ACC champs, playoff bound: Clemson tops SMU to lock up spot in CFP
Clemson is moving onto the College Football Playoff by the skin of its teeth.
Or, better put: By the strength of its freshman kicker’s leg.
Tigers placekicker Nolan Hauser ended the craziest ACC championship in the game’s history by hitting a career-long 56-yard field goal at the buzzer to lift Clemson over SMU, 34-31, on Saturday night at Charlotte’s Bank of America Stadium.
It was the longest field goal in ACC title game history, the first walk-off play of any kind in the game’s 20-year history and the first time in FBS history a team won a conference championship on a walk-off field goal of 50-plus yards.
And it sent the No. 17 Tigers off to the first ever 12-team CFP ... all after Clemson blew a 17-point fourth-quarter lead against the Mustangs.
All of this, of course, came after the Tigers lost at home Nov. 30 to rival South Carolina and thought their CFP chances were done until Syracuse upset Miami later that night, sending the Tigers to the ACC title game in backdoor fashion.
Talk about improbable on top of improbable.
SMU quarterback Kevin Jennings, whose team trailed 31-14 early in the fourth quarter, threw a touchdown pass with 16 seconds left to tie the game at 31-31.
Then, madness. SMU kicked off with 16 seconds left to Clemson’s 4-yard line. Tigers receiver Adam Randall — who was only returning kicks because the starting returner, running back Jay Haynes, was injured — returned it for 41 yards.
Clemson’s longest return of the year (and Randall’s first of the year) took seven seconds. The Tigers then had one play to get into field-goal range, and they hit it. Quarterback Cade Klubnik found receiver Antonio Williams for a 17-yard gain on the left side of the field, and he dropped down with three seconds remaining.
Timeout. Exhale. Hauser did the rest.
“That kid will go down in Clemson lore,” coach Dabo Swinney said in a joyous postgame interview with ABC after his Tigers qualified for their first CFP since 2020.
Clemson led 24-7 and 31-14 at various points during the game and nearly suffered an epic collapse — a loss would’ve marked only the second time in 135 instances a Swinney-coached Clemson team had led by 17 points in a game and still lost.
Now, they’re off to the 12-team CFP as the ACC’s anticipated auto-bid, having won their eighth league title in 10 seasons here in Charlotte in ridiculous fashion.
Quarterback Cade Klubnik, the game’s MVP, threw three touchdown passes in the first quarter and finished with four scores; true freshman receiver Bryant Wesco Jr. had 143 receiving yards and two touchdowns; and the defense forced two turnovers before struggling down the stretch, with the offense providing very little help.
Everyone involved got bailed out by Hauser, a true freshman kicker and native of nearby Cornelius, North Carolina who’s the son of a former Clemson baseball player and women’s soccer player and nailed the kick of his life in his home state.
The No. 17 Tigers (10-3) shouldn’t have any issues finishing as one of the committee’s top five highest-ranked conference champs after toppling the No. 8 Mustangs (11-2).
SMU, meanwhile, will hope it’s done enough to make it in the CFP field as an at-large.
Worth watching: How does the committee evaluate the ACC champion Tigers’ résumé against that of Big 12 champion Arizona State, which defeated Iowa State, and of Mountain West champion Boise State, which beat UNLV?
Only two of those three champs can get first-round byes to the quarterfinals behind the SEC champion, Georgia, and the Big Ten champion, Oregon.
The odd team out must play a first-round game on the road, likely as a No. 11 seed at a No. 6 seed or as a No. 12 seed at a No. 5 seed, on Dec. 20 or Dec. 21
The Tigers could very much end up on the road.
But they’re in the playoff, and right now, to them, that’s all that matters.
“You get in the tournament, anything can happen,” Swinney said. “We’re a dangerous team. We’ve not played our best football yet but yet we’re in the playoff. I think that’s frustrating but it’s also exciting because we are capable.”
“I just wish I could get us to put this thing all together for four quarters because if we do, we’ll have a real shot.”
Game recap
Clemson was coming off a demoralizing home loss to South Carolina in which the Tigers forced three turnovers and scored exactly zero points off them.
That trend flipped in a big way early, as Clemson defensive end T.J. Parker strip-sacked SMU quarterback Jennings on the game’s opening possession. Klubnik followed that up with a 35-yard touchdown pass to Wesco.
Clemson’s dream start continued as a good punt return (and unnecessary roughness penalty) set the offense up at SMU’s 28 on its second drive. The Tigers made quick work of a short field with Klubnik hitting tight end Jake Briningstool for a score.
Clemson’s defense got burned by Jennings for a 24-yard rushing touchdown, but the offense responded with a rapid scoring drive. Wesco caught his second TD of the night from 43 yards out and the Tigers led 21-7 with 3:28 remaining in the first.
Klubnik became the first quarterback in the ACC championship’s 20-game history to throw for three touchdowns in any quarter.
But he and the offense came back down to earth.
In the second quarter, the Tigers stalled after safety Khalil Barnes picked off Jennings in plus territory. A touchdown there could’ve truly blown the game open at 28-7, but Hauser missed a 44-yard field goal and left points on the board.
Hauser atoned for that miss — his first of the season on a field goal that wasn’t blocked — with a 44-yard make later in the second quarter to put Clemson up 24-7.
The Tigers were happy to head into halftime at Bank of America Stadium up 17 points on a high-powered SMU offense that had averaged 40.9 points over its previous nine games under coach Rhett Lashlee.
A 24-7 halftime lead also boded well for Clemson historically. In 134 other instances of leading by 17 points at any point of a game under Swinney, the Tigers were 133-1.
The only loss? To future national champion and No. 1 pick Cam Newton and Auburn in a 2010 road game. Lashlee, ironically enough a graduate assistant on that Auburn team, tried to make it two.
SMU kept pushing and cut its deficit to 24-14 early in the third quarter on Jennings’ 10-yard touchdown pass to star running back and Miami transfer Brashard Smith.
With the game at its closest since the first quarter — and Clemson playing without injured backup running back Jay Haynes and starting running back Phil Mafah at less than 100% — Klubnik willed the Tigers on their biggest drive of the game.
Clemson went 10 plays and 58 yards for a score, with receiver Antonio Williams ripping off a 32-yard gain on third and 8 around midfield and Briningstool finding paydirt for a second time to end the possession.
The Tigers entered the fourth quarter up 17 points, and fans in Charlotte danced and cheered over the break, their team so close to the CFP they could taste it.
Wild fourth quarter
SMU, the ACC’s best regular-season team, wouldn’t go away. Jennings’ 20-yard touchdown pass to start the period made it 31-21 Clemson, and Clemson went three-and-out on its next possession, setting up a key drive.
The Mustangs could’ve put Clemson on the ropes in a one-score game. Instead, a receiver dropped an open pass on third down and SMU chose to punt, trailing 31-21 with 11 minutes left in the game.
Turns out, it was the right decision. The Tigers went three and out again, SMU added a 44-yard field goal on its next drive (31-24) and Clemson stalled again near midfield, opening the floor for an SMU game-tying touchdown.
Jennings delivered, hitting a receiver in the back of the end zone for a score. That set up a potential all-time collapse for a Clemson team that was outgained 265-140 in total yardage in the second half and 185-27 in the fourth quarter alone.
But Hauser made it all an afterthought with his game-winner.
“We had some critical mistakes in the second half that didn’t help us,” Swinney said. “But at the end of the day we found a way. ... I’m really, really happy for our players. ... Nobody gave them anything; they earned it.”
This story was originally published December 7, 2024 at 11:51 PM.
