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Only three games into the 2025 college football season, the Clemson Tigers’ College Football Playoff hopes are in serious peril after a brutal 24-21 loss to Georgia Tech Saturday at Bobby Dodd Stadium.
Yellow Jackets kicker Aidan Birr rushed onto the field and drilled a 55-yard field goal as time expired in Atlanta to snap a nine-game Georgia Tech losing streak to the Tigers that had dated back to 2014.
For Clemson (1-2 overall, 0-1 ACC), coach Dabo Swinney’s team has now lost four of its last six games dating back to last year’s 17-14 loss to South Carolina.
Clemson got off to another slow start Saturday, falling behind 10-0 after Georgia Tech (3-0, 1-0) quarterback Haynes King burned the Tigers’ secondary with a 42-yard pass to Eric Rivers that led to a 5-yard Jamal Haynes touchdown just five seconds into the second quarter.
Clemson fought back and took its only lead in the third quarter when Cade Klubnik hit Bryant Wesco Jr. on a crossing pattern for a 73-yard touchdown run that was aided by a block from T.J. Moore. The Tigers went up 14-13 and seemed to be on the verge of taking control.
But Haynes led Georgia Tech (3-0, 1-1) on a 13-play, 95-yard touchdown drive that took 6:15 off the clock. The Jackets went ahead 21-14 on King’s one-yard touchdown run and some trickery on a two-point conversion with 10:02 to play. Adam Randall’s two-yard score with 3:21 left tied the game at 21-21 before the game-winning drive.
King used 10 plays to march Georgia Tech 38 yards into field goal range for Birr’s game winner. He finished 19-of-27 for 216 yards through the air and rushed 25 times for 103 yards. The Jackets finished with 358 yards of total offense. Clemson totaled 381 yards of offense with Klubnik finishing 15-of-26 for 207 yards and a touchdown in another modest performance. He rushed for 62 yards on 17 carries, and Wesco finished with 124 yards on seven catches.
After the game, Swinney met with the media to discuss his team’s latest setback. Here’s what he said.
Georgia Tech stuns Clemson: Dabo Swinney on differences in the game
After congratulating Georgia Tech’s players and coach Brent Key, Swinney began by saying that the story of Saturday’s loss was Clemson’s two turnovers.
“Got two turnovers, and they got three points off the two turnovers. That’s the difference in the game. We miss a field goal and three points, that’s the difference in the game,” Swinney said of Nolan Hauser’s missed kick from 52 yards late in the first quarter.
“We get a huge third down drop that maybe we put the game away right there, and that’s football. Wesco gave us a chance to win, but when you’re in games that (come down to) a few plays, those add up. The two-point conversion, great call by them. You’ve got to give them credit. They executed well in some critical situations. That two-point conversion was the difference in the game, too. It was one of those plays.”
Swinney said the response from the Tigers’ offense after being down 10-0 was “tremendous.”
“Obviously disappointed in the turnovers,” Swinney said, noting Klubnik’s first-quarter fumble and his interception at the Georgia Tech 6-yard line on the Tigers’ first drive of the second half.
“Awesome response by our offense on the road to go down and tie the ball game up,” Swinney said of Adam Randall’s two-yard touchdown that made it 21-21 with 3:26 to play. “Today when we needed a stop, we couldn’t get it.”
Dabo Swinney sums up Clemson’s two losses amid disappointing start
“We’ve got two losses that have come down to the last play. It’s just that simple. The first game, the defense kept getting a stop in the fourth quarter, and we just didn’t make the play that was there. And in this game, we couldn’t get the stop that we needed. The 90-yard drive was huge.”
Dabo Swinney on ‘chaotic’ game-winning Georgia Tech drive
“The 55-yard field goal I think is by far his longest. Didn’t want to use a timeout there because it’s a chaotic situation, and I didn’t want to help them. I felt like that’s what they would do. That’s what I told Tom (Allen) before they went out there. I said that they’re probably going to run the quarterback and go red field goal and just take a shot at it hoping that they might pop it.
“Hey, they hit it. I’ve been on both sides of it. We were on the right side of a 56-yarder and the wrong side of a 55-yarder, but give that kid credit and give Georgia Tech credit.”
Swinney gives Georgia Tech credit for upset win over Clemson
I thought when they had to have it, they got it done. Tremendous amount of respect for Brent and tremendous amount of respect for their team and especially their quarterback. He is just one freaking tough competitor. He was a huge difference for them for sure, so I give them all the credit in the world. They were 10 of 18 on third and fourth down. On the flip side, we were 8 of 13 on third and fourth down.’
‘We have to look at everything’: Dabo Swinney takes responsibility for Clemson’s 1-2 start
“Just incredibly disappointed, obviously. This is Clemson. We’ve got two tough, tough losses to two good teams. Again, it’s two games that have come down to the last play, and it just hasn’t gone our way. It’s my job so I take responsibility for that. So anyway, there’s where we are and that’s our reality.
“Obviously incredibly disappointed for our team and these kids. We’ve got great kids. They work their tail off and they care, and I hurt for our fans, too, because they care. It’s not the start that we wanted, but we’ve got to stay together and we’ve got to fight our way out. One play at a time, one game at a time. That’s all we can do. We can’t do anything about what has happened; all we can do is keep working and try to see if we can find a way to make a couple more plays. Continue to do some of the good things that we’re doing.
“We have to look at everything, but again there’s a lot of good. We’ve got two heartbreaking losses where we had a lead in the fourth quarter. Got a couple of chances to put it away and we don’t put it away.”
Swinney on dealing with negativity, Tigers staying together
Swinney said he knew there was a lot of criticism following the Tigers’ 1-2 start, which saw them ranked No. 4 in the preseason AP Top 25 poll and is all but guaranteed to see them unranked in Sunday’s polls.
“I know there will be a lot of criticism, a lot of negativity, a lot of all that stuff. That all comes with it. So it’s important that our team and everybody stays away from all that and just stays together. None of that stuff’s gonna help. We’ve just got to try to go find a way to win a game we week, and got a long way to go. A long way to go and this is competition.”
“There’s no quitters in that locker room,” Swinney continued. “There’s no quit in me, that’s for sure, and we’ll see if we can find a way to win a game next week.”
Watch Swinney’s full press conference after Saturday’s loss to Georgia Tech below.
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