The 11th-ranked Clemson Tigers will host No. 6 Notre Dame on Saturday in Death Valley. This will be just the third meeting all-time between these traditional college football powers. Notre Dame won the first meeting in 1977, while the Tigers avenged that loss with a victory over the Irish at South Bend in 1979. That was the last meeting between the two.
Here are some key numbers to watch for when you head to the game or watch it on television on Saturday night.
4: Number of touchbacks Clemson has registered this season in 21 kickoffs. This number is tied for 108th in the country, and calculating touchback percentage paints an even more dismal picture. At 19.1 percent, Clemson’s touchback rate is tied for 111th in the nation. Only California, Washington State, and and Oregon State—all Pac-12 schools—rank below the Tigers among Power 5 schools. It is within this context that Ammon Lakip will make his grand return to the Clemson lineup. Lakip was deposed by Greg Heugel as the starting placekicker while serving a three-game suspension, but he might be able to help this team by kicking the ball out of the end zone. Clemson ranks 121st in the country in kick coverage, averaging 28.1 yards per return, so touchbacks may be the best remedy for what ails the Tigers at the present time.
8.3: Punts per game for Clemson’s opponents this season. The Tigers led the country by forcing 8.1 punts per contest in 2014, and they appear to be well on their way to doing the same here in 2015. Other teams are ahead of Clemson in the standings in this category, but Dabo Swinney’s program has been a model of consistency in this area. Both Notre Dame and Clemson have broken even in the turnover battle so far, so this game could come down to which squad forces more punts. To its credit, the Fighting Irish have forced seven per game, but the Tigers have excelled at getting off the field on third down. Clemson has allowed its opposition to convert a nation-low nine times in third down situations for a conversion rate of 19.6 percent, which is fourth-best in the country. Notre Dame is inside the top 20 in that department, but the Tigers have been elite in that area once again.
14: Plays of 20 or more yards executed by Clemson in 2015. That comes out to an average of 4.7 such plays per game, which seems like a low number in the first season of the Tony Elliott-Jeff Scott regime on offense. However, a closer examination reveals that last year’s team had 59 plays of at least 20 yards—an average of 4.5 per game. In other words, a Tiger attack that feels as if it is sputtering in the early going of the season is actually producing chunk plays at a similar rate to last year’s unit. The schedule has been light in comparison, but given the uptick in offensive production that seems likely to come at some point, this is an encouraging statistic for fans.
452: Number of games played by both Notre Dame and Clemson since they met in 1977. The Fighting Irish will bring a name brand associated with college football royalty into Death Valley on Saturday, and having the best winning percentage in college football history speaks for itself. However, since that meeting in 1977—as Will outlined earlier this week—the Tigers have enjoyed a slightly higher level of success. Clemson leads in terms of win percentage, ten-win seasons, ranked seasons, and bowl appearances and wins. Travis Blanks said on Tuesday that he didn’t feel Clemson should take a back seat to anyone, and his comments are reflective of four decades of achieving like a peer of Notre Dame’s instead of an underling.