Rivalry Renewed: Dabo Swinney and No. 2 Clemson Survive Jimbo Fisher's Aggies
You can take the Jimbo Fisher out of Florida State, but you can't take the rivalry with Dabo Swinney and Clemson out of Fisher.
On a day that was otherwise overrun with College Football Playoff contenders annihilating inferior competition, No. 2 Clemson barely held on for a 28-26 road win over Texas A&M. A failed Aggies two-point conversion with less than a minute remaining was the only thing that kept this from turning into an overtime classic.
"Well, you only need one more point than they have, so, let's be happy about that," an exhausted Swinney told ESPN's Maria Taylor after the game.
.jpg?w=256 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
But what else is new when these two coaches square off?
When Fisher was with the Seminoles, this annual matchup typically determined who would win the ACC, and it was often a nail-biter. From 2010 to '17, Fisher and Swinney each won four games, and four of those eight games were decided by six points or fewer.
Add one more thriller to that near-decade-long ledger, and expect yet another good one when the Tigers and Aggies battle in Death Valley next year.
Early on, though, it looked like Clemson was going to cruise to victory.
The Tigers jumped out to an early 14-3 lead and had a great chance to blow this thing open before halftime. But a fourth-down fumble at the 1 kept the door ajar for Texas A&M to make things extremely interesting in the fourth quarter.
Clemson twice pulled ahead by a 15-point margin in the third quarter but simply could not put the Aggies away.
And that's more than a little concerning.
Like Swinney said, a win is a win, and this was a huge one for the Tigers. They won't face Miami or Virginia Tech during the regular season, and that road game against Florida State isn't anywhere near as intimidating as it seemed to be in the preseason. So unless you're really drinking the Boston College Kool-Aid, there's a strong argument that this game against Texas A&M was the biggest hurdle standing between Clemson and a 12-0 regular season.
However, if the Tigers continue to "defend" like they did against the Aggies and keep having a hard time establishing a running game, there are going to be more close calls like this one.
Let's start with the defense, which was an abomination compared to the preseason hype.
On the plus side, the Tigers did a fantastic job bottling up Trayveon Williams. The nation's leading rusher after Week 1 (240 yards) managed only 31 yards on 17 carries. As a whole, the Aggies averaged 2.2 yards per carry and only had two rushes for more than 10 yards—both of which were the result of Kellen Mond effectively running for his life from third-down pressure.
Par for the course for this vaunted D-line.
The pass defense was an entirely different story, as Mond threw for 430 yards and three touchdowns while only taking four short sacks. (Each one was a loss of six yards or fewer.)
It almost looked like Clemson was playing a prevent defense the entire night. Mond only had one pass go for more than 30 yards, but he averaged almost 20 yards per completion. The middle of the field was wide-open, especially late in the game. All 11 of his fourth-quarter completions went for at least nine yards. The only one that didn't result in either a touchdown or a first down was a 13-yard strike on a 2nd-and-16.
Clemson was practically begging the Aggies to gradually claw their way back into the game.
Defend like that four months from now against a Tua Tagovailoa, Jake Fromm or Dwayne Haskins, and the Tigers will get laughed out of the playoff.
Meanwhile, they were painfully unable to salt the game away on the ground—even though dual-threat quarterback Kelly Bryant took every snap in the final 24 minutes. Clemson rushed nine times (eight by Bryant) in the fourth quarter for a total of 48 yards, more than half of which came on one 27-yard carry. So on three pivotal possessions, the Tigers ended up with just two first downs and no points.
That's no bueno.
All told, Clemson rushed for 115 yards on 3.6 yards per carry against a defense that had allowed at least 170.9 and 4.2 per game, respectively, in each of the last five years.
Credit where it's due to Fisher for quickly turning things around for the Aggies defense, but Clemson has too much talent in the backfield to have that much trouble running the ball. Even though Bryant was clearly the QB that Swinney trusted late in this one, it's hard to imagine any of this bodes well for his future in the position battle with Trevor Lawrence.
Again, Clemson got the win. That's all that matters for now. But on a Saturday when no other team in the AP Top Seven—aka the serious CFP contenders—won by a margin of fewer than 24 points, those red flags feel just a little bit redder.
And given the lack of marquee opponents remaining on the schedule, it's never too early to start wondering if the lack of style points in this win will have a negative effect on the CFP committee's view of the Tigers.
Although, if Swinney needs any advice on navigating that perception problem, he need only call the coach he just defeated. Fisher's Seminoles went 13-0 in 2014 with seven of those wins coming by a margin of six points or fewer. As long as they kept winning, though, there was never any doubt that they would make the playoff.
Same goes for Clemson. Get to 13-0, and a spot in the playoff will follow. But if the Tigers suffer so much as a single loss between now and Selection Sunday, this too-close-for-comfort victory over Texas A&M might keep them out.
.jpg?w=480 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
