CLEMSON KNOCKS OFF No. 20 LOUISVILLE

TGIF.

Thank God it’s field goals (missed by Louisville).

Thank God it’s flags (drawn by Louisville).

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On a wild Friday night in bourbon country, Clemson fans were turning to the brown stuff.

Find a way. 

That’s what they usually say about winning teams, right?

Well this 2025 Clemson team was finding every which way to lose, including back-to-back fumbles near the goal line and a dribbled snap by a normally dependable deep snapper.

Not to mention a botched tackle by a young corner that allowed No. 20-ranked Louisville to get into field-goal range.

Clemson gift-wrapped this game for Louisville, but it wasn’t in the Cards.

The Tigers are now a cinch for bowl eligibility after a bonkers fourth quarter ended with them on top, 20-19.

There haven’t been many times in Dabo Swinney’s career when he’s celebrated this much after mere back-to-back wins. He celebrated less at points when the Tigers were winning 29 straight in 2018 and 2019.

But he has a point when he praises this team’s ability to dig deep and keep coming back, warts and all.

And man were there warts and all on this night.

He was sweating profusely when he participated in his postgame interview as the team stood for the alma mater nearby.

That picture of a drenched Swinney told the story of a team that sweated out every last bit of this one on a mid-November night.

Clemson had 13 third downs and failed to convert 12 of them.

The Tigers averaged 4.8 yards per play to 6.5 for the Cardinals.

Cade Klubnik averaged 5.5 yards per pass attempt, and forgot to whom he was supposed to hand the ball on one of the aforementioned fumbles near the goal line (Peter Woods had the other one, on the play before).

Klubnik’s targets had a staggering number of dropped passes (it was six but it felt like 16).

Clemson’s defense often looked like it was going to get run over by Louisville’s running backs, and Tom Allen’s group gave up what seemed like a back-breaking trick play immediately after the go-ahead touchdown.

The gravitational force that seems to pull this team’s face to the ground just seemed too strong.

But you know what? The Tigers did keep coming. They kept getting up from the face-plant moments.

That resilience was on a parallel track with the Cardinals continuing to come unglued. But it was resilience and fortitude nonetheless.

Louisville was in the driver’s seat for the ACC title game this time a week ago with California coming to town.

But quarterback Miller Moss took a bad sack late in regulation to deny a chance at a game-winning field goal, and he had a similar gaffe late in this one.

Now Jeff Brohm’s team is 7-3 and 4-3 in the ACC. Their three losses have all been by whiskers, and all at home.

That’s certainly better than 5-5 and 4-4 in the conference.

And Clemson didn’t come into this season thinking a big celebration would come from securing .500 records halfway through November.

But after back-to-back home losses to SMU and Duke dropped the Tigers’ record to 3-5, and 2-4 in the league, reaching a bowl game seemed like a tall order.

So Swinney and the Tigers will take it. And they’ll take ruining someone else’s party.

Earlier this season Clemson went to Atlanta and watched Georgia Tech win it with a 55-yard field goal.

The Tigers were that close to a win that day, and they were that close to a loss Friday night.

But, well, the details matter.

Louisville outgained Clemson 385-308 and rushed for 171 yards to 121 on the ground for the Tigers.

But the Cardinals turned the ball over in their own territory and Clemson capitalized a play later with a touchdown.

Pretty big detail.

The Cardinals racked up 98 yards on 10 penalties. Five were on personal fouls. Clemson had three infractions for 30 yards.

Pretty big detail.

Louisville doinked an extra point and shanked two field-goal attempts. Clemson made its two field-goal attempts and converted its two extra points.

Pretty massive detail.

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Both teams did more than enough to lose, more than enough to make their fans pull their hair out.

But Clemson did just enough to win.

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Now everyone turns their attention to Furman, or probably South Carolina.

Or definitely bourbon.

TGIF.

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