CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Dabo Swinney threw his headset and took off sprinting, his arms outstretched as he made his way toward midfield, then rounded a curve near the 40-yard line.
The Clemson head coach, while pointing toward the sky, was high-stepping so fast that no one could stop him to celebrate in the aftermath of Saturday night’s ACC Championship Game in Charlotte.
When he finally slowed down and made his way to the stage at Bank of America Stadium a few moments later, the bear hugs began.
“Well that was fun,” Swinney said after his Clemson team beat SMU 34-31 in a last-second thriller. “It’s pretty special when you experience something like we just experienced on the field and in the locker room. It’s amazing.”
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The Tigers earned an improbable bid into Saturday night’s ACC Championship Game only because Miami lost to Syracuse last week. Swinney, who figured his team’s season was all but over, hadn’t even watched the game until late in the fourth quarter. His quarterback, Cade Klubnik, revealed early Sunday morning that he’d sat in his car crying for about an hour after the Tigers lost to rival South Carolina, feeling like Clemson squandered its chance at an at-large bid.
So when Swinney’s team took the field on a cold Saturday night against the red-hot Mustangs, they did so with emotions high and the stakes even higher, knowing that the only path to the College Football Playoff was with a victory. When SMU tied the game at 31 points late in the fourth quarter, the Tigers had 16 seconds to make magic happen and avoid overtime. And with three seconds left on the clock, they needed their biggest miracle of the season.
The team with six blocked field goals in 2024 asked freshman kicker Nolan Hauser to hit a 56-yarder with the game on the line. This, after he’d already missed a 44-yarder early in the second quarter.
“(Offensive line) Coach (Matt) Luke went, ‘You think he’s got that kind of leg?’” Swinney said. “And I said, ‘We’re about to find out.’”
Hauser lined up and got a clean snap and hold.
He had just enough leg strength behind the kick to squeak the ball through the center of the uprights — which marked the longest kick in ACC Championship Game history and the first time the game has ever been won on a walk-off field goal.
56 YARD GAME WINNING FIELD GOAL!!!!!!@nolanhauser as cool as the temps outside 🥶
📺 @ClemsonFB | ABC | #ACCFCG 🏆 pic.twitter.com/j9bnw0NQuF
— ACC Football (@ACCFootball) December 8, 2024
Swinney took off. The orange and purple confetti fell. Hauser — whose father played baseball for Clemson and whose mother was an All-American soccer player for the Tigers — etched his name into Clemson lore.
Who would have thought just one week ago that this is where the Tigers would be?
“Coach Swinney said, ‘Put it through the uprights’ and I winked at him,” Hauser said. “I was like, ‘I got you.’ … I’m just so happy.”
Clemson heads into the Playoff having gone 9-3 in the regular season with losses to Georgia, Louisville and South Carolina. The Georgia loss in the season opener, a 34-3 blowout in Atlanta, raised questions about Clemson’s ability to hang with the bluebloods and where the Tigers were headed. The Louisville loss almost kept Clemson out of the ACC championship. And the South Carolina defeat last week exposed the Tigers’ run defense in a way that has to have any team with a mobile quarterback chomping at the bit.
The Tigers have plenty to work through in the coming weeks and won’t be the favorites to win it all.
But for now, the Tigers have a chance — making their seventh appearance in the Playoff and seeking their third national championship. That’s all Swinney wanted as late Saturday turned into early Sunday morning.
“You get in the tournament, anything can happen. We’re a dangerous team,” he said. “We have not played our best football yet, but yet we’re in the Playoff. I think that’s frustrating. But also exciting.”
(Photo: David Jensen / Getty Images)
