September 12, 2004

Georgia Tech shocks Clemson

Ask a Yellow Jacket fan or a Tiger fan what they thought of Saturday's game and you get identical reactions: shocking. Georgia Tech stunned Clemson with a 28-24 upset in Death Valley.

This was, without a doubt, a crushing loss for Clemson. CUTigers.com calls it "one of the most heartbreaking defeats in Clemson football history". Clemson literally had victory snapped away from them. The west end zone went from ready to storm the field in victory to just staring in disbelief.

If you didn't see the game, it went a little something like this:

Clemson had the ball second & short deep in their own territory with 0:30 left in the game, leading 24-21. They don't convert and it's third and short. Then, Clemson goes to Yusef Kelly who appears to have the first down, but he fumbled the ball backwards (unbeknownst to most of the Clemson fans) and the Tigers recovered short of the first down. Then they get hit with a delay penalty on fourth down. Clemson lines up to punt & the unthinkable happens: "The Snap". Clemson's punter falls on the bad snap at the Tiger 11 yard line with just seconds left. Tech comes on and throws a game-winning TD with 11 seconds left. Despite being visible shaken, Clemson manages to return the following kickoff to the Tech 31, but with 3 seconds left, the hail mary pass hits the ground and neither Clemson fans nor Georgia Tech fans can believe it.

Tommy Bowden has to be very careful with his team this week. This is the kind of loss that can cast a cloud over your entire season - one loss compounded into two or three consecutive poor performances. Now they have to face a Texas A&M team that is looking to prove itself, and found some success this week against Wyoming.

Clemson fans are going to remember this loss for a long, long time - it's critical that the Tigers don't.