CHARLOTTE, N.C. - After a heartbreaking 47-40 double-overtime loss to Notre Dame last month, Clemson football coach Dabo Swinney assured his players in the locker room that there would be no trophy handed out that night.
There would, however, be one up for grabs when they got to Charlotte for the Atlantic Coast Conference championship game.
The Tigers haven't blinked since, staying focused on their goal. On Saturday, they collected the hardware - again.
Trevor Lawrence totaled 412 yards of offense and three touchdowns, and Travis Etienne ran for 124 yards and a score as Clemson dominated Notre Dame 34-10 on Saturday to win its sixth straight ACC title.
"All we had to do was take care of business after that," Lawrence said about the road loss to the Fighting Irish. "We remember fans running off the field and getting in our face. You remember those images and keep those things in your head."
Lawrence, who didn't play that night in South Bend, Indiana, for reasons related to the coronavirus, threw long touchdown passes to Amari Rodgers and E.J Williams in the first half Saturday to help the Tigers (10-1) lock up a spot in the College Football Playoff for the sixth straight season. Clemson was No. 3 in the most recent CFP rankings, with the Fighting Irish (10-1) second.
Lawrence, the ACC title game MVP and presumptive No. 1 pick in next year's NFL draft, overcame an early interception on a tipped ball to complete 25 of 36 passes for 322 yards. He ran 14 times for 90 yards, including a 34-yard touchdown scamper.
"His ability to run really stresses your coverage calls," Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly said. "So what you try to do is bring some pressures that eliminate those runs. It just opens up some 1-on-1 matchups that are not favorable."
The junior quarterback did it all, even throwing a block to spring Etienne for a 15-yard gain on a third-down run late in the second quarter, leading to a touchdown and a 24-3 halftime lead.
Clemson has won all nine games Lawrence has started this season by at least 18 points, and the Tigers' average margin of victory in those games is 33.6 points. Swinney called Lawrence the best player in the country.
"It would be a crying shame if the Heisman didn't attach their name to Trevor Lawrence," Swinney said of college football's highest individual honor. "I know that has become a stat award, but if you watch and you don't know this is the best player in the country, I don't what you're looking at."
Rodgers had eight catches for 121 yards, and Williams added four for 80 yards, including a dynamic one-handed grab on which he reached behind his head to snag the ball.
The momentum changed late in the first quarter when Notre Dame kicker Jonathan Doerer, who made an ACC title-game record 51-yard field goal on the game's opening drive, clanked a 21-yard attempt off the right upright.
The Tigers quickly capitalized when Rodgers got cornerback Shaun Crawford to bite on a double move, then hauled in a perfectly thrown pass from Lawrence for a 67-yard touchdown, the first of four straight scoring drives to close the first half.
After Clemson stopped Notre Dame on a key fourth-and-3, Lawrence moved the Tigers 72 yards in six plays, showing his pocket awareness by stepping up to avoid pressure and buy enough time to find Williams on a crossing route for a 33-yard score and a 14-3 lead - Notre Dame's largest deficit of the season.
Etienne broke the game open when he took a handoff, slipped an ankle tackle and raced 44 yards for a touchdown on fourth-and-1 for the 24-3 lead with 21 seconds left in the first half.
"We let the second quarter get away from us," Kelly said, "and that was the difference in the game."
Clemson's depleted defense allowed Notre Dame to pile up 518 yards in the previous meeting, but the Tigers limited the Irish to 263 yards Saturday and sacked Ian Book six times. The senior quarterback spent most of the game under duress, regularly flushed from the pocket.
The return of linebacker James Skalski and defensive tackle Tyler Davis, who both missed the first game, proved to be a major difference for Clemson this time around.
Clemson's secondary put the clamps on Notre Dame's wide receivers, and running back Kyren Williams was limited to 49 rushing yards after finishing with 140 yards on the ground and three touchdowns in the regular-season meeting. Book was held to 219 passing yards and no touchdowns this time.
"There were new looks for sure, in the secondary as well as up front," Book said. "But that was expected and it was on us to adjust, just be able to adjust on the fly. And we weren't able to do that tonight."
No two-loss team had ever qualified for the College Football Playoff, so it was imperative the Tigers won to get a spot - and that's exactly what they did.
Said Lawrence: "We are trending in the right direction and we are playing our best football."
Kelly made his case for Notre Dame's inclusion in the playoff field.
"We played 11 games. We've beaten two top-15 teams," the coach said. "We obviously lost to the No. 3-ranked team in the country tonight. It wasn't our best effort. But consistency, when you play 11 games, and you have a win over the No. 1 team in the country, and then you win against an outstanding North Carolina team, I don't know that you need to look any further than that."