Re-watching last year's win over FSU made Dabo Swinney want to vomit

Last year was a struggle at times in the 30-20 win over the Seminoles.

by David Hood - Senior Writer - Thu Oct 13 16:40:05 GMT-04:00 2022

CLEMSON – Dabo Swinney wanted to vomit, and it had nothing to do with a long night and flight home from Boston, and it wasn’t anything he ate.

The Clemson coaches returned home around 6 AM Sunday morning. The Tigers had defeated Boston College the night before, Swinney taped his coach’s show in the interview room at the Conte Forum, and the team then flew home.

Swinney was able to nap for a few hours but was soon back at the football facility to watch video of this week’s opponent – the Tigers play at Florida State this Saturday at 7:30 pm (ABC). That meant turning on the film of last year’s game, a 30-20 Clemson victory on the penultimate day of October.

The Seminoles appeared poised to snap Clemson's five-year streak of success at home after Jermaine Johnson's 6-yard fumble recovery TD put them ahead 20-17 halfway through the fourth quarter.

Clemson’s offense was mostly ineffective — they had three turnovers and kicker BT Potter missed three field goals — but that same group put together a final scoring drive helped by Florida State mistakes. A pass interference penalty on defensive back Kevin Knowles and a hit out of bounds on linebacker DJ Lundy moved the ball to the Florida State 21.

Running back Shipley took it the rest of the way on the next snap, twisting through several defenders before lunging into the end zone. He came up screaming and mock-ripping off his shirt, Superman style.

Florida State got the ball twice more after that, but could not advance. Clemson linebacker Barrett Carter scored on the final play as the Seminoles' try at lateraling their way to a touchdown came up way short.

Swinney was sick to his stomach re-watching that game.

"Listen, I wanted to vomit watching the Florida State game last year," Swinney said earlier this week. "It was so painful. We were so bad. We won, which is a miracle. We don't really have games like that this year. You're always coaching but grading our tape this year vs. last year is night and day in every area. You watch our (FSU) game from last year and going holy cow, we won this game? That's crazy. We won last year just on heart and grit and because they think they're supposed to win.”

Clemson finished the season 10-3 and ended the year on a six-game winning streak. But with injuries and inconsistencies, it was never easy.

"It was a frustrating season as far as grading, correcting, and teaching week in and week out,” Swinney said. “This year it's been better. It's a lot every week still, but more stuff that you would expect. Normal teaching and corrections and not some of the just frustrating things we did last year."