Livescore
Clemson quarterback Cade Klubnik spent an hour crying in his car after a 17-14 loss to in-state rival South Carolina brought the 2024 regular season to a jarring end.
At the time, that seemed like the final nail in the coffin of Clemson’s postseason hopes. With a 9-3 record, the Tigers were a lock to make a decent bowl but nothing more.
Eventually, Klubnik drove home. Though his housemates were still up watching football, he went straight to his room. On a whim, he decided to tune into the end of Miami’s game against Syracuse.
He turned on the TV to see the Orange bleeding the clock for a 42-38 win — a victory that dropped Miami to 6-2 in conference play and sent Clemson to the ACC Championship Game against SMU.
“It was definitely a weird Sunday and Monday because you’re grieving from the Saturday loss, but you’ve got to transition and go be excited,” Klubnik said after the ACC Championship Game. “Because I kind of said out there, it’s like, you’re playing outside with some of your friends and your mom tells you you’ve got to come inside and she tells you you’ve got five more minutes.
“We got five more minutes to go play some football, and that was tonight, and it was really exciting.”
Clemson made the absolute most of its “five more minutes,” though the Tigers made victory look rather difficult at times. SMU tied the game at 31-31 when quarterback Kevin Jennings hit wide receiver Roderick Daniels Jr. for a 4-yard touchdown with 16 seconds left, erasing a 17-point fourth-quarter Clemson lead in the process.
Then Tigers wide receiver Adam Randall, who was in the game for an injured Jay Haynes, took the ensuing kickoff 41 yards and put the ball at Clemson’s 45-yard line. A quick 17-yard completion from Klubnik to Antonio Williams put the Tigers in possible, if improbable, field goal range.
Klubnik went to the sideline and visualized overtime as Clemson’s special teams unit took the field. He didn’t watch, but he did hear the crowd roar as kicker Nolan Hauser’s boot traveled 56 yards through the uprights for the first walk-off, game-winning field goal in ACC Championship Game history.
“I couldn’t believe it. I could not believe it. It was unbelievable. It was unbelievable,” Klubnik said.
Hauser’s kick did more than give Clemson its second ACC title in three years; it also secured the Tigers a spot in the College Football Playoff for the first time since 2020. They’ll travel to Austin, Texas, as the No. 12 seed to face No. 5 seed Texas in their first-round game on Saturday, Dec. 21.
Klubnik threw three first-quarter touchdowns in the win over SMU — an ACC Championship Game first. He finished with a record-tying four touchdown passes, including a 10-yard connection with tight end Jake Briningstool that gave the Tigers a crucial 31-14 lead late in the third quarter.
It was a full-circle moment for Klubnik, who entrenched himself as Clemson’s future starter as a true freshman in 2022 when he came off the bench in the ACC Championship Game and amassed 309 yards and two touchdowns to guide the Tigers to a 39-10 win over North Carolina.
His first 13 games at Clemson were a rollercoaster. At times, the former Westlake High School (Austin, Texas) product showed flashes of the talent that made him 247Sports’ No. 2 quarterback in the 2022 class, but the overall performance left something to be desired. Klubnik finished the 2023 season with 19 touchdowns to nine interceptions. He failed to reach 3,000 yards passing and had four individual performances with under 200 yards through the air.
As a result, Clemson fell to 8-4 — its worst regular-season showing in 13 years — and failed to make the ACC Championship Game for just the second time since 2014.
Questions about Klubnik’s place in Clemson’s offense and Swinney’s ability to acclimate to the modern college football landscape swirled in the offseason. But Swinney maintained faith in his quarterback and in Garrett Riley, his offensive play-caller.
Both rewarded Swinney’s steadfastness. With his ACC Championship Game performance in the books, Klubnik has a 63.7% completion rate for a career-high 3,303 yards and 33 touchdowns—second in the ACC, behind only Heisman Trophy candidate Cam Ward. He has an opportunity to double his passing touchdown total from 2023, and he’s also tossed just five interceptions thus far.
Leading Clemson to the College Football Playoff is one thing, but Swinney has set a championship standard in his time with the Tigers. That path begins with a difficult, Texas-sized test. The Longhorns boast arguably the nation’s best defense, allowing just 143.1 yards passing per game.
With a resurgent Klubnik leading the way and the pressure of a single-elimination format, anything is possible for Clemson. All it needed was a chance.
“We’re a dangerous team,” Swinney said. “We’ve not played our best football yet, but 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.”
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