Dabo Swinney rips Clemson’s ‘horrible’ special teams mistakes vs. Florida State

“Awful.”

“Poor.”

“Absolutely horrible.”

Clemson coach Dabo Swinney used all those phrases in a matter of minutes while describing what he saw as the most disappointing aspect of the Tigers’ 29-13 win over Florida State on Saturday night in Tallahassee: Blocked field goals.

Amid a 16-point win that moved Clemson to 4-1 (3-1 ACC), the Tigers struggled mightily with field goal protection — especially on the left side of their formation — and allowed FSU to burst through for two relatively easy blocks that kept the game within reach far longer than Clemson would have liked.

Tigers true freshman kicker Nolan Hauser had a 38-yard field goal blocked in the second quarter with Clemson leading 17-7 and a 25-yard field goal blocked in the third quarter with Clemson leading 23-7.

The second block was especially impactful because it kept Florida State’s deficit at two possessions (16 points). Had Hauser made the chip shot to go up 26-7, the Tigers would’ve been leading by three possessions (19 points) at the end of the third.

Clemson’s error led to a tense late-game drive in which FSU — with new life after its second block of the night — went 15 plays and 74 yards to score a touchdown and cut Clemson’s lead to 23-13, with the Seminoles a two-point conversion away from making it a one-score game in the fourth quarter.

FSU failed on that conversion and didn’t score again in what became an undramatic ending. After the 16-point win, Swinney still lamented the Tigers’ field goal blocking errors, which he specifically attributed to the players at two positions on the left side of the formation: The designated “tight end” player and “wing” player.

“Just absolutely horrible,” Swinney said. “Awful. It’s that simple. Just absolutely did not do what we coach them to do. So that’s on us as coaches. … You put that on tape, you better get ready. So, really disappointed in our technique, fundamentals there.”

Clemson’s FG struggles against FSU

It’s not like the Seminoles’ skill in this department was a surprise. Florida State entered Saturday’s game having blocked a kick in back-to-back games — a field goal against Cal, and a field goal against SMU — and added two more against Clemson.

FSU’s also blocked 11 kicks since coach Mike Norvell took over in 2020 (six field goals, three extra points and two punts).

On the first blocked field goal, FSU broke through the left side of Clemson’s formation (where DE T.J. Parker and DT Vic Burley were blocking) and Seminoles defensive back Edwin Joseph got his hand on the ball.

On the second blocked field, FSU got through on the left side again (this time against DE Cade Denhoff and OL Chapman Pendergrass) and Seminoles defensive end Patrick Payton stuffed the attempt.

That second block could’ve been even more chaotic had Tigers placeholder Clay Swinney not had the instincts to sprint backward and fall on it. The block went backward, meaning it was a live ball and could’ve been recovered and returned for a touchdown by FSU (no other Clemson players hustled to the ball on that play).

Swinney told ESPN sideline reporter Quint Kessenich that the left side of Clemson’s field goal protection unit was “crushing us,” adding that Burley had been injured on the first of the two blocks and was not playing on that unit anymore on Saturday night as a result. (Burley returned to play defense, Swinney later said.)

“Really disappointed in that,” Swinney told ESPN. “That’s two scores. That’s another touchdown. So that’s the biggest disappointment to me. We’re playing good, we’re playing tough but we’ve gotta finish. That’s not how you finish.”

The blocks stood out even more on a night when Clemson’s offense rolled for 500 total yards but froze up multiple times in the red zone. Quarterback Cade Klubnik and company had been excellent inside the opponent’s 20-yard line this year, with 15 scores (10 touchdowns and five field goals) on 16 trips for a 93.8% scoring rate.

But Klubnik missed on a number of passes and the Tigers didn’t score a single touchdown in six red zone trips. Instead, they settled for six Hauser field goals and ended up leaving with zero points more times against FSU (twice) than their previous four games combined (once).

Hauser, a true freshman from the Charlotte area who was regarded as one of the top kicker prospects in the country, set a school record with seven field goal attempts. And he was brilliant (and indispensable) with makes from 26, 38, 25, 31 and 24 yards out, accounting for 17 of the team’s 29 total points on Saturday.

Swinney said he hated that Hauser missed out on a chance to set the school record for field goals made in a single game (seven) because of protection issues.

Hauser is now 10-12 on field goals and 23-24 on extra points this year, and all three misses have been blocked. (Swinney attributed a blocked XP last week against Stanford to Hauser for kicking it low, not to the protection.)

On Clemson’s last two field goals of the game (following the two blocks), the team added extra blockers to the left side so Hauser could get his kicks off cleanly.

While emphasizing that he was proud of his team’s effort in an at-times-tense win over Florida State, which keeps Clemson perfect in league play, Swinney said coaches would spend extensive time on correcting the field goal protection mistakes.

“We’ve gotta get that fixed,” Swinney said. “It’s disappointing.”