Freshmen star in Clemson championship win over SMU

Bryant Wesco tallied two touchdown catches in the win.

Ryan Kantor - Contributor - Monday, December 09 2024

With the new 12-team format, everyone knew the ACC Championship in Charlotte was a de facto play-in game, but beating an excellent SMU team would take a lot of work. Clemson had lost all three prior contests against teams that finished with 8+ wins, which made a matchup with 11-win SMU daunting. Fortunately for Clemson, they seem to play their best football in Bank of America Stadium. The Tigers certainly looked comfortable in the setting where they’d won their last seven appearances. They dashed out to a 21-7 lead and went into halftime ahead 24-7.

Freshman Bryant Wesco played a huge role in Clemson’s hot start. All year, his ability to stretch defenses vertically and create explosive plays with yards after the catch transformed Clemson’s offense. That continued in this contest. A 35-yard TD reception by Wesco gave Clemson a 7-0 lead. An 11-yard reception (pop pass) on the next drive got the offense moving before a Jake Briningstool TD put the Tigers up 14-0. After an SMU score, it was a 43-yard TD reception by Wesco that put the Tigers up 21-7. Wesco finished with eight receptions for 143 yards. His impact, coupled with strong play from fellow freshmen WR T.J. Moore and LB Sammy Brown, emphasizes the splash this year’s freshman class has had on the team. Of course, it was yet another freshman, Nolan Hauser, who would ultimately be the game’s hero.

It wasn’t all about Clemson’s execution, though. Mistakes by SMU also played a big role in the Mustangs’ early hole. SMU hadn’t played in a game of this magnitude in 40 years. You have to go back to 1984 when SMU went 10-2 and beat Notre Dame in a bowl game to find the last time the Mustangs played in this sort of high-stakes battle. Between the pressure of the moment, the cold Charlotte temperatures (they really need to move the game to a daytime slot), and the hostile orange-clad crowd, SMU looked out-of-sorts early on. A T.J. Parker sack caused SMU’s star QB, Kevin Jennings, to fumble the ball on their first possession. Two plays afterward, Clemson was up 7-0. Later in the first half, an ill-advised attempt to throw the ball away led to a Khalil Barnes interception near midfield. SMU was fortunate to escape with a Clemson missed field goal. In fact, stopping Clemson after that interception was the inflection point of the game.

From the interception until Clemson’s final possession, SMU’s defense held Clemson to just 10 points over 46 minutes and 54 seconds. Like Clemson’s close win over Pittsburgh a few weeks before, Clemson couldn’t build on their lead or deliver the put-away score. The offense stagnated. When they needed a defensive stop the most, the defense folded. SMU eventually tied the game at 31-31, but also, just like in the Pittsburgh game, Clemson engineered a game-winning drive when the opposition held all the momentum.

This time it was Adam Randall who made the game-changing play. Randall had no receptions in the game and only 15 on the year (154 yards). He hadn’t returned a kick all season, but with Jay Haynes injured a few minutes prior and Mafah playing through an injured shoulder, he got his chance. With great vision and excellent blocking in front of him, Randall brought the ball out to the Clemson 45. Like most of us, Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney loved that Randall got his moment to shine.

“He got passed up by Wesco. That’s tough, but he’s continued to serve. He’s continued to be a great teammate. He’s continued to keep the faith. It is awesome. He has not complained one time. It was awesome to see him have a moment like that,” Swinney said.

With only seconds remaining, a 17-yard reception by Antonio Williams on a curl route – perfectly delivered by Cade Klubnik – put Clemson on the fringe of field goal range. That’s when Hauser got his chance. It is with great irony that this Clemson team would have one of the best kicks in school history. The special teams unit has struggled with field goal protection all season (six FGs blocked) and even allowed a defender to disrupt an FG attempt that sailed wide in the 2nd quarter. Nevertheless, Hauser – who went to high school just 25 minutes from Bank of America Stadium – drilled a game-winning 56-yarder as time expired. It was Clemson’s first walk-off winner since Chandler Catanzaro’s 2012 Peach Bowl game-winner vs. LSU. Because of the distance and the fact that it sent Clemson to the College Football Playoff, it is probably the best kick in Tiger history.

Clemson will travel to Austin, Texas, to face the 5-seed Texas Longhorns on December 21st. Texas will present an immense challenge for the Tiger offense. They are third nationally in total defense, allowing a minuscule 249.5 yards per game, and are first nationally in the even more pertinent stat – yards per play allowed – at just four yards. FEI's advanced stats ranks them as the nation’s top defense. They held Georgia to just 16 points in regulation in the SEC championship and the week prior, locked rival Texas A&M down to just seven points in the game. Points will be at a premium, and Clemson will need to find something from the running backs who haven’t made a major impact in several weeks.

What they may need most, though, is defensive coordinator Wes Goodwin’s defense to play to its full potential. While they haven’t always given up big point totals like the 31 allowed vs. SMU, they’ve allowed 380 yards or more to four straight opponents, including The Citadel. They’ll need to have their best game of the year to give the offense a chance to win a low-scoring battle.

It will be a tough contest, but regardless of the outcome, a season that appeared failed and over is now a championship season and shifts the program’s momentum heading into an interesting offseason. Since the low point of the Palmetto Bowl loss, things have been going the Tigers’ way. Syracuse upended Miami to get Clemson into the ACC Championship game, which they’ve now won. Meanwhile, the basketball team knocked off No. 4 Kentucky in Littlejohn Coliseum and earned an ACC road win at Miami. We’ll see if the good times can keep rolling on December 21st when the basketball team hosts Wake Forest just hours before Clemson football faces the Longhorns in Austin.