Five Spot
50% OFF on a Tigerillustrated.com subscription! Makes for a fantastic Christmas gift!
CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Maybe Dabo Swinney should spend the next three weeks being mad about stuff people are saying. Or even not saying.
Just keep complaining, and no Clemson fan will complain.
Because the more the coach gets fired up about season-long narratives that cast his team in a lesser light than he thinks it deserves, the more fire the Tigers breathe.
ALSO SEE: 50% OFF on a Tigerillustrated.com subscription! | Clemson's commitments
Saturday night Clemson vaporized Virginia 62-17 to claim a fifth consecutive ACC title on the way to its fifth consecutive College Football Playoff.
At this rate, who's going to stop this offense in the playoff? If they let the Baltimore Ravens into it maybe they could, but that's probably not going to happen.
The defense was a bit shaky and allowed 300-plus yards for the first time all year. But the offense was earth-shaking throughout and continued to send a thunderous message to the rest of college football.
Clemson amassed 621 yards and 28 first downs and won its eighth consecutive game by 30 or more points. That streak becomes the longest such run in the AP poll era (since 1936), moving past 2011 Houston and 1976 Michigan.
Swinney said earlier in the week that a number of his players have had "beautiful" seasons without sufficient recognition from ESPN and the national media.
The beauty of this offense was on full display as Trevor Lawrence, Tee Higgins and Travis Etienne looked every bit like NFL players inside an NFL stadium.
Lawrence threw for 302 yards and four touchdowns on a 16-of-22 clip. Higgins took over the game with nine catches for 182 yards and three touchdowns. And Etienne was a freight train on his 14 carries for 114 yards and a touchdown.
The Tigers joined 1971-75 Alabama and 2015-19 Oklahoma as the only members of any active FBS conference to win five straight outright conference titles. Since the 1992 advent of conference championship games, Clemson is the only school to win five consecutive league title games.
Oh, and Swinney's team won for the 28th straight time. Virginia had 375 yards and 22 first downs while holding the ball for 33:14, but it didn't matter because the Tigers' offense was typically pyrotechnic.
Clemson had 408 yards through the air and 213 yards on the ground, averaging 9.4 yards on just 66 plays and 19.4 yards per completion.
Clemson's defense wasn't used to budging much, so it was a bit of a shock to the system to see Virginia moving the ball early.
The Cavaliers managed to isolate Tanner Muse in coverage on two big passing plays from Bryce Perkins to Hasise Dubois in the first quarter, including a 20-yard touchdown strike on Virginia's second possession.
This came after a 46-yard pass from Perkins to Dubois on the first drive set up Virginia at Clemson's 13. But a third-down interception by Nolan Turner in the back of the end zone kept the Cavs from taking an early lead.
Virginia had 167 yards and nine first downs on 25 plays over their first three possessions. But then Clemson settled down and tightened up, limiting the Cavs to 26 yards and two first downs from then until halftime with the Tigers up 31-7.
And by that time, Clemson was well on its way to another dominating ACC title game victory.
The Cavs found their offensive bearings early in the second half and moved it 85 yards on 10 plays for a touchdown. Two drives later, they went 58 yards in nine plays for a field goal.
And thus one of the most astounding streaks of the 2019 season came to an end: Clemson was the first team in searchable data dating to 1996 to open a season by holding its first 12 opponents to 300 or fewer yards. Ohio State had matched the Tigers through 11 games before allowing 396 yards to Michigan last week.
So it's another Clemson championship.
And the ultimate hardware is in sight.
THE TIGER FAN SHOP has all of your Clemson 2019 ACC Champions gear HERE!
