DISASTROUS SEASON IN THE MAKING

CLEMSON — It took a 56-yard field goal to give Clemson the ACC Championship last year against SMU.

It took a fourth-and-21 touchdown heave by a backup quarterback in the fourth quarter to give the Tigers a chance Saturday.

Do you believe in miracles?

No, that’s not the question right now.

Do Clemson fans believe in Dabo Swinney disasters?

Yeah, that hits closer to home.

And yeah, they do.

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How can they not at this point?

As it turned out, back-to-back wins on the road over two bad teams weren’t worth a whole lot — unless you’re counting the cost of losing your starting quarterback to an ankle injury on a run when a game was all but decided.

This season began with rosy thoughts of an offense putting up a bunch of numbers for the record books.

With thoughts of a defense rediscovering its fangs under a new high-priced coordinator.

Seven games in, the challenge is sifting through numbers of the worst kind.

Of the unfathomable kind.

Where do you want to start?

We could begin with Clemson losing back-to-back home games for the first time since 2008, but that doesn’t come close to encapsulating it all.

How about this one:

Late tonight, it will have been a full calendar year since Clemson last won at home against a power-conference team (Oct. 19, 2024 against Virginia).

A year.

And SMU hasn’t been a power-conference team long, having existed in the AAC before they bought their way into the ACC and commenced a lot of winning (they still haven’t lost a regular-season ACC game).

Since South Carolina snapped Clemson’s 40-game home winning streak at Death Valley in 2022, the Tigers are now 7-7 at home against power-conference opposition.

And they’ve lost five straight.

Five straight.

They’ve also lost three home games in a season for the first time since 2001, the third year of the Tommy Bowden era.

Oh, and we haven’t even gotten to the overall record of 3-4.

In late August, the big concern about a possible loss to LSU in the opener was how much it might affect the Tigers’ playoff hopes.

Playoffs?

Playoffs?!?

Over the last 40 seasons, here’s a look at the worst record through seven games of teams that began in the AP Top 5:

2017 Florida State (2-5);

2005 Tennessee (3-4);

2000 Alabama (3-4).

In the run-up to the SMU game, the week was filled with two major stories local and national:

The ankle injury that ended Cade Klubnik’s 34-game starting streak and thrust Christopher Vizzina into the leading role, and James Franklin’s ouster at Penn State amid a horrid start for the Nittany Lions.

Franklin lost his team after a narrow loss to Oregon, becoming what’s believed to be the first team ever to lose back-to-back games as favorites of 20 points or more (to UCLA and Northwestern).

Is Clemson really all that far away from Penn State right now?

The Tigers lost at home to a 17-point underdog in Syracuse.

The Tigers were down 16-0 at home to another massive underdog (Troy) and needed some good fortune to prevail in that game.

And then when it mattered Saturday, it was just way too easy for SMU as it handed the Tigers a 35-24 defeat.

The Mustangs are a pretty good team with a very good coach and quarterback, but that quarterback was basically playing on one leg after he injured his ankle early.

But whenever Kevin Jennings and SMU needed to make a play, they did. He threw for 290 yards and two touchdowns while completing 23 passes on 43 attempts.

He made one big mistake, throwing behind his target to allow Clemson hope when Ricardo Jones picked off a tipped-ball pass with 10:15 left in the game.

But even after Tristan Smith brought down Vizzina’s fourth-down prayer for a 23-yard touchdown that made it 29-24 with 6:44 left, the defense had to come up with a stop.

And it’s an insult to reality to suggest the Tigers were even close to doing that.

Jennings moved the Mustangs from the 25 to the Clemson 39, and SMU faced a fourth-and-3 with 2:44 left.

Felt like the smart play was punting.

But not if you’re confident you can get the first down, um, pretty damned easily.

And how could head coach and offensive schemer Rhett Lashlee not be?

SMU isolated its small slot guy on Clemson’s big safety, and Ronan Hanafin grabbed him to bring an easy flag and a new set of downs.

But the Mustangs were only able to exhaust 14 seconds from the clock on the next two downs, and Clemson had another chance with a third-and-10 from its 35.

SMU called timeout and drew up a play with two stacked receivers on the far right side.

Corner Avieon Terrell was covering close to the line, and an inexperienced defensive back named Corian Gipson was behind him.

One of those stacked receivers was actually a tight end, Matthew Hibner.

The other was wideout Jordan Hudson.

The ball was snapped and Hibner broke inside.

Hudson, one of the best players on the field, broke outside.

Terrell and Gipson both followed Hibner. Gipson saw Hudson running free and spun around to chase him, but it was too late.

Jennings could’ve made the 26-yard throw to Hudson in his sleep.

Too easy.

Just way too easy.

And you could say the same thing of the 6-yard touchdown run by Chris Johnson right up the middle that sent everyone for the exits.

Vizzina had his shaky moments, but he was pretty good for a guy making his first collegiate start. He threw for 317 yards and three touchdowns on a 29-of-42 clip and didn’t throw an interception.

He did lose a fumble early on a bang-bang play when a rusher came from his blind side and jarred the ball loose when he was rearing to throw.

Clemson ran the ball for 35 yards. 

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The Tigers ran it for 31 against LSU in the opener.

Ah, the days of one loss to a Top 10 team causing a meltdown.

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Last year everyone left Charlotte believing in miracles after Nolan Hauser’s long field goal punched Clemson’s ticket to the playoff.

Now Clemson fans are big believers in disasters.

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