No. 9 Clemson is not going to compete for a nationwide title this season, but it surely returned to convention supremacy and clinched a spot within the Orange Bowl with a 39-10 shellacking of No. 23 North Carolina within the ACC Championship Sport. The win marks the Tigers’ seventh ACC crown of the previous eight seasons and brings a little bit of redemption for Dabo Swinney’s program after it did not make the league title sport final season for the primary time since 2014.
North Carolina jumped out to an early 7-0 lead however pale quick as soon as Clemson turned to freshman quarterback Cade Klubnik on its third possession. With junior starter DJ Uiagalelei proving ineffective, Klubnik entered and rapidly flipped the momentum within the Tigers’ favor by directing a 71-yard landing drive. The previous five-star prospect and heir-apparent to Uiagalelei accomplished 20 of 24 passes for 279 yards with a landing and no interceptions, whereas additionally operating for 30 yards and a rating. Klubnik remained on the sphere till third-string quarterback Hunter Johnson entered with the sport out of hand within the fourth quarter.
Klubnik’s counterpart, North Carolina’s Drake Maye, guided the Tar Heels into the pink zone 5 occasions, however these journeys produced simply 10 factors. A fumble and a blocked subject objective try hampered the Tar Heels within the first half, and a expensive interception gutted their possibilities through the the third quarter.
With the Tar Heels trailing simply 24-10, Maye threw an ill-advised third-down cross that Clemson’s Nate Wiggins intercepted and returned 98 yards for a landing with 5:05 left within the third quarter. The play zapped UNC’s hopes of a rally and ushered within the Tar Heels’ third consecutive loss. At 9-4, North Carolina can nonetheless attain double-digit victories for simply the second time since 1997 if it wins a bowl sport.
Clemson has already reached double-digit wins for a twelfth straight season underneath Swinney and may end 12-2 if it wins the Orange Bowl. Tennessee is its projected opponent for the sport, which is about for Dec. 30 in Miami. With such an emphatic win within the ACC Championship Sport, Clemson would have been in nice form to make the School Soccer Playoff if solely it hadn’t misplaced to South Carolina final week. With out the loss to the Gamecocks, which marked Clemson’s first residence loss since 2016, the Tigers would have benefitted tremendously from this weekend’s losses by No. 3 TCU and No. 4 USC.
However a league title and New Yr’s Six bowl look are nothing to scoff at, particularly after this system misplaced long-time coordinators Tony Elliot (Virginia) and Brent Venables (Oklahoma) to go teaching gigs after the 2021 season.
