Notre Dame: Winning Rematches Is Hard Business
Notre Dame is about to find out one of the most difficult aspects of being in a conference, and that is the potential to have to play - and beat - a team twice in the same season.
Beating Clemson once was certainly an accomplishment, and a difficult task. Beating Clemson a second time is going to be even harder, and not just because the Tigers are getting back quarterback Trevor Lawrence and multiple defensive starters.
Not only does Clemson get back its best players, it now has first-experience of what it's like to play Notre Dame. It has a better read on Notre Dame's speed, its physicality and its tendencies. Notre Dame will have less of a read on the Tigers due to Clemson getting multiple star players back.
It's certainly doable, but it will be even more challenging than your typical rematch.
Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly talked about the challenge of rematches in the video above, and it's something he has experience with.
Back in 2001, Kelly and his Grand Valley State team beat Saginaw Valley State 38-7 in the regular season, but the two teams squared off again in the second round of the NCAA playoffs.
Grand Valley State had 669 yards of offense in the first game but was held to just 382 in the second matchup. The Lakers went onto to be the national runners up that season.
Two years later in 2003, Saginaw Valley State beat Grand Valley State 34-20 in the regular season. Once again, the Lakers and Cardinals met up in the second round of the playoffs, and this time the Lakers won, beating Saginaw by a 10-3 score. Kelly ended that season with his second national championship.
In both instances the second matchup was much, much closer than the first. For Notre Dame and Clemson, the first game went into overtime, so it's hard to get much closer.
While this is Notre Dame's first same-season rematch since 1997, we've seen this story play out quite often in the last decade plus since Kelly has been at Notre Dame, to mixed results.
2010
#8 Nebraska beat Washington 56-21 early in the season, but the Huskies won the rematch in the Holiday Bowl, besting the Cornhuskers 19-7
#17 Auburn beat #12 South Carolina 35-27 in the regular season and against in the SEC title game, winning the second game 56-17.
2011
The 13th ranked Clemson Tigers beat #11 Virginia Tech 23-3 in the regular season and again beat the Hokies in the ACC title game by a 38-10 score. The Tigers also had a rematch in 2009, but they lost both games to Georgia Tech.
That means the last two times there was a rematch in the ACC the team that won the regular season game also won the title game.
#15 Michigan State beat #4 Wisconsin 37-31 in regular season, but the Badgers won the Big Ten Championship game rematch by a 42-39 score.
While not in a conference title game rematch, #1 LSU beat #2 Alabama on the road by a 9-6 margin in overtime during the regular season. Alabama dominated the rematch, winning 21-0 in the national championship game.
2012
The Badgers were once again involved in a rematch in 2012, with similar results. Wisconsin lost to #22 Nebraska in the regular season (30-27), but dominated the Cornhuskers in the title game rematch by a 70-31 score.
That same season, Stanford beat UCLA twice, winning 35-17 in the regular season game and by just a 27-24 score in the title game rematch.
2013
The Cardinal again had a title game rematch in 2013. After beating #23 Arizona State in the regular season (42-28) the 7th-ranked Stanford squad beat the then 11th-ranked Sun Devils 38-14 in the Pac 12 title game.
2014
In a Pac 12 team of rematches, the #2 Oregon Ducks lost to an unranked Arizona squad 31-24 at home in the regular season. Arizona climbed up to #8 by the time the rematch occurred in the title game, but this time Oregon dominated, winning 51-13.
2015
Stanford twice beat USC. The Cardinal beat USC 41-31 in the regular season and by a 41-22 score in the Pac 12 title game.
2017
USC got payback against Stanford with a sweep in the 2017 season. The #6 Trojans beat the #14 Cardinal by a 42-24 score in the regular season. USC ranked #10 when it beat #12 Stanford 31-28 in the title game rematch.
In the first of three straight seasons where it had to win a rematch to win the Big 12 title, the Oklahoma Sooners beat TCU by a 38-20 score in the regular season. Oklahoma also beat TCU in the Big 12 title game, winning the battle of Top 10 teams 41-17.
#1 Georgia dropped its first game of the 2017 season when it got thumped on the road by #10 Auburn, losing 40-17. The #6 Bulldogs got payback in the SEC title game, beat the #4 Tigers by a convincing 28-7 margin. That win vaulted Georgia into the College Football Playoff.
2018
Washington was ranked 10th both times it played - and defeated - Utah. The Huskies won 21-7 in the regular season and by a 10-3 score in the title game.
#19 Texas upset the #7 Oklahoma squad in the Red River Rivalry game, but the Sooners got redemption in the Big 12 title game with a 39-27 victory.
2019
#3 Ohio State defeated #13 Wisconsin by a 38-7 score in the regular season. The #2 Buckeyes beat the #8 Badgers 34-21 in the championship game, but OSU had to rally back from a 21-7 halftime deficit to get the win.
The 10th-ranked Sooners beat the 13th-ranked Baylor Bears 34-31 in the regular season, and OU won the rematch 30-23 in overtime. Both games were competitive and both games were won by the same team.
There have been 16 conference title game rematches in the time Kelly has been at Notre Dame. Ten times the team that won in the regular season also won the title game, and six times the team that lost the regular season game won the rematch.
What makes this unique, however, is that this will be the first time that both teams were ranked in the Top 5 at the time of both games being played. The only time a rematch between Top 5 teams has taken place was 2011, when Alabama lost to LSU in the regular season but beat the Tigers for the national championship in the rematch.
The last time Notre Dame had to play a team twice was the 1997 season. During the regular season the Irish went on the road and beat #11 LSU 24-6. The Tigers got redemption in the rematch, beating the Irish 27-9 in the Independence Bowl.
To comment below be sure to sign up for a FREE Disqus account, which you can get HERE.
———————
Become a premium Irish Breakdown member, which grants you access to all of our premium content, our premium message board and gets you a FREE subscription to Sports Illustrated! Click on the link below for more
Be sure to stay locked into Irish Breakdown all the time!
Join the Irish Breakdown community!
Subscribe to the Irish Breakdown podcast on iTunes.
Subscribe to the Irish Breakdown YouTube channel.
Follow me on Twitter: @CoachD178
Follow me on Parler: @BryanDriskell
Like and follow Irish Breakdown on Facebook
