Clemson football can get another tombstone ready.
While there has not been much to cheer about this season, things have been looking up for Clemson football, even if they are not necessarily pretty. On Friday at Louisville, against the number 20 ranked Cardinals, the Tigers somehow found a way to come away with a victory and even their record at 5-5.
Even if they had to survive two missed Louisville field goals in the final minutes to do it.
The Clemson offense was not exactly prolific, but it did enough. Missed opportunities still haunt the Tigers, including going for it on fourth down inside the five-yard line only to see Peter Woods stopped well short out of the jumbo package.
But there were also moments of keen execution. While Clemson football compiled just 308 yards of offense, Adam Randall did yeoman’s work out of the backfield with 105 yards on 15 carries and two touchdowns. It was Randall’s one yard touchdown run with 7:16 to play in the ballgame that would give the Tigers the winning margin.
Cade Klubnik completed only 22 of 34 pass attempts for 187 yards and no touchdowns for an average of just 5.5 yards per catch. Not exactly good.
Then there is the defense. The Clemson football team has struggled mightily at times on that side of the ball this season, and while 19 points allowed looks good on the surface, it underscores the fact that the Tigers had to survive multiple scares in spite of Louisville moving the ball for the bulk of the game.
The Cardinals netted 385 total yards, with quarterback Miller Moss completing 19 of his 27 attempts for 212 yards. But it was the inability to slow down Louisville running back Keyjuan Brown that was more frustrating to watch.
Brown rolled up 135 yards on 15 carries and averaged nine yards per touch. On no level is that good, but fortunately for Clemson, Louisville shanked their final two field goal attempts in the fourth quarter, one of them set up by a mishandled punt attempt that gave the Cardinals the ball inside the Tigers’ 30-yard line.
Really, it was a comedy of errors on both sides by that point. Ugly as it may have been, though, for Clemson it was enough. The Tigers managed to bleed away most of the final two minutes before pinning Louisville inside their own 10 with 30 seconds to play and no timeouts left at their disposal. From there, Clemson slammed the door shut.
Clemson vs. Louisville Game Highlights | 2025 ACC Football
Another bright spot for Clemson football that is more than worth mentioning is placekicker Nolan Hauser who connected on field goals of 27 and 48 yards. He has made his last 10 attempts and those kicks turned out to be pivotal in deciding the outcome.
While it has been a trying season, it does seem that pride has taken over in recent weeks following the soul-crushing home loss to Duke. That game was a reckoning for Clemson in which the Tigers had to decide whether they would keep battling or pack it in. The answer has been clear.
As the sports adage goes, you can win ugly, but you cannot lose pretty. Clemson football was the embodiment of that notion on Friday night. Ugly, but enough to get the job done. With two games remaining, all the Tigers have to do in order to be bowl eligible is split those contests. Both would be nice, but with Furman coming to Death Valley on Saturday, it would be a safe assumption that Clemson will punch their ticket to a postseason game.
For Dabo Swinney and the Clemson Tigers, they will take a win any way they can get it. Friday night was quite a way to get in the win column.
