Clemson dominates Pitt in ACC title game
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Exactly 10 years after being hired as head coach, Dabo Swinney made history with the Clemson Tigers.
Travis Etienne ran for 156 yards and two touchdowns, Trevor Lawrence threw two short scoring passes to Tee Higgins and No. 2 Clemson beat Pitt 42-10 on Saturday night on a rainy night to become the first team to win four straight Atlantic Coast Conference championship games.
“You can’t be the best ever if you don’t do things that have never been done,” a triumphant Swinney said after the game.
Clemson (13-0, CFP No. 2) is expected to face third-ranked Notre Dame in the College Football Playoff on Dec. 29, though the field won’t be set until Sunday.
As Swinney held up the championship trophy on the field after the game, he shouted to thousands of waterlogged fans clad in orange rain jackets: “I think we should just come back and do it again next year!”
“It’s incredibly difficult to have the consistency that we have had,” Swinney said.
Swinney called it a “gritty, sloppy, old school, grind-it-out win” on a muddy field.
Clemson turned to its running game and piled up 301 yards and four touchdowns and averaged 9 yards per carry on a night in which Lawrence was limited to 118 yards passing.
The defense forced three turnovers, including two in the first half that gave the offense the ball inside the Pitt 10 and led to 14 points. The Tigers limited Panthers quarterback Kenny Pickett to 8 yards passing and had nine tackles for a loss, including two sacks.
The Tigers entered the game as a 27 1/2-point favorite and Swinney’s team looked as if it would put Pitt away early after Etienne scored on his first two carries.
The ACC player of the year took a handoff on the first play from scrimmage, ran to the right, cutback and raced 75 yards for his 20th touchdown of the season — the quickest TD in the conference championship history. He added a second scoring run a few minutes later after Isaiah Simmons stripped Pickett of the ball and Christian Wilkins return it to the Pitt 3.
Etienne, the game’s Most Outstanding Player, had 78 yards on his first two carries, surpassing Clemson’s rushing total from last year’s ACC title game win over Miami.
“All of that credit goes to the offensive line because they come in and grind every day of the week,” Etienne said.
Pitt (7-6) would show signs of life though, scoring 10 straight points behind a 1-yard TD run by Qadree Ollison to cut the lead to 14-10.
But Lawrence found his fellow freshman Higgins on TD passes of 5 and 10 in the second quarter, the latter coming after a 38-yard interception return by A.J. Terrell, to take a 28-10 lead at halftime. Adam Choice and Lyn-J Dixon added fourth quarter touchdown runs for the Tigers.
Pitt coach Pat Narduzzi has faced Clemson and Notre Dame this season and said there is “no comparison” between the two teams.
“Clemson is the best football team we have faced this season and they will probably win a national championship in my opinion,” Narduzzi said. “That’s a good football team from the front end to the back end.”
Swinney said if the Tigers wind up facing No. 1 Alabama in the College Football Playoff for the fourth straight year he would consider it a rivalry.
“I think four would make it a rivalry,” Swinney said, whose team is 1-2 against the Crimson Tide the last three years.
