Swinney sees 'very, very gritty' effort in Tigers finding a way to win against Wake

Clemson pulled out a "very gritty" win against Wake, Clemson coach Dabo Swinney said.

by Ariana Pensy - Correspondent - Sun Oct 08 07:00:05 GMT-04:00 2023

CLEMSON - It was not pretty, but the Tigers got their fifteenth consecutive victory over the Demon Deacons. Head coach Dabo Swinney remains undefeated versus this ACC rival, despite all of the mistakes that were present in the game.

“Today we were very, very gritty and found a way to win and lost the turnover margin,” Swinney said. “So, hopefully that’s, again, a sign of just that we’re turning a little bit. But, I’m really proud of our team, just took another step today. Our goal was to just find a way to win, and we did that.”

The weakest position on the team appears to be clearly at kicker. Redshirt freshman Robert Gunn III was benched for graduate kicker Jonathan Weitz. Despite making an early field goal and not missing either of the extra points, he did send a 51-yard field goal just wide left. The repeated misses by both of these kickers have led some people to question whether the Tigers would be open to considering open tryouts. Swinney quickly dismissed that idea and also revealed that Gunn III had been dealing with an injury.

“We’ve got our roster set, and we’re confident with the people we have on the roster. He’s (Weitz) about 53 (yards). That’s probably his range, and the confidence comes from practice, and he really hit it good. I mean, it’s a tough field goal. But, it was a good kick, a good effort, and just was a little left. But he had plenty of leg, so the thinking was, ‘Hey, I think we’ll make it,’ and we see him make it in practice,” Swinney said. “Robert Gunn has not kicked in two weeks. He’s been battling a kind of, he’s only kicked on game day for the last couple of ball games. He’s not kicked at all during practice … He’s been having a little inflammation in his thigh. He’s sore and he’s just been showing up on game day and bombing it.”

Another weakness has been the fumbles. Going into this game, Clemson had six fumbles lost, the most out of any team with a positive turnover margin, which also shows the defense's success. However, they did not win the turnover margin Saturday, with another two fumbles lost. Despite that, Swinney sees this as a sign of improvement since they overcame these miscues.

“To win the game and lose the turnover margin, that’s a pretty good step for this bunch (because) that has been our Achilles heel this year against good teams. Again, two games that we dominated the statistics, right? We had almost 500 yards against Duke and had great stats against Florida State,” Swinney said. “But, there’s nothing that equalizes the game more than the turnover margin, and we weren’t able to overcome it in those games, and today we were. So, hopefully that shows a little more mental toughness.”

The Tigers were held to just five rushing yards in the first quarter, tied for their lowest in a quarter this season. However, they finished the game with 207, with 167 of those coming in the second half. Swinney attributes this to getting junior running back Will Shipley more involved in the game in the last 30 minutes.

“We just needed to kind of reset and refocus on some stuff, and we needed to get (Shipley) the ball. I think he only had five carries maybe in the first half, and again, we just, we were behind the chains, and the field position was really bad,” Swinney said. “We just miscued on some opportunities. It was frustrating. But, hey, we settled in. That’s why you play four quarters, and we were able to really get that run game going and lean on it in the second half, make some plays in the passing game as well. Just enough to find a way to win the game.”

The run game proved vital in the second half but essentially on the game's last drive. With 1:34 left in the game, Clemson ran the ball with junior running back Phil Mafah to run the clock down and force the Demon Deacons to use their timeouts. Mafah was able to pick up two first downs, clinching the victory for the Tigers. Getting those first downs, also being led by fifth-year offensive lineman Will Putnam who had his 3,000th snap in that game, also showed the improvement of this team to Swinney.

“To be able to run the ball the way we did in that situation when they absolutely have to get the ball back, and they got three timeouts, and we’re able to make them use all their timeouts, get the first down and finish the game, that was my favorite part of the day from an offensive standpoint,” Swinney said. “When we had to have it, we had the will to finish.”

Of course, you cannot talk about this game without mentioning the standout performance of the defense. The defense was frequently put in difficult positions, especially after the fumble on the handoff from sophomore quarterback Cade Klubnik to Shipley to set Wake Forest up at the Clemson 12-yard line. However, the Deacs came away from that drive with no points and were never able to score points off of turnovers. Further, they had four sacks and a fumble recovery of their own.

“No points off of turnovers, difference of the game. That’s the difference in winning and losing right there. So, I’m really proud of our defense,” Swinney said. “You all saw that game last year. It was one of the worst defensive days we had in a long time. So, I’m really proud of our defense and just their performance today.”

They had this performance despite being down one of their top players. Fifth-year cornerback Sheridan Jones was ruled out very shortly before the game. He had started all five games for Clemson until this contest; he has recorded eight solo tackles and one for loss so far this season.

“He just was feeling kind of sick and nauseous on the bus ride over, and his head was hurting, and could hardly look at the sun,” Swinney said. “So, they took him to evaluate him, and they’re running some tests on him, and that’s really all I know right now. So, literally right after we walked through the Tiger Walk, I get hit with that news.”

Luckily for Jones and the rest of the players that are trying to get back to full health, the Tigers are now on bye and do not have their next game until Saturday, October 21, at Miami, giving them more time to get healthy and in game shape.