Dungy Says Lawrence Would Not Have Mattered in Loss to Notre Dame

Former NFL head coach and current NBC commentator Tony Dungy says that with all the players Clemson had missing on defense, having Trevor Lawrence wouldn't have mattered in the Tigers loss to Notre Dame.

The next man up mentality that Clemson has long prided itself on was put to the test like never before on Saturday night in South Bend. 

The Tigers went into the game missing several key players on both sides of the ball, including starting quarterback Trevor Lawrence, and then had several more go down with injuries during the contest. Despite all that, Clemson still almost came away with a win, but fell just short, losing 47-40 in double overtime to Notre Dame. 

Much of the attention focused on the absence of Lawrence. Former NFL head coach and current NBC analyst Tony Dungy, who helped call the game, says he thinks freshman D.J. Uiagalelei played well enough to win and that having Lawrence wouldn't have made any difference for the Tigers. 

“I don’t think that was really the issue," Dungy said on ESPN’s Keyshawn, JWill and Zubin. "Clemson could have done maybe a few more things with Trevor Lawrence, but D.J. Uiagalelei played great football. And the problem for Clemson was on the other side."

The Tigers were already without defensive starters Tyler Davis, James Skalski, and Mike Jones Jr. On top of that they lost Lannden Zanders, Nolan Turner, and Andrew Booth Jr. Bryan Bresee also went down late. At some point it becomes too much to overcome and Dungy says he thinks that's exactly what happened.

"They were missing three starters in their defensive front seven," Dungy said. "It really hurt them. And then both of their safeties went out as the game went on. They were missing five guys and they really had no answers for that Notre Dame offense." 

Dungy says coming in both teams knew what they needed to do to win, and that in the end, it was the Fighting Irish who were able to execute the best.

"We talked about it before the game with each coach," Dungy said. "They both said, ‘we’ve got to exert our will.’ For Notre Dame, it was pressure defense and pounding running game. For Clemson it was quick strikes, make it fast-paced. It just went back and forth. It was like a heavyweight fight and it was great to be there.”

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