“10-8acious” was the headline in The Greenville News the next morning, as the Upstate newspaper recognized how physical and how hard both teams played in the epic showdown.
Heading into its much-anticipated game with North Carolina, Clemson was coming off an 82-point performance against Wake Forest the week before. Clemson head coach Danny Ford knew Game 9 of the 1981 season would be the toughest one left on the schedule. He also knew it would be the one with the most distractions.
Clemson, 8-0, was ranked No. 2 by the Associated Press and No.