Dabo Swinney hoping Clemson's road experience pays off against Florida State
Moments before kickoff against Florida State in primetime on Saturday night at Doak-Campbell Stadium, ESPN sideline reporter Holly Rowe asked Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney about how his team prepped for the tough environment.
Swinney noted that the Tigers practiced with crowd noise pumped in all week, a common ploy for coaches. He also noted that the Saturday night bout in Tallahassee was the fourth conference road game for Clemson already.
“Practicing with a lot of crowd noise throughout the week. Getting ready for a great environment,” Swinney said. “This is definitely one of the better environments out there. It’ll be an awesome. But this is our fourth road ACC game, so we do have a little bit of experience so hopefully that’ll show tonight.”
Clemson has already played games at Wake Forest and Boston College, plus a neutral site opener against Georgia Tech in Atlanta at Mercedes Benz Stadium.
Florida State quarterback Jordan Travis had the Seminoles ahead early
The Seminoles have struck first against Clemson in their Saturday night game. The Seminoles capped off a 75-yard drive with a 20-yard touchdown run by quarterback Jordan Travis.
On a second in 12 from the 20, Travis takes a snap on an option read play. After reading the defense, he elects to pull the ball from running back Lawrence Toafili and take it himself. With just the edge defender on the line to beat, Travis makes a nifty cut to the inside, freezing the defender in his place, and takes off up the field untouched into the end zone for the early touchdown.
The start and lead, while promising, didn’t materialize into a home upset for the Seminoles. Clemson quarterback DJ Uiagalelei tossed three touchdowns and the Tigers defense was smothering for most of the rest of the game. Clemson ultimately got out with a 34-28 win, staying undefeated.