I have only one bad memory of a Clemson football game. EVER.

Once upon a time (one and a half score and one years ago) Danny Ford and the Clemson Tigers played FSU at home in a football game. It was September 18, 1988 and it was a packed stadium on a cloudy and wet day. We played a 10th ranked FSU that day in Death Valley. It was the first EVER matchup between two top-10 teams in Death Valley. If Game Day existed back then, it would have been there in Clemson that day. Brent Musberger was calling the game. At the end of the game we were tied at 21 each. It was 4th and 4 with 90 seconds left in the game. FSU had the ball deep in their own territory. This looked like a win for sure that day as we would be getting the ball back. They were punting to us from their own 20-something yardline. A fake seemed like suicide from that position on the field. They were at the 20 closest to me and The Hill, RIGHT in front of me. I was sitting in section M, Row GG, at the opposite end of the field looking south as the teams lined up for the punt. We were ALL screaming at the top of our lungs hoping for a block. We had the momentum at that point. They snapped the ball. The punter jumped high in the air as if it was a high snap. You could hear the crowd scream kick up a notch as they all saw the tell-tale signs of a high snap. But through my binoculars, I COULD NOT see the ball. It was a FAKE! So I took down the binoculars so I could see the whole field.

What I saw I could not comprehend. There was an FSU player running down the field, all by himself. His name was Leroy Butler. He had the ball (somehow) and was cruising for the endzone at the base of what is today the WEZ. Screams of joy from an apparent high snap turned to screams of agony watching him run the entire field, unmolested, and was finally knocked out of bounds at the 4 yard line, on the opposite end of the field from me. They went on to win with a field goal.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nj5cehezmvQ

To this day I have very visceral and real scars from witnessing that play. It was later outlawed. But that day in Death Valley, Bobby Bowden cemented a legacy with one of the most infamous trick plays ever pulled off in a college football game. And we were the recipient of the loss. And that makes every Rod Gardner catch, Jerry Butler's catch, and Hunter Renfrow's catch that much sweeter. That makes 4th and 16 a program-changing play. It makes you appreciate every win, even against Furman or Long Beach State. And it makes you appreciate NEVER celebrating a Clemson victory over FSU until the final whistle blows. To this day I still REFUSE to believe we will beat FSU until I hear that final whistle. No matter the score. It's just instinct burned in my soul from watching the puntrooskie. Respect every play until there is absolutely zero mathematical chance you can lose. THEN respect every play after that, until the whistle blows.