Clemson must reverse history to make history if the Tigers are to roll to victory over the Alabama Crimson Tide and claim the program's second national title in the Arizona desert.
After being carried off the field of Miami's Orange Bowl Stadium in the waning hours of New Year's Day 1982, Clemson head football coach Danny Ford, the youngest in the nation at just thirty-three years old, evinced considerable relief alongside extreme euphoria as NBC's Jim Brodie pulled him aside amidst the celebratory tumult of the Tigers' locker room and asked him to reflect on the game and its import.