Great escape: Clemson earns much-needed ACC win over Louisville
Clemson football just scored its biggest win of 2025.
And it’s likely going to propel the Tigers into a bowl game.
Clemson upset No. 20 Louisville 20-19 on Friday night at L&N Federal Credit Union Stadium after rallying from down six points in the fourth quarter and getting some incredibly lucky breaks on penalties and two missed field goals.
The win moves Clemson to 5-5 overall and 4-4 in the ACC. The Tigers only have to win one more game to reach six wins and bowl eligibility, and their next game is at home against Furman, an FCS team they haven’t lost to since 1936.
Clemson is also 39-0 against FCS teams since 1979, meaning it’s a near lock that coach Dabo Swinney and the Tigers will extend their bowl eligibility streak to 27 seasons after starting the year 1-3 and 3-5.
The way it happened? You had to see it to believe it.
“That was amazing,” Swinney said postgame. “I’ve been a part of a bunch of crazy moments. That was one that just went our way.”
Clemson entered the third quarter trailing Louisville 19-13, but the Tigers went up 20-19 on running back Adam Randall’s 1-yard rushing touchdown with 7:16 to go.
That touchdown and extra point put Clemson up a point (as opposed to tying the game) because Louisville kicker Cooper Ranvier had missed an extra point after a touchdown in the second quarter. He’d entered the game 30 of 30 on XPs.
Down a point, Louisville drove into Clemson territory before a sack from linebacker Sammy Brown backed the Cardinals up into a 50-yard field goal. Ranvier (who’d hit from 51 earlier) missed the go-ahead kick wide left with 4:07 left.
Clemson’s offense promptly went three-and-out … and then long snapper Philip Florenzo had his first bad snap of the season. Punter Jack Smith bobbled the low snap and couldn’t get a punt off, instead getting tackled at Clemson’s 23.
Louisville, at that point, was in a situation where it could get one first down and have a manageable kick to win the game. But an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on the Cardinals backed them up into a third and 29 on Clemson’s 42.
The Tigers were all set to force another long field goal attempt, but cornerback Branden Strozier whiffed on a tackle on a flat route and allowed a UL receiver to pick up 14 yards and set the team up for another go-ahead kick from 46 yards.
Louisville coach Jeff Brohm actually brought in a different kicker, Nick Keller, for that attempt. The result was the same: wide left.
Clemson got the ball back with 1:30 remaining and needing one first down to ice the game. They didn’t get that, but they did back Louisville up to its own 9 after a punt and got a game-ending fourth-down stop with seven seconds left.
Clemson’s players jumped with joy on the sidelines as quarterback Cade Klubnik took a game-ending kneel to secure the Tigers’ first win against a ranked opponent this season.
“We made enough mistakes to lose the game,” Swinney said. “They obviously made mistakes, too. But we just made a couple more critical plays than they did. We made the kicks. They missed kicks. The extra point was huge.”
Game recap
Clemson had been 0-2 when trailing after three quarters this season and 14-36 (.280) all-time in those instances under Swinney. But their go-ahead touchdown and rally gave them their first fourth-quarter comeback since 2024 at Pitt.
The Tigers also limited Brohm’s high-flying Louisville offense to 19 points, their lowest output since the 2023 ACC championship game (six points). UL had scored 24-plus points in 23 consecutive games, which was an ACC record.
Clemson took an early 3-0 lead on a Nolan Hauser field goal but fell behind 9-3 after Louisville quarterback Miller Moss’ short rushing touchdown in the second quarter. Ranvier, crucially, missed an extra point wide left after that score.
The Tigers struggled on offense — just 1 of 13 on third downs vs. Louisville — but made good on a huge first-half opportunity when Clemson cornerback Avieon Terrell ripped the ball out of a Louisville back’s hands to set his team up at the 25 late in the second quarter.
Clemson went up 10-9 on the next play on Randall’s 25-yard touchdown run and entered the halftime break with a one-point lead in its ACC finale.
But Louisville came out of the halftime break intent on running at Clemson, and the Tigers couldn’t stop them. Usual backup running back Keyjaun Brown had carries of 21, 11 and 25 yards to set up a trick-play touchdown pass and a 16-10 Cardinals lead.
Hauser hit a field goal to trim Clemson’s deficit to 16-13. The sophomore kicker, after a slow start to the season, has now hit 10 FGs in a row and is 13-15 on the season.
Brown (15 carries for 135 yards) was lights-out for Louisville, but Clemson’s defense stopped another Louisville drive short of the end zone late in the third quarter and forced a field goal. UL carried a 19-13 lead into the fourth.
Clemson had a chance to go up 20-19 on Louisville a possession before it actually did, but the Tigers inexplicably fumbled the ball on back-to-back plays at the 1-yard line. Defensive tackle Peter Woods lined up as a fullback and lost the ball trying to go over the top on third down, then Klubnik handed the ball off to Woods instead of Randall on what he chalked up to a “miscommunication.”
That was a back-breaking error. Other slip-ups, like allowing a 47-yard catch-and-run to Louisville right after scoring, and Florenzo’s bad snap on the punt, and the offense twice failing to get a first down to put away the game, were unsightly.
“We shot ourselves in the foot a few times,” Klubnik said.
But Louisville couldn’t get out of its own way either.
The Cardinals were dinged for 10 penalties for 98 yards and gave Clemson four penalty first downs, and their two kickers combined to miss an extra point and two field goals as they dropped to 7-3 and 4-3 in the ACC.
Clemson, meanwhile, put itself in position to finish relatively strong. The Tigers could end at 8-5 if they win out vs. Furman, USC and their bowl opponent.
“We can’t go back and get a (great) start, but we can dang sure have the type of finish that we want to have,” Swinney said. “... I’m really, really proud of that.”
Next Clemson football game
- Who: Clemson (5-5) vs. Furman (6-5)
- When: 4:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 22
- Where: Memorial Stadium in Clemson
- Watch: The CW
This story was originally published November 14, 2025 at 11:11 PM.
