DALLAS (AP) — Clemson and Notre Dame weren’t even a month into this season when they made unexpected quarterback switches while undefeated with seniors who had won a lot of games.

Neither of those senior starters was even injured, but the Tigers and Fighting Irish decided to make early changes. Both teams are still without a loss and now in the College Football Playoff.

Trevor Lawrence was named Clemson’s new starter going into the Sept. 29 game against Syracuse after the true freshman had played behind Kelly Bryant each of the first four games. That was a week after Ian Book supplanted Brandon Wimbush as Notre Dame’s No. 1 quarterback .

“I knew what my goals were and I knew I wanted to play for a championship, but I wasn’t really sure how everything would work out,” Lawrence said. “I didn’t have a plan as far as how the season would go exactly, so I didn’t really I guess have too many expectations on how we’d get here necessarily. It’s definitely been a crazy year.”

Bryant, who plans to finish his college career at Missouri, almost immediately left Clemson’s program to save his final season of eligibility after going 16-2 as a starter and helping lead the Tigers to their third consecutive ACC title last year. Lawrence, the AP’s ACC top newcomer, made it four in a row this season.