The story behind the play that sent Clemson to the national title game
The play that sent the Clemson football team to the national title game, Trevor Lawrence didn’t really like it all that much.
And Travis Etienne? He messed it up at practice and had to have a little chat with Dabo Swinney about it.
Yet despite all that, it worked in the moment it needed to. Officially, it was a 34-yard touchdown pass from Lawrence to Etienne to culminate a four-play, 94-yard drive with 1:49 remaining to put Clemson ahead over Ohio State for good 29-23.
“Honestly, I wasn’t a big fan of the play in practice,” Lawrence said after Saturday’s Fiesta Bowl. “It’s tough if the defense doesn’t really bite on it, if that safety comes up hard and takes it away. I felt like it was good just because of how well we set it up throughout the game. I thought it was gonna work then, but throughout the week I was like, ‘I don’t really know about this play.’”
The call itself is a tricky little fake. It’s built off a quarterback run, one where a guard, running back and tight end lead the way.
It’s pure power and was a favorite of the team when Deshaun Watson was around. And this version, the running back leads up in the hole, then slips farther. The quarterback fakes like he’s going to run, then pulls up and lofts what’s called a “pop pass” over the defense.
The finer points are a little tricky.
“You’ve got guys off the edge coming, and the O-line did a really good job just holding the ball,” Lawrence said. “It’s kind of a weird place for them — it’s like run [and] pass blocking. So for them to hold off for long enough and just Travis to kind of find a zone, sit.
“His run after catch was unbelievable.”
Swinney said Lawrence struggled with the play in practice, but the Clemson coach reset things to run it again.
Etienne had a simple approach to it. He needed the linebacker to bite, he needed to get inside of him and then he needed to beat the last-line-of-defense safety.
And he needed to catch the ball, which he didn’t do Wednesday in practice, and the drop led to a video chat later with Swinney via FaceTime.
“I kind of FaceTimed coach, I was like, ‘Give me the pop pass if you want it to go,’” Etienne said. “And it was kind of crazy to see how that worked because in practice I dropped it.”
The play worked, in part, because Lawrence was running all over the place Saturday, hitting a career high in yardage by halftime and gaining 107 yards on the day. Etienne caught it at the 25-yard line and then outran Ohio State defenders most of the way before muscling his way in for the touchdown.
“I wrote two things down on my call sheet this morning,” Swinney said. “Wrote down quarterback run, running back pass.
“It’s just amazing how it all kind of came together.”
When is the national championship game?
Who: Clemson vs. LSU
When: 8 p.m. Monday, Jan. 13
Where: Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans
TV: ESPN
Betting line: LSU by 6
This story was originally published December 29, 2019 at 7:11 AM.
