CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Dabo Swinney threw away his headset and sprinted toward midfield with his arms outstretched, then rounded a corner near the 40-yard line.

As the Clemson head coach pointed to the sky, he moved so quickly that no one could stop him from celebrating after Saturday night’s ACC championship game in Charlotte.

When he finally slowed down and made his way to the stage at Bank of America Stadium moments later, the bear hugs began.

“Well, that was fun,” Swinney said after his Clemson team beat SMU 34-31 in a last-second thriller. “It’s something very special when you experience something like what we just experienced on the field and in the locker room. It’s amazing.”

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Just because Miami lost to Syracuse last week gave the Tigers an unlikely chance to advance to the ACC Championship Game on Saturday night. Swinney, believing his team’s season was all but over, didn’t watch the game until late in the fourth quarter. His quarterback, Cade Klubnik, revealed early Sunday morning that he sat crying in his car for about an hour after the Tigers lost to rival South Carolina, feeling like Clemson had blown its chance at a big offer.

When Swinney’s team took the field on a cold Saturday night against the red-hot Mustangs, they did so with great emotion and even higher stakes, knowing that the only path to the College Football Playoff was with a win. When SMU tied the game at 31 points late in the fourth quarter, the Tigers had 16 seconds to work magic and avoid overtime. And with three seconds left on the clock, they needed their biggest miracle of the season.

The team, with six blocked field goals in 2024, asked freshman kicker Nolan Hauser to hit a 56-yarder with the game on the line. This after he missed a 44-yarder early in the second quarter.

“(Offensive line) coach (Matt) Luke said, ‘Do you think he has a leg like that?'” Swinney said. “And I said, ‘We’re about to find out.'”

Hauser lined up and got a clean snap and hold.

He had just enough leg strength behind the kick to sling the ball through the middle of the uprights – marking the longest kick in ACC Championship Game history and the first time the game had ever been won by a walk-off field goal was won.

56-YARD GAME-WINNING FIELD GOAL!!!!!!@nolanhauser as cool as the temperatures outside 🥶

📺 @ClemsonFB | ABC | #ACCFCG 🏆 pic.twitter.com/j9bnw0NQuF

— ACC Football (@ACCFootball) December 8, 2024

Swinney set off. The orange and purple confetti fell. Hauser — whose father played baseball for Clemson and whose mother was an All-American soccer player for the Tigers — etched his name into Clemson history.

Who would have thought a week ago that the Tigers would be here?

“Coach Swinney said, ‘Put it through the uprights,’ and I winked at him,” Hauser said. “I thought, ‘I got you.’ … I’m just so happy.”

Clemson enters the playoffs after going 9-3 in the regular season with losses to Georgia, Louisville and South Carolina. Georgia’s loss in the season opener, a 34-3 result in Atlanta, raised questions about Clemson’s ability to keep up with the Bluebloods and where the Tigers were headed. The loss at Louisville nearly eliminated Clemson from the ACC Championship. And last week’s loss at South Carolina exposed the Tigers’ run defense in a way that must push any team with a mobile quarterback to its breaking point.

The Tigers have a lot of work to do in the coming weeks and will not be the favorites to win outright.

But for now, the Tigers have a chance — making their seventh playoff appearance and seeking their third national championship. That was all Swinney wanted, as late Saturday turned into early Sunday morning.

“When you get into the tournament, anything can happen. “We are a dangerous team,” he said. “We haven’t played our best football yet, but we’re still in the playoffs. I think that’s frustrating. But also exciting.”

(Photo: David Jensen/Getty Images)