Clemson spent most of Saturday chasing the game. Then the Tigers flipped it in the fourth quarter and walked away with an ACC opener that felt like a rescue job.
Down 17-3 at halftime and staring at another ugly night under Dabo Swinney, Clemson rallied past UNC 28-20 at Memorial Stadium. The Tigers are now 1-0 in the ACC and 2-1 overall after scoring two fourth-quarter touchdowns to finish off Bill Belichick’s Tar Heels, who entered as a three-point underdog and fell to 2-1.
The comeback had to survive plenty of twists. Clemson freshman quarterback Tait Reynolds hit a 27-yard touchdown pass in the third quarter to trim the margin from 17-9 to 17-15, but the Tigers missed the two-point try that would have tied it. Later, after UNC converted a fourth down inside Clemson’s 10 with eight minutes left, the game stopped for a lightning delay that lasted 2.5 hours.
When play finally resumed, Clemson’s defense dug in. The Tigers strung together three straight run stops inside their own 10-yard line and forced UNC to settle for a short field goal, putting the Tar Heels ahead 20-15 with 6:34 remaining.
Clemson answered fast. Really fast.
The Tigers needed less than a minute to go the other way, finishing the drive with a Gideon Davidson rushing touchdown to take a 21-20 lead with 5:01 left. Clemson missed the two-point conversion again, leaving the door open for UNC to reclaim the lead with a field goal.
Instead, Billy Edwards Jr. gave the ball back. On fourth-and-1 at Clemson’s 45 with two minutes left, he overthrew Jelani Thurman, turning the ball over on downs and handing Clemson a chance to finish it.
The Tigers added one more touchdown when Tyler Brown took a reverse sweep to the end zone with a minute left. Brown could have gone down and let Clemson kneel it out, but the score pushed the margin to 28-20. Clemson then got one final stop to seal it.
UNC came out sharp and controlled the first half. Edwards stayed clean, the offensive line opened holes, and the Tar Heels rolled to back-to-back touchdowns to open the game. Demon June started things with a short rushing score, and Edwards later tossed a 15-yard touchdown pass to make it 14-3.
Clemson got on the board with a long field goal from Nolan Hauser on its first possession, but the offense was mostly stuck in the mud for much of the first half. Before an 88-yard march late in the second quarter - one that ended with another field goal - Chad Morris’ offense had just 29 total yards. Reynolds was missing throws, the screen game kept piling up, and the crowd let the Tigers hear it.
That late drive at least gave Clemson a little life. Reynolds connected on some bigger throws and pushed the Tigers all the way to UNC’s 2, but with 11 seconds left and no timeouts, Clemson stalled on third-and-goal and settled for another Hauser field goal.
The score could have been worse for Clemson. UNC settled for a field goal after Jarvis Green’s second-quarter fumble in his own territory, and the Tar Heels also missed a 47-yard field goal late in the half.
The third quarter brought more frustration before Clemson finally found a rhythm. Reynolds underthrew Bryant Wesco Jr. on a wide-open touchdown chance that was intercepted, and after Clemson recovered another fumble in plus territory, the Tigers again settled for a field goal to cut the lead to 17-9.
Reynolds’ touchdown to Bentancur brought Clemson within two, but the two-point try failed. UNC then went on its long fourth-quarter march, the one that included the fourth-and-1 conversion before the lightning delay.
Belichick’s team had led Clemson 17-6 at halftime, giving UNC its first halftime lead in an ACC game during his North Carolina tenure. But Clemson owned the final stretch, and that was enough to turn a rough afternoon into an ACC-opening win.
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