Dabo Swinney enjoys going against conventional wisdom.
It’s part of the Clemson Tigers head coach’s brand. It’s worked until it doesn’t. Needless to say, it didn’t work in Clemson’s 33-21 loss to Louisville on Saturday in Death Valley, as Swinney would be the first one to tell you that he was out-coached by Jeff Brohm in the Cardinals’ first-ever win over the Tigers.
Swinney made some head-scratching decisions even before Bob Wischusen took him to task for going against conventional thinking. Down 19 at the beginning of the fourth quarter, Swinney elected to kick a field goal from the 7-yard line. He did so even though his kicker, Nolan Hauser, already had an attempt blocked right before halftime.
He had his second attempt blocked from 24 yards out.
Hauser is 8-of-12 on the season, with all four of his misses resulting from blocked kicks. Yet, Swinney tried to make it a 16-point game instead of a 19-point game.
It didn’t work.
Still down by 19, Clemson scored a touchdown with six minutes remaining in regulation. Instead of going for two to cut the lead to 11, which would make it a two-possession game (touchdown, two-point conversion, and a field goal), Swinney kicked the extra point to be down by 12, meaning the Tigers still needed to score two touchdowns.
Naturally, ESPN’s announcers — Wischusen and Louis Riddick — weren’t impressed
“They gotta go for two here,” Wischusen exclaimed. “If you kick the extra point, you’re down by 12. This doesn’t make any sense. You go for two here to try to cut the lead to 11 with six minutes to go. They’re kicking the extra point with six minutes remaining, but now you’re down by 12. I don’t understand, in any way, shape, or form, the decision not to go for two points there.”
“You’re running out of time. You need to keep a field goal in play as one of the scores you need,” the ESPN play-by-play voice added. “The only way that a field goal factors into one of the scores you need in the last six minutes is you go for two there cut the lead down to 11, and then you need eight more and a three. And instead, now they’re down by 12.”
“This doesn’t make any sense.”
Bob Wischusen did not understand Dabo Swinney’s decision to kick a PAT when a two-point conversion could have cut the Clemson deficit to 11. pic.twitter.com/ud0wmpTWUy
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) November 3, 2024
Swinney offered an explanation in the postgame press conference, as noted by The State’s Chapel Fowler.
His reasoning didn’t make sense. He said the Tigers didn’t consider it, with all their charts saying kick it and go get an onside kick afterward.
“Anything can happen,” he said.
That’s very true, but his team still needed two touchdowns in under six minutes when they weren’t able to effectively drive the football down the field or show any sense of urgency to do so in the second half. Perhaps the kicking game, conceding two blocked kicks, played into the decision, but that didn’t factor into Swinney’s explanation, even if it did.
Asked Clemson coach Dabo Swinney about not going for 2 late, which would’ve cut deficit to 11 points instead of 12 points. He says they didn’t consider it, all their charts said kick it and go get an onsides kick afterward. “Anything can happen,” Dabo says
— Chapel Fowler (@chapelfowler) November 3, 2024
With the score at 33-14, Phil Mafah’s second rushing touchdown in under five minutes gave Clemson another opportunity to make it an 11-point game. Yet, Swinney opted to kick the extra point again.
“Again, when the only thing mathematically that makes sense is going for two, they kick the extra point,” said Wischusen. “But I guess with 2:07 to go, it probably doesn’t matter that much now.”
With the clock dwindling on Clemson’s undefeated conference record in the ACC, its chances at a comeback weren’t exactly helped by Swinney’s strange calls — or his faith in “the charts,” guiding him to a couple of blocked kicks and a reluctance to go for two.
The Tigers did appear to recover the onside kick after making it a 26-14 game, but the call on the field gave the recovery to Louisville. And after a lengthy review, the officiating crew stuck with the call on the field, which led to a pretty “inappropriate” response from the Clemson faithful.
“And now we’ve got the crowd acting in a completely inappropriate way, as now a lot of debris is being thrown on the field. And now the cheerleaders have to run out of the end zone not only to clear the field, but also to dodge water bottles…”pic.twitter.com/jfgU0rlIrw
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) November 3, 2024
For a coach who’s built a legacy on confidence and unconventional thinking, Saturday’s uninspiring performance leaned less toward calculated risk-taking and more toward head-scratching stubbornness. As the Tigers no longer control their own destiny, Clemson fans have to wonder if Swinney’s gut feeling needs a little more reality check and a little less “anything can happen.”
