What went wrong in Clemson football’s ‘unbelievably disappointing’ loss to Miami?
One yard.
That’s all the Clemson football team needed to keep Saturday’s game against Miami within reach — and its slim ACC championship game hopes alive.
Somehow, the Tigers ended up with minus-8.
Quarterback Cade Klubnik’s decision to keep the ball on 4th-and-1 on a designed handoff play and lose eight yards trying to get a first down by himself sealed a 28-20 double overtime road loss against the Hurricanes, who’d trailed by 10 points entering the fourth quarter.
It was also the latest in a long line of mind-numbing mistakes by the Clemson football team, which, at 4-3 and 2-3 in the ACC, keeps finding new ways to get in its own way and further derail a season that began with national championship hopes.
“Ebbs and flows in the game on both sides,” coach Dabo Swinney said. “They found a way to win, and we found a way not to win. So just an unbelievably disappointing game.”
The Tigers fumbled the ball four times and lost two of them in Miami territory, including one at the 1-yard line in the first quarter. The defense wore down in the second half. Klubnik, the team’s talented but sometimes erratic quarterback, threw his first interception in four games.
And on the most critical play of the game — facing a 4th-and-1 from Miami’s 1-yard line, trailing 28-20 in double overtime — a coach making $10.75 million annually, an offensive coordinator making $1.75 million, a five-star quarterback recruit and a five-star running back couldn’t combine for a first down ... again.
In an overtime loss to No. 4 Florida State earlier this season, Swinney said he felt like he, Riley and the rest of Clemson’s offensive coaches made a mistake in calling a run-pass option for Klubnik and All-ACC running back Will Shipley on a 3rd-and-1 deep in FSU territory.
Klubnik read a defender incorrectly and, instead of handing the ball off to Shipley, threw a bubble screen pass for a gain of 0 yards. The game ended on the next play.
Saturday against Miami, Swinney said things weren’t up to chance and expressed frustration with Klubnik, who he said was “trying to do too much” on the game-ending play.
Riley’s play call was strictly a handoff, Swinney said — not a run-pass option, more commonly known as an RPO. Still, Klubnik kept the ball instead of handing it off to Shipley and was swarmed for a loss of 8 yards in a do-or-die situation at Hard Rock Stadium.
Clemson needed a touchdown and a two-point conversion to force a third overtime after Miami running back Ajay Allen scored a TD and got the conversion.
“It was a handoff 100%,” Swinney said. “And we didn’t hand off. I got no answer. I mean, just trying to do too much. … It’s a give. We just didn’t do it. Made a lotta plays but, again, we gotta play within the system.”
Swinney also said Clemson briefly considered a quarterback draw play similar to the “tush push” the Philadelphia Eagles have used successfully this season with quarterback Jalen Hurts.
Clemson has run a version of the under-center play this season and weighed it after Shipley rushed for a 1-yard gain on 3rd-and-2, setting up a game-deciding 4th-and-goal in double overtime.
“We did, but we just felt like we liked the play that we had,” Swinney said. “We’d got about a yard, a yard and a half on the previous play and we felt good about whatever it was (on fourth down) — five inches, maybe. It was inches. I don’t have an answer”
Klubnik said postgame that he took “full responsibility” for the play, which he confirmed was called as a straight handoff. The sophomore, who was 18-of-31 passing for 314 yards, two touchdowns and an interception with a lost fumble, said he was “just trying to use my instincts out there.”
What did he see to prompt not handing off?
“(Linebacker) tucked inside the box,” Klubnik said. “D-end slanted pretty hard. Kinda the same look against Wake Forest the time I pulled for a touchdown. The guy crashed and just shoulda given it up. They did a good job.”
Mistakes pile up again
To be clear, that was far from the only mistake Clemson made during a wacky game that lasted nearly four hours and made tight end Jake Briningstool’s career day (five catches for a program single-game record 126 yards and two touchdowns) feel like an afterthought.
Shipley fumbled the ball at the 1-yard line on the Tigers’ second offensive possession, another critical giveaway for a team that’s struggled in the red zone all season long and entered Saturday dead last in the ACC in red zone conversion percentage (69.7%).
Klubnik also lost a fumble in Miami territory on a strip-sack in the second quarter, giving the Tigers an FBS-worst 10 fumbles lost (and 15 total fumbles) through seven games.
And a defense that didn’t allow Miami to run a play in Clemson territory the entire first half — only the fifth time the team’s done that in a half since 2019 — still had a few critical busts, such as allowing an 80-yard run in the first quarter and 8.8 yards per carry in the third quarter.
Defensive end T.J. Parker was also flagged for a horse-collar tackle on Miami’s 2-point conversion after its double overtime touchdown, which gave the Hurricanes a second try from 2 yards closer.
One couldn’t fault Clemson’s defense too much, though, given the tough spot the offense put them in with back-to-back three-and-outs in the fourth quarter, including one that gave the ball right back to Miami with a chance to win after a 15-play, nine-minute touchdown drive.
The Hurricanes possessed the ball for 13:20 of a possible 15 minutes in the fourth quarter, a period that saw them outscore Clemson 10-0 and force overtime with a true freshman quarterback, Emory Williams, making his first career start.
It was the same story: more total yards, more first downs, more splash plays but a closer score due to turnovers — and basic mistakes continuing to pop up for a team that was right outside the AP Top 25 last week but will be far from it in Sunday’s updated poll.
Klubnik’s game-ending decision, which gave Miami its first win over Clemson since 2010, was the sour cherry on top.
“This is a hell of a season that we’re in the middle of right now,” Swinney said. “And it’s just disappointing as crap. Because we have a really good team. We have a really good football team. And we’re in position to win every game I gotta help these guys find a way to stop making some of these mistakes.”
Next Clemson game
Who: Clemson (4-3, 2-3 ACC) at N.C. State (4-3, 1-2 ACC)
When: 2 p.m. Saturday
Where: Carter-Finley Stadium in Raleigh
TV: The CW
This story was originally published October 22, 2023 at 6:45 AM.
