No. 1 Clemson beats UNC, 45-37, for ACC title, playoff spot

Clemson defensive coordinator Brent Venables was frustrated, for sure, with his unit’s mistakes in Saturday’s ACC championship game. Clemson had three costly personal fouls in the half, including a roughing the passer and a late hit out of bounds.

Let’s be clear: the blown call did not cost UNC the game, nor is there any guarantee UNC could have scored and made a two-point conversion. “I’m just really humbled by that”.

Most of the championship-game record 74,514 fans on hand were pulling for Clemson, which wrapped up a spot in the title game almost a month ago. That proved to be too much of a hole for the Tar Heels to climb out of. “He’s a great champion of a player”. The Tigers will nearly assuredly be joined by Alabama, Oklahoma and Michigan State.

A BIG RETURN?: In a game with both teams boasting prolific offenses, the Tar Heels could find an edge with punt returner Ryan Switzer.

Clemson racked up a conference championship game record 608 yards, eclipsing the 500-yard mark for the ninth consecutive game.

UNC previously hadn’t won more than eight games nor had been ranked in the top 10 of the Associated Press poll since 1997, Mack Brown’s final season before leaving to take over at Texas.

Senior wide receiver Quinshad Davis caught three passes for 73 yards against Clemson.

The Tar Heels took advantage right away, quickly moving 34 yards in four plays with Williams finding Switzer in the back of the end zone for a 3-yard touchdown pass to give the Tar Heels a 16-14 lead. The Tigers turned the takeaway into the first of three straight scoring drives.

After North Carolina got the game to one possession with 1:13 left, the Tar Heels had to onside kick. The Tar Heels recovered the ensuing onside kick but a phantom offsides call forced a re-kick.

After making the catch at the line of scrimmage, he ran through the secondary for the score that put the Tar Heels up 9-7 with 1:44 remaining in the opening period. This time Clemson recovered and ran out the clock. That’s all I’m going to say about it. They were wrong, ” Fedora said.

While the Tar Heels’ defense has improved, so has Watson and the Clemson offense.

It was sort of a coming out party for Watson, who has continued to succeed at Clemson, and is in consideration for the Heisman Trophy.

Watson has accumulated 4,399 total yards (3,512 passing, 887 rushing) and scored 41 total touchdowns (30 pass, 11 rush) in 2015, according to ESPN.

“Deshaun Watson was fantastic”, said Swinney, coaching in his 100th game at Clemson.

Swinney got the pizza idea rolling before the first playoff rankings were announced when asked if Clemson would celebrate if the Tigers were included in the top four. For now, he’s focused on what his team earned on Saturday. “We are one of the better teams in the country”.

That program is now the only undefeated Power Five team, and on Saturday the figures within the Tigers’ quest for perfection spilled out into a postgame celebration at Bank of American Stadium. We fought. Nobody was down on the sideline. He completed 11 of his 33 attempts and often appeared helpless amid the Tigers’ tenacious pass rush.

Clemson would add one last score before the half. He wore down the North Carolina defense, leading his team to touchdown drives of 96 and 97 yards.

As far as the offsides call, no one seems to want to mention the fact that UNC was holding the entire game. But 13-0 don’t win a national championship anymore. That’s why Swinney knows exactly how hard it is to be flawless in college football.

“It’s easy to not appreciate the moment”. The Tigers will be a lot to handle.

“There was no fake punt, that was just him losing his mind”, Swinney said.