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TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Clemson football coach Dabo Swinney didn’t think he would achieve this feat.
Swinney became the winningest coach in ACC history with No. 174 in the No. 14 Tigers’ 29-13 victory vs. Florida State (1-5, 1-4 ACC). He surpassed his mentor Bobby Bowden, who coached at FSU from 1976 through 2009 and held the record with 173 wins from 1992 onward when it joined the conference until his retirement, on the field named after him at Doak Campbell Stadium.
“I’m just blessed, I’m very honored. I don’t want to downplay it,” Swinney said postgame. “I honestly think Coach Bowden is probably smiling. Somebody’s got to break it, and somebody will break this record one of these days.”
Swinney’s 174th win wasn’t aesthetically pleasing. Clemson’s offense made six trips to the red zone but all ended with field goals. Freshman kicker Nolan Hauser went 5-for-7 on Saturday with his two misses coming from blocks.
The Tigers (4-1, 3-0 ACC) grew accustomed to beating their opponents in blowouts, averaging 55 points (the most in the nation) and winning by an average of 32 points during their past three games. They had to settle for three often on Saturday.
Still, Clemson’s formula was effective to win in hostile territory: get into scoring position, don’t turn the ball over to give FSU momentum at home, score three or seven points and rely on its defense to contain a backup quarterback. It didn’t score video game numbers but exited a conference foe’s stadium with a win.
“It’s good to see us win in different ways,” Swinney said. “To make five field goals — because we’ve been so good finishing with a bunch of touchdowns — and we had some explosive plays, but to put some drives together (was great).”
Despite the lack of fireworks, Clemson generated 500 yards of offense. Cade Klubnik threw two touchdowns, Phil Mafah rushed for 154 yards and Antonio Williams recorded a career-high 84 receiving yards.
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The Tigers couldn’t break through into the end zone as often as they did in their previous three games, but their offense was still humming with explosiveness. They had 16 big plays — passes for 15 yards or more or rushes for 10-plus-yards — for 351 yards.
“We played an A-, B+ game on offense in total, and we still had 500 yards of offense, so that’s really special,” Klubnik said.
Clemson’s defense continued its strong play, recording an interception, two sacks and seven pass breakups. It faltered in the fourth quarter but held on to force FSU to its second-lowest scoring total of the season.
Clemson sits atop the ACC and looks to win another road game against Wake Forest (2-3, 1-1) next Saturday (noon ET, ESPN).
“We’re not a great team yet,” Swinney said, “but we took a step forward to be able to come on the road and win in a sound way against a team that was picked preseason top 10.”
Derrian Carter covers Clemson athletics for The Greenville News and the USA TODAY Network. Email him at dcarter@gannett.com and follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @DerrianCarter00
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