Clemson Football: A year ago, the legend of Chase Brice was born

Chase Brice may not have watched his film vs. Syracuse last year very often, but the Clemson football faithful has watched his performance on repeat.

The Clemson football team will take on the Syracuse Orange Saturday evening in the Carrier Dome.

The last time the Tigers and Orange matched up it was a man by the name of Chase Brice who provided some heroics to lead Clemson past Syracuse, reaching ‘legend’ status.

Here’s the story of his journey to becoming legendary.

Coming into the week, Brice was listed as the third-string quarterback. Freshman QB Trevor Lawrence was named the starter and veteran QB Kelly Bryant announced a couple of days later that he’d be transferring from the Clemson football program. All of a sudden, Brice was listed as the second-string guy on the depth chart.

Still, the idea of him seeing the field was a far-off concept for Tiger fans. Still, Brice prepared during the week as if he was the starter, just as Dabo Swinney has always told his players to do.

Then the unthinkable happened. Freshman Trevor Lawrence went down with an injury late in the second quarter and all of a sudden Brice was thrusted into the game, trailing at the half.

Though Syracuse brought intense pressure, Clemson football relied on the running game to get going and used that attack to wear down the Orange as the game progressed.

Brice was visibly shaken early on, but he settled in and began throwing accurate passes late in the third quarter after a confidence-boosting throw that was caught by Hunter Renfrow.

Brice went on to have one of the drives of the year late in the fourth quarter. With Clemson trailing and the game on the line, he completed a nice pass to Tee Higgins along the sidelines to move the chains on a 4th and 6 play. Brice followed that up with a nice run on a QB read play and the Tigers punched the ball into the end zone, rallying for the win.

Had Clemson not won that game, there’s no guarantee that the Tigers- even with an 11-1 record- make the CFB Playoff.

Chase Brice met with the media Monday afternoon and told them that he has only watched the film once and that was part of study session following the win. Though Brice doesn’t watch the film, it’s clear that the rest of the Clemson football faithful has watched that drive several times.

Brice’s heroics and team-first mentality will never be understated or forgotten.