The Tigers took advantage of the Tar Heels’ misguided fake punt, scoring two plays later on Watson’s 35-yard pass to wide receiver Artavis Scott. The pass attempt ultimately failed and UNC went ahead 9-7. But there was a flag. We executed correctly, we recovered the ball. You look at all of these other guys who are having big years, but they’ve led their team that other players have done the same thing, maybe two or three years ago, but Deshaun is leading this team to a place that we haven’t been in 35 years.
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And Switzer believed it, too, at first. The Tigers then ran out the clock.
Switzer went back to the locker room and found messages waiting for him on his phone. Even though replay didn’t appear to support the penalty, the Tar Heels were forced to kick again. “It didn’t lose us the game, but it didn’t help us win the game, either”. “And obviously, it makes you sick”.
His players not only melded into a tighter group but also a tougher unit, positively responding to the SC loss, rallying from a 21-point deficit to beat Georgia Tech, fighting in the ACC title game until the referee blew the whistle to signal that they couldn’t fight anymore.
During the battle for the Atlantic Coast Conference title, though, the Tar Heels made Clemson work for it.
“They called him offside”.
“The way we had moved it the last couple of series, I would have liked our chances”, North Carolina coach Larry Fedora said. In a season with more drama than your local PTA meeting, Clemson took care of business to wrap up a night of chalk doing the talk. But the idea of a lost opportunity weighed heavily during postgame interviews. About the haunting thought of “what if?”
“No matter where we get the ball, we always have the mindset of get one first down, and if we can do that, we can score”, Watson said.
“It isn’t going to change”, Fedora said. “If I get invited I’m going to enjoy it, just give all the credit to my teammates, especially these guys up here”.
Clemson led in most statistical categories in this game with 608 total yards, 38:56 of time of possession, and only turning the ball over once, compared to two UNC turnovers.
“We kept fighting”, Tar Heels quarterback Marquise Williams said, “We could have just let them keep running the score up, but we continued to find ways to score the ball and stop them and continued to fight”. Elijah Hood, the sophomore running back, said the Tigers “threw the kitchen sink at us, in terms of blitzing”. “I’m going to say I’m the Heisman victor”, he said. “It was quite the chess match with the blitz schemes today”.
Clemson posted its first 13-0 season in history.
More than 20,000 tiger fans celebrated sweet victory with the team and coaches Sunday afternoon.
Kevin Hogan caught the TD pass from McCaffrey, threw one and ran for a third and Solomon Thomas scored on a 34-yard fumble return for the Cardinal (11-2).
The big-play Tar Heels, which entered the weekend ranked second nationally in yards per snap, hadn’t been held to fewer than 400 yards of offense-until Saturday night.
Clemson safety T.J. Green got plenty of face time on national television, but for the wrong reasons. Wayne Gallman (1,145 yards, nine rushing TDs) returned to gain 102 yards on 19 carries in the 37-32 victory over SC last week after missing the contest against Wake Forest with an ankle injury.
The onside kick recovery that wasn’t will be remembered more than Williams’ struggles.
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Saturday, Williams completed just 11-of-33 passes. Would UNC vault to the top four from No. 10?
