TIGERS CLAW THEIR WAY BACK INTO PLAYOFF
ACC champions closed strong after loss to Pitt
Dabo Swinney doesn’t have a great memory of Clemson’s last trip to the desert.
The Tigers didn’t spend much time in Glendale, Ariz., before last year’s national championship game, so it was a “blur” to Clemson’s coach.
He’ll get a shot this year to become more “ingrained in the community” because the Tigers are heading back to the Phoenix area to again play for high stakes.
The Tigers (12-1), champions of the Atlantic Coast Conference, checked in at No. 2 in the College Football Playoff rankings Sunday and will take on Ohio State (11-1) on Dec. 31 in the Fiesta Bowl semifinal at the same site as the Tigers’ loss to Alabama last year.
“I definitely think it was tougher the second time,” said Swinney, who made the Playoff for the second consecutive season. “When you haven’t done something, there’s a different mind-set than when you have and you come back the next year and there’s a lot of expectations and stuff like that. This team did a great job of staying focused week to week.”
The Tigers will face an Urban Meyer-led program that they beat 40-35 in the 2013 Orange Bowl. There are plenty of key players on this roster that helped Clemson knock off Oklahoma in last year’s semifinal and reach Glendale, so playing in big games is what this program is used to.
“I know how hard it is to do that, the daily grind that it takes to get to this point, just to have a chance,” Swinney said. “I’m so thankful for our players, their buy-in, their belief. It’s a special time to be a part of Tiger Nation.”
The Buckeyes got into the Playoff despite not playing in the Big Ten title game. Penn State beat Wisconsin 38-31 on Saturday to win that league crown, but the Nittany Lions were left out.
Ohio State, which lost to No. 5 Penn State and beat No. 6 Michigan this season, climbed to No. 2 after Clemson fell to Pittsburgh in
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Week 11 and didn’t move down to No. 3 until Sunday.
The Tigers got back to the Playoff because of the way they responded after that lone loss to the Panthers. They throttled Wake Forest and South Carolina before edging Virginia Tech in a game that came down to the final minute.
The Hokies had the ball at Clemson’s 24-yard line and were looking to tie the score, but Cordrea Tankersley picked off Jerod Evans’ fourth-down pass to seal the school’s 16th ACC title.
“We’re excited to be ACC champs,” Swinney said. “We’re still kind of soaking that in and trying to appreciate the moment.”
Clemson wasn’t at its best for the entire game. The Tigers led by as many as three touchdowns at one time, but 470 yards of offense and that key defensive stop were enough.
“I know how hard we’ve worked, how hard we’ve prepared, the resiliency, the fight in our team, the leadership,” Clemson senior linebacker Ben Boulware said. “I know what we’ve done off the field to put ourselves in this position. I know what this team is made of.”
Take away that loss to Pitt in the regular season, and this is shaping up a lot like last season, when Clemson held off North Carolina to win the ACC.
“Both times it was pretty sweet, but I think this one is more sweet, because it’s something we haven’t done in 28 years, win back-to-back
Senkiw writes for the Anderson (S.C.) Independent Mail, part of the USA TODAY Network.