When Clemson got in ACC title game, Dabo Swinney got wild FaceTime from coach who made it happen

Clemson coach Dabo Swinney's cellphone started blowing up with messages from players, friends and colleagues when the Tigers, still smarting after a loss to their instate rival, found out they had made the Atlantic Coast Conference championship game.

Then came a FaceTime call from Syracuse coach Fran Brown, whose team had knocked off Miami to clear the way for No. 18 Clemson to face eighth-ranked SMU for the ACC title and a spot in the 12-team College Football Playoff.

“That was wild ... put that in my memoir one day. That was a first,” Swinney said Sunday about the call from the Syracuse coach.

During a Zoom call with reporters about next Saturday night's ACC title game, Swinney was then asked what Brown told him.

“Yeah, I can’t really repeat what he said. It was kind of colorful, but hilarious,” Swinney said. “I appreciated the call, and he was fired up, man. I mean, he was fired up and, you know, excited for us. ... That was a great call. I really appreciated that. I didn't even know he had given me a shoutout on TV. I didn't even know. I had all kind of people sending me that."

In his postgame TV interview Saturday after the Orange beat Miami 42-38, Brown looked directly into the ESPN camera and said, “Hey, Dabo Swinney, congrats. I got you in, baby.”

That was a couple of hours after Clemson (9-3, 7-1 ACC) had lost its regular-season finale 17-14 at home to South Carolina (9-3), the SEC team that moved up three spots to 13th in the new Associated Press poll Sunday.

ACC newcomer SMU (11-1, 8-0) was already locked into the title game in its league debut, but finished off a sweep through the conference schedule with a 38-6 win over California. The Mustangs finished their game about the same time Miami lost Saturday, setting up the matchup with the Tigers.

Clemson has to win the ACC title game in Charlotte, North Carolina, to get into the now-expanded College Football Playoff for the seventh time — only Alabama has more appearances with eight, in what was a four-team format from its inception 10 years ago.

SMU is the only team to make it through the ACC schedule without losing a game, and its only loss overall was in the third game of the season against 17th-ranked BYU of the Big 12, a 10-win team. While the Mustangs certainly are going to do everything they can to win the championship game, coach Rhett Lashlee believes his team has done enough already to be in the 12-team playoff field.

“I don't think I'm going to do any lobbying really, because I don’t know if that would matter. But, you know, I do hope that the committee continues to value our resume and our total body of work,” Lashlee said Sunday.

“I mean, I think the reality of it is there’s two Power Four teams that have gone undefeated in their conference, it’s us and (No. 1) Oregon. And to me, that should mean a lot," he said. "I do believe our kids have earned the right to be one of the 12 best teams in America. And I really hope the committee sees it that way as well."

The Mustangs were the American Athletic Conference champions last season, also going undefeated in league play, before moving up this year to the power conference.

Swinney agrees that the Mustangs should be in the playoff no matter what happens in the ACC title game.

“I think they’ve earned that. I mean, I don’t think that they should be punished with whatever the outcome in this game is,” Swinney said. “I know the system is what it is and it’s been set up, but I just, I mean, they’re an 11-1 football team and they have done an awesome job.”