Clemson stacks back-to-back road wins and much needed momentum ahead of SMU tilt
Dabo Swinney walked out of Alumni Stadium on Saturday night sounding relieved and a little fired up.
“Really just proud of our team,” he said after Clemson’s 41–10 rout of Boston College. “Back-to-back games on the road, two big wins. They really played well. So it’s really good to see that and starting to play like a team that I know that they can be.”
Swinney called it “a special place” for him, remembering the 2008 Tigers team that came to Chestnut Hill “3-4, with a fired staff” and “made a decision to try to finish.” Seventeen years later, his 2025 group secured a much-needed win. Swinney called the road win, “a great, great victory.”
The Tigers looked crisp from the start. “We had six consecutive scoring drives offensively,” Swinney said. Quarterback Cade Klubnik went 22-of-30 for 280 yards with a touchdown, adding another score on the ground.
Klubnik averaged 5.3 yards per carry before he rolled his ankle late in the third quarter. According to Swinney, the injury, which was certainly concerning at the time, appears not to be serious. Swinney said the senior quarterback “tried to come back in,” but the Tigers wanted to give backup Christopher Vizzina some reps, given the score at the time.
“We’ll just see how it’s going to go,” Swinney said, but added later, “Yeah, absolutely,” when asked if Klubnik would play against SMU next week.
Ten different players caught passes, with Bryant Wesco leading the team with 106 yards and a touchdown. Antonio Williams also made plays in the downfield passing game, leading the team in receptions with seven catches for 85 yards.
Defensively, Clemson kept BC bottled up all night. “At the end of the day, 221 total, 4-16 on third and fourth down kind of tells the story,” Swinney said. “We were able to get them off the field with five sacks.” He added, “That is a really good offensive line… so to be able to get the pressure that we did, seven TFLs, and then turn them over.”
He pointed to “two turnovers” and “three stops on downs” as “huge,” noting that the Tigers hadn’t created a takeaway in three contests.
Speaking of Ricardo Jones’ end-zone interception, Swinney said, “That’s what happens when you’re where you’re supposed to be.” As for Sammy Brown’s strip sack, which was recovered by T.J. Parker, the Tigers’ head coach said it “took momentum back.”
Swinney noted that 77 players saw the field this weekend after 76 players played last week versus North Carolina.
“That’s back-to-back weeks. I think that’s great for your depth, great for your competition, great for your morale, great for evaluation, great for development of your team.”
The head coach said his defense “played Clemson football” the past two weeks after “probably the worst half of defense I’ve seen in a long time… that first half of the Syracuse game was pathetic.”
“It’s hard to hold people to 10 points in college football,” Swinney said. “It’s hard. Especially when you’re playing a lot [of players]. So I’m just really proud of the team.”
As the Tigers head home for three straight in Death Valley, Swinney believes they’ve finally found traction. “We got a little momentum.”
Now the test really comes as Clemson faces SMU, the team the Tigers beat in the ACC Championship, and a team that has yet to lose a regular-season conference game since joining the league last year. Rhett Lashlee’s Mustangs are 4-2 overall and 2-0 in ACC play this season after finishing 8-0 in league play a year ago.
