Clemson vs. Wake Forest – Syndication Server

Clemson falls in crucial regular season finale at Wake Forest, 81-76

Needing a win to clinch a double bye in the ACC Tournament, Clemson came up short in an 81-76 loss to Wake Forest Saturday at Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Winston-Salem.

Hunter Sallis led all scorers with 22 points for Wake Forest, which received a boost to its NCAA Tournament hopes with a solid victory over a Quad 1 opponent.

The Demon Deacons (19-12 overall, 11-9 ACC) made 12 of their last 13 shots to overcome a five-point deficit earlier in the second half.

“We had chances… we just weren’t quite tough enough to finish the win,” Clemson coach Brad Brownell said afterwards. “Give (Wake Forest) credit. Their shot-making was elite.”

Clemson (21-10 overall, 11-9 conference) got 18 points from PJ Hall but turned in an otherwise disappointing finish in the team’s regular season finale.

The Tigers got off to a sluggish start and trailed at halftime, 34-28. Wake Forest pushed its lead to eight early in the second half before Clemson used a 21-8 run to take a five-point lead at 49-44 around the 12-minute mark of the half.

Things slowly slipped away after that. Parker Friedrichsen and Efton Reid made clutch 3-pointers on back to back trips down the floor to open up a 56-52 Wake Forest led with 9:20 to play.

When Andrew Carr and Kevin Miller added their own 3-point baskets, the ‘Deacs’ had extended their lead to nine at 70-61.

Chase Hunter hit a step-back 3-pointer with 15 seconds left that cut the lead to three at 77-74, but Wake Forest closed the game 4-for-4 from the foul line to lock up a much-needed victory headed into the conference tournament.

Hunter had 17 points for Clemson, Joe Girard added 14 points, and Jack Clark had 10.

Carr had 17 for Wake Forest.

The Tigers could still get a double bye if NC State beats Pitt Saturday night. A Pitt win would give the Panthers the ACC’s No. 4 seed and the double bye. In that scenario, Clemson would have to play a Wednesday game in the tournament, which begins Tuesday at Washington D.C.’s Capital One Arena.

Swinney on Clemson’s offensive inconsistency and the need to clean things up

Swinney on Clemson’s offensive inconsistency and the need to clean things up.

The Clemson football program has had a very different 2023 season than many expected.

Heading into their Week 7 bye, few expected the Tigers to have two losses… but they do. Things have looked great on the defensive side of the ball, but the offense has been struggling mightily. We’ve seen flashes of excellence, but inconsistency has been a significant narrative this season.

During his weekly conference call Monday night, Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney discussed Clemson’s offense and what we have seen from it.

“We have to get eleven guys consistently doing what we need them to do,” Swinney said. “So, we just have to be a little more precise. A little more precision with our execution and consistency in that. Obviously, we have to find a way to eliminate (the turnovers).”

Offensive coordinator Garrett Riley also mentioned all eleven guys not being on the same page. Riley stated how it felt as if one person was always out of sync in the offense against Wake Forest, causing issues.

Turnovers are a different story. We saw another two turnovers against the Demon Deacons, with Cade Klubnik and Will Shipley miscommunicating on a read and freshman wide receiver Tyler Brown muffing a punt. Lucky for the offense, the defense had them covered, allowing 0 points of turnovers against Wake Forest.

“We have had two massive turnovers in ball handling. One cost us big time. The other one, it cost us a possession,” the head coach said. “Fortunately, our defense did not give up the points. We have to clean that up and, again, just continue to grow our personnel and just play like we have played these last three games and the last two-quarters of this last game.

“We have outgained every single opponent we have played, and we have done a really good job on third down all year. I was proud of the fact we had three trips to the red zone (last week), and we got two touchdowns. I wish we had all three, but that is an area we needed to get better.”

Clemson’s got the bye week to clean things up before heading to No. 25 Miami on Oct. 21 for a huge road matchup.

Dabo Swinney on the officiating in game against Wake Forest, questionable roughing the passer penalty

Swinney was asked about the questionable roughing the passer call on Jeremiah Trotter Jr.

During Clemson’s 17-12 win over Wake Forest on Saturday, the ACC officiating crew put together one of the worst performances I’ve seen from referees in quite some time.

Many factors made me feel this way, with one of the biggest being a seriously questionable roughing the passer call against Clemson star linebacker Jeremiah Trotter Jr.; visually, it looked like an embarrassing call. During Dabo Swinney’s weekly radio show Monday night, Swinney commented on the officiating when asked about the roughing the passer call.

“A tough call,” Swinney said. “I don’t know what you tell your linebacker… They made the call, but it is what it is.”

Things went a bit deeper than this, however, as the officials struggled all day with making the right call and doing it promptly. At times, it didn’t look like this crew even knew what they were doing.

If it weren’t for a false start penalty the play after Wake Forest quarterback Mitch Griffis illegally threw the ball to another Demon Deacon past the line of scrimmage, these officials would have made another critical mistake. Swinney touched on this during the show.

“Just like the play that, I mean, we thought the quarterback was across the line of scrimmage and a forward pass, and they ran another play, and it was a penalty, and then they come back, and they reviewed the play before the play,” Swinney said. “So, there’s some challenging things that come. Because my comment was okay, if they had thrown a touchdown pass, would we have called that off? Because the ball was snapped.”

“Certainly, nobody’s perfect, but there’s definitely a couple that I disagreed with for sure,” Swinney said. “But we’ll keep moving forward. Thankful we were able to win the game.”

The ACC needs to do a better job here. Swinney acknowledged that he likes the ACC’s Supervisor of Football Officials, Al Riveron, but he’s not going to call him or the ACC out on these things. In contrast, we will.

We need better officiating than what we saw on Saturday, not just for Clemson but for the entire conference’s sake.

Clemson moves up to No.11 in ESPN’s SP+ rankings following a Week 6 win over Wake Forest

Clemson moves up again ESPN’s SP+ rankings after an underwhelming Week 6 win over Wake Forest.

For everyone who watched Clemson scrape by Wake Forest 17-12 in Death Valley for the Tigers’ homecoming, you know it was not a good performance from Dabo Swinney’s team.

Clemson’s defense looked phenomenal as they were continually put in bad situations that they could overcome through hard work and talent. On the other hand, the offense looked about as bad as we’ve seen all season, raising serious questions about what the rest of the season will look like.

Even so, the Tigers moved up three spots in ESPN’s SP+ rankings ($$$) update to No.11. What is ESPN’s SP+? Here’s a little breakdown.

SP+ is indeed intended to be predictive and forward-facing. It is not a résumé ranking that gives credit for big wins or particularly brave scheduling — no good predictive system is. It is simply a measure of the most sustainable and predictable aspects of football. If you’re lucky or unimpressive in a win, your rating will probably fall. If you’re strong and unlucky in a loss, it will probably rise.

Clemson’s defense had to have made up for the offense in this one; otherwise, a move-up simply would not make sense. So, let’s look at the numbers here.

Clemson’s overall rating is 17.3 (No.11), the offense is 32.9 (No.26), the defense is 15.6 (No.7), and special teams is 0.0 (69). The overall rating has Clemson still ahead of Florida State, who moved up three spots to No.15.

From an analytical standpoint, Clemson is still a near-elite team… but we haven’t seen this translate onto the field yet. Basically, this team is drastically underperforming.

The Week 7 bye will allow this coaching staff and team an opportunity to clean things up as they look to play up to their potential.

Clemson moves up the rankings in USA TODAY Sports College Football Re-Rank 1-133 after a Week 6 win over Wake Forest

Clemson didn’t look great in their Week 6 win over Wake Forest, but the Tigers moved up this 1-133 re-rank.

Dabo Swinney tied Clemson legend Frank Howard’s all-time win record on Saturday, as the Tigers scraped by Wake Forest 17-12 in Death Valley for Homecoming.

Throughout the season, Clemson has been all over the USA TODAY Sports College Football 1-133 re-rank, with the Tigers moving up in Week 6, even after the questionable performance. Following the Week 6 win, Clemson moved up four spots to No.30 in the re-rank.

Last week, I was arguing how Clemson’s ranking No.34 was too low, and while I will stand by that as they move up to No.30. Even so, it is hard to ignore what we saw on Saturday in front of Clemson’s home crowd.

The Tigers’ defense looked phenomenal, and in a prime spot for the offense to continue improving and prove they are trending in the right direction, they flopped. It was a frustrating performance that left fans with a bad taste heading into Clemson’s Week 7 bye.

I still think this team is a top-25 caliber team; Saturday left some doubts about how good this team can be this season.

Trotter comments on the questionable roughing the passer penalty against Wake Forest

Jeremiah Trotter Jr. comments on the questionable roughing the passer penalty he received in the Tigers’ win over Wake Forest.

During Clemson’s underwhelming 17-12 win over Wake Forest, we saw a questionable roughing the passer penalty against Tigers’ star linebacker Jeremiah Trotter Jr., that had the entirety of Memorial Stadium booing.

In the third quarter, Trotter was sent on a blitz where he exploded through the offensive line and laid a beautiful hit down on Wake Forest quarterback Mitch Griffis. This looked like a clean hit for myself and seemingly everyone other than the refs.

Rather than a huge sack in a 7-point game, Wake Forest was given the call and delivered the ball on the Tigers’ 24-yard line. For Trotter, he simply had to move on from this and think about the next play.

“I’m just a player,” Trotter said. “The ref said, roughing the passer, and I had to keep playing and move on. I will let the fans have their own opinion on that.”

Credit to Trotter for this response because I know many others would not have been so friendly about that call. It is a great mindset to have as a player, as you need to move to the next play rather than worry about the past.

On the other hand, Dabo Swinney had a bit funnier response to this one.

“I’d probably get in trouble if I got into all that; I’ll plead the 5th,” said Swinney.

Calls like this will happen, and there is nothing we can do to change that. You must move on and make up for it in the next play.

Social media reacts: Clemson scrapes by Wake Forest for a Homecoming win

Here is a look at how social media reacted to Clemson’s lackluster win over Wake Forest.

Dabo Swinney and the Tigers scraped by Wake Forest for a 17-12 in Death Valley on Homecoming, and it was not the performance any of us were expecting or hoping for.

The potential was there for an excellent performance, and we partly saw that happen. Clemson’s defense was phenomenal in this win, saving Clemson from a brutal Homecoming loss that looked like a real possibility during the game.

The issues came on the offensive side of the ball, where Cade Klubnik and the Tigers’ offensive unit struggled throughout the game to get anything going. Outside of a couple good drives, it was a nightmare day for this unit.

With a win or a loss come reactions, and this win brought a ton. Here is a look at how Twitter (X) reacted to Clemson’s scraping by the Demon Deacons.

Five takeaways from Clemson’s uninspiring Week 6 win over Wake Forest

Here are five takeaways from Clemson’s uninspiring Week 6 win over Wake Forest.

Dabo Swinney and Clemson didn’t look great in their 17-12 win over Wake Forest on Saturday as the Tigers scraped by the Demon Deacons for a Homecoming win.

On offense, the Tigers struggled throughout the game as they couldn’t find a way to consistently put together scoring drives. It was a poor performance from Garrett Riley’s unit, which looked underwhelming for most of the game.

On the other side of the ball, Clemson’s defense looked excellent. They bottled up Wake Forest starting quarterback Mitch Griffis and the Demon Deacons offense, making it a long day for Wake Forest.

It wasn’t the performance any of us were looking for from this team, which has happened more often than not this season. Here are five takeaways from Clemson’s uninspiring Week 6 win over Wake Forest.

Clemson’s Defensive Player of the Game from their 17-12 win over Wake Forest

This Clemson cornerback looked like a standout as he stepped up in the Tigers’ 17-12 win over Wake Forest.

Wes Goodwin and the Clemson defense looked excellent in the Tigers’ 17-12 win over Wake Forest, with a sophomore cornerback stepping up and having a huge performance as the Tigers were without their top CB Nate Wiggins.

Our Defensive Player of the Game from the Tigers win is sophomore cornerback Toriano Pride Jr., who looked like one of the best players on the field Saturday. When your secondary is missing their top player, someone is going to have to step up. This week, it was Pride who answered the call.

The young quarterback was active throughout the game and was tested by Wake Forest quarterback Mitch Griffis multiple times. Pride was not phased, recording a team-high three pass breakups while adding seven tackles and a tackle for loss.

This may have been the best game of Pride’s young career with the Tiger.

Clemson’s Offensive Player of the Game from their 17-12 win over Wake Forest

Clemson’s star running back showed up in the second half of their win over Wake Forest.

Cade Klubnik and the Clemson offense struggled in the Tigers’ 17-12 win over Wake Forest, but luckily, the team’s star running back came to play.

Will Shipley put the Clemson offense on his back in the second half, earning our Offensive Player of the Game honors. Without Shipley’s second-half performance, Clemson could have been in serious trouble of falling to the Demon Deacons at home for their homecoming.

Shipley ended the game with 19 carries for 97 yards and a touchdown, with nearly all of his production coming in the second half. After a first half where Shipley and change of pace running back Phil Mafah combined for 20 yards, the second half was all Shipley.

In situations where your offense is struggling, and the game is on the line, you need to take advantage of your best players, and that is exactly what this offense did. Big players show up in big situations, and that’s what Shipley did.