Clemson survives wake-up call from North Carolina in Chapel Hill

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – Everyone needs a wake-up call every now and then.

Yes, even a No. 1-ranked team riding a 19-game winning streak and still sporting National Champion gear.

Clemson got its alert Saturday afternoon on a sun-splashed day amid the pines in Chapel Hill at the same Kenan Stadium where the Tigers came up on the short end of a 21-16 verdict on their most recent visit here nine years earlier.

“Probably the worst game I’ve ever coached,” Clemson coach Dabo Swinney said last week.

Clemson vs. UNC:Clemson football should face Tar Heels more than once every Carolina Blue moon

Saturday’s visit went better.

Barely.

Clemson’s defense thwarted a two-point conversion with 1:17 remaining in the game and the Tigers held on for a 21-20 victory that extended their program-record winning streak to 20 games.

"When we had to make a play, we made it, and that's what winners do," Swinney said. "I know we're supposed to just show up and beat everybody by double-digits and all that, but this is college football."

Perhaps North Carolina provided a harbinger of things to come when the Tar Heels took the opening kickoff and scored in four plays for a 7-0 lead – the first points the Tigers had allowed in the first quarter this season.

The game was a back-and-forth affair from there, rife with tense and tenuous moments and chock full of missed opportunities on both sides.

It harkened back to the days in the 1980s when these two teams regularly waged hard-fought, competitive slugfests that more often than not determined the Atlantic Coast Conference champion.

Under first-year coach Mack Brown, who is in his second incarnation as the Tar Heels' head coach, North Carolina is attempting to rekindle some of that past glory, and that was evident Saturday.

The Tar Heels waged a gallant final effort, executing a 16-play, 75-yard drive that consumed 8:32 and pulled Brown’s club a single point behind, 21-20. Brown opted to go for the two-point conversion and a potentially program-altering victory, but the Tigers’ defense was up to the task, with Xavier Thomas, James Skalski and Nolan Turner pouncing on freshman quarterback Sam Howell as he rolled to his right. Chad Smith also was in on the play that sealed the Tar Heels fate and perhaps the Tigers’ season.

"How about North Carolina -- what can you say about that group?" Swinney said. "They played with tremendous heart and tremendous effort and I knew that coming in. I told our guys they were good enough to beat us and good enough to beat anybody in this league."

It was a matchup that proved downright ugly for the much of the game, but Clemson gathered the gumption and guile to make some pretty plays when it mattered most, including:

► Sophomore quarterback Trevor Lawrence went 3-for-3 and rushed four times for 25 yards, including a 3-yard touchdown, on a 10-play drive that tied the score at 14 just 33 seconds before the half;

► Clemson’s defense posted back-to-back sacks by Isaiah Simmons and Tyler Davis to thwart a promising third-quarter drive by the Tar Heels;

► The defense came up huge again on North Carolina’s next possession, stonewalling third- and fourth-down efforts by the Tar Heels, with linebacker Simmons looming large on both stops.

► Tee Higgins was the Tigers' top playmaker, with six receptions for 129 yards, including a 38-yard touchdown catch that provided what would turn out to be the winning score with 9:54 remaining.

But no play was larger than the two-point conversion stop, allowing Clemson to remain atop the ACC standings and maintain its status as the odds-on favorite to capture a fifth consecutive ACC Championship.

"I thought it was a really fun game," said Simmons, who led Clemson with 10 tackles. "What better situation could there be -- game's on the line, one play left? It was all on us. Those are the kind of games you dream about."

Clemson’s offense never looked completely sharp and was held to a season-low 331 total yards. The Tigers had myriad penalties that were more the product of discipline rather than crowd noise.

Given the closeness of the game against a team that counts losses to Appalachian State and Wake Forest, Clemson (5-0, 3-0) may take a hit in the polls, potentially slipping from the No. 1 spot.

But there could have been valuable lessons gleaned from a midseason wake-up call that still goes into the “W” ledger despite being far from perfect.

"If you win by one point or 50 points, it's a win," Swinney said. "It's kind of like when I make a birdie in golf. It usually hits off a tree, runs across the green, hits off the golf cart, bounces back up there close to the flag and I putt it in and I write '3' on the scorecard. There ain't no pictures on the scorecard."

It was close but no cigar for the Tar Heels (2-3, 1-1) and their inspired effort, tying for the closest they have come to knocking off a No. 1-ranked team. It also was the Tar Heels' closest loss in 58 games against Clemson.

This much is certain: if Clemson rides into another successful postseason, the Tigers won’t soon forget the afternoon they received a late-September wake-up call in Chapel Hill.