said, "and there are mistakes we made in that game that if we don't fix, I'm sure they'll exploit. We have to watch [last year] hard and make sure we clean it up. Clearly we need to play better than we did last year. We were up and lost, and we blew a big lead. So we need to play better than we did last year or we won't win there [this year]. We need to play way better and coach better."
Restrictions allowed only a small percentage of fans to attend games at Clemson last year, but even the fraction of the 81,000-seat capacity resulted in over 18,000 attendees. In a season where BC only played three games in front of fans, the number dwarfed the 1,000 people who attended the losses at Virginia Tech and Virginia. This season has crowds back at full capacity, and Saturday is the first time BC is traveling to play a road game in front of a packed house. A sellout crowd watched Clemson beat Georgia Tech, 14-8, in its ACC opener in its last home outing, and the game marked the sixth time in seven games that more than 80,000 people packed into Death Valley (excluding the 2020 season). Each of BC's last two trips, again excluding last year's anomaly, carried at least that many fans, but it still requires intense preparation.
"It's going to be loud with a crazy environment," quarterback Dennis Grosel said. "We know we have to focus on our job even that much more. The huddle gets a little tighter, and your ears get a little more perked up. But it won't change much other than the fact that we have to focus more on getting the playcall [correct with] line checks and execution."
That's why offensive coordinator Frank Cignetti cranked up the tunes in practice this week and why AC/DC could be heard sending the Chestnut Hill Reservoir on a highway to hell. It was TNT, but while the hard rock might not have been the choice of the student-athletes, it ultimately served an educational purpose even though Cignetti clearly took some personal pride in supplying the playlist...even though all of these references are mostly lost on the players.
"I had nothing to do with that playlist," defensive back Brandon Sebastian said with a laugh. "There was that song TNT, 'watch me explode?' That's definitely one of the top ones I wanted to hear because I played the Tony Hawk video game. I'll sing that word for word."
"I can't tell you what decibel it was at because my ears are still ringing," Hafley said. "I don't even know what the decibel scale is, but it was loud. Maybe it was too loud. I'm bringing earplugs to practice [this week]. [Cignetti] was playing straight from his iPhone. There's no way that was our players' music. Every time I clicked over the headset, I could hear him singing in the background."
Boston College and No. 25 Clemson kick off on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. from Memorial Stadium in Clemson, S.C. The game can be seen on national television on the ACC Network with online streaming availble for cable subscribers with access to the channel.
There they stand and wait like gladiators entering the Roman Colosseum. Head coach Dabo Swinney leads them, and he - along with the rest of the team - touches and rubs the statuesque Howard's Rock as they soak the wild roars of 80,000 fans blended into a nameless, faceless mob. In an instant, an invisible dam breaks, and the Tigers sprint down the hill as their fans explode. Orange balloons fly high into the South Carolina sky, and pure adrenaline ripples through the stadium.
It is billed as "The Most Exciting 25 Seconds in College Football," and it's the constant harbinger of a dooming loss for an opponent. On Saturday night, it will welcome Boston College, and as the Eagles descend on South Carolina, a streak more than four years long could be in its most serious jeopardy.
"We know it's going to be loud," BC head coach Jeff Hafley said. "I was only there last year with half the stadium full because of COVID, so I hear it's going to be loud. We tried to simulate it for a few periods in practice, and my ears are still ringing. I felt like I was at a concert, my head was spinning, and my ears are still ringing. But we'll do the best we can. There's nothing we can totally do to simulate it, but we'll work on it in a couple of periods, at least."
Clemson's home dominance is well-documented and dates back over a decade to Dabo Swinney's first ACC championship in 2011. The Tigers went undefeated at home that year and beat both Auburn and Florida State in September before scoring at least 35 points against BC, North Carolina and Wake Forest.
It was the last undefeated home schedule for two years until the 2014 season, but going unbeaten at home helped the Tigers tie Florida State for the Atlantic Division crown during a season that ended with a 40-6 win over Oklahoma in the Russell Athletic Bowl. The next year, Clemson went undefeated again as it ascended to the No. 1 overall ranking before losing to Alabama in the College Football Playoff National Championship.
The Tigers won the national championship a year later, but they lost in Death Valley for the first time in 21 games when Pittsburgh earned a surprising, 43-42 upset. It was an unthinkable ending, but it touched off a new streak two weeks later when Clemson beat its SEC rival South Carolina, 56-7.
Clemson only lost two regular season games over the next four years, but the 2017 upset by Syracuse and last year's loss to Notre Dame were both on the road. The Tigers kept winning at home, and they stretched the streak to 30 games this year with wins over both South Carolina State and Georgia Tech. They lost their other two games against Georgia and NC State, but they enter Saturday having not lost at home in 1,785 days.
"They have a good atmosphere and a good fan base," running back Patrick Garwo said. "We just have to go in there and stick together. That's the biggest part when you're away at any venue; you have to stick together. It's only us. We're not expecting a lot of support from our crowd because we're in their territory. So feeding off of our energy, we have to bring energy and we're good at that."
To the surface level, it feels like this BC team is uniquely qualified to handle the noise and atmosphere of playing at Clemson. This year marks the third consecutive season with a road trip to Death Valley, and each year seemingly brought the team closer than the previous iteration. The 2019 team was blown out, 59-7, but was two years removed from dragging the undefeated Tigers into the fourth quarter.Â
In 2020, BC led and controlled game tempo against a small stadium crowd but lost a 28-13 halftime lead when quarterback DJ Uiagalelei engineered 21 second-half points. The Eagles, meanwhile, endured a power outage and failed to post any points, and the No. 3 Tigers rallied for a 34-28 win. Through the first two home games of this season, it remains the second-smallest margin of victory behind only Syracuse's four-point loss in 2018.
"It's the same staff against the same staff," Hafley said, "and there are mistakes we made in that game that if we don't fix, I'm sure they'll exploit. We have to watch [last year] hard and make sure we clean it up. Clearly we need to play better than we did last year. We were up and lost, and we blew a big lead. So we need to play better than we did last year or we won't win there [this year]. We need to play way better and coach better."
Restrictions allowed only a small percentage of fans to attend games at Clemson last year, but even the fraction of the 81,000-seat capacity resulted in over 18,000 attendees. In a season where BC only played three games in front of fans, the number dwarfed the 1,000 people who attended the losses at Virginia Tech and Virginia. This season has crowds back at full capacity, and Saturday is the first time BC is traveling to play a road game in front of a packed house. A sellout crowd watched Clemson beat Georgia Tech, 14-8, in its ACC opener in its last home outing, and the game marked the sixth time in seven games that more than 80,000 people packed into Death Valley (excluding the 2020 season). Each of BC's last two trips, again excluding last year's anomaly, carried at least that many fans, but it still requires intense preparation.
"It's going to be loud with a crazy environment," quarterback Dennis Grosel said. "We know we have to focus on our job even that much more. The huddle gets a little tighter, and your ears get a little more perked up. But it won't change much other than the fact that we have to focus more on getting the playcall [correct with] line checks and execution."
That's why offensive coordinator Frank Cignetti cranked up the tunes in practice this week and why AC/DC could be heard sending the Chestnut Hill Reservoir on a highway to hell. It was TNT, but while the hard rock might not have been the choice of the student-athletes, it ultimately served an educational purpose even though Cignetti clearly took some personal pride in supplying the playlist...even though all of these references are mostly lost on the players.
"I had nothing to do with that playlist," defensive back Brandon Sebastian said with a laugh. "There was that song TNT, 'watch me explode?' That's definitely one of the top ones I wanted to hear because I played the Tony Hawk video game. I'll sing that word for word."
"I can't tell you what decibel it was at because my ears are still ringing," Hafley said. "I don't even know what the decibel scale is, but it was loud. Maybe it was too loud. I'm bringing earplugs to practice [this week]. [Cignetti] was playing straight from his iPhone. There's no way that was our players' music. Every time I clicked over the headset, I could hear him singing in the background."
Boston College and No. 25 Clemson kick off on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. from Memorial Stadium in Clemson, S.C. The game can be seen on national television on the ACC Network with online streaming availble for cable subscribers with access to the channel.
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