CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Nolan Hauser winked at his coach before jogging onto the field to try a 56-yard field goal to win the ACC championship.
Dabo Swinney had implored him to just put the ball through the uprights. Everything that had led to this point was already inexplicable -- from Clemson's Week 14 flub against South Carolina that appeared to doom the Tigers from the College Football Playoff; to Syracuse's 21-point comeback against Miami that gave Clemson new life; to Clemson squandering a big lead against SMU on Saturday and allowing the Mustangs to tie the score with 16 seconds to play; to an Adam Randall kick return that was supposed to be a fair catch but instead turned into a 41-yard runback; and finally, to a Clemson kicker who had endured a season's worth of struggles booting a field goal that will be etched into the annals of program lore.
Hauser, a freshman from just outside Charlotte whose parents both went to Clemson, drilled the kick to punch the No. 17 Tigers' ticket to the playoff with a 34-31 win over No. 8 SMU.
"I was just thinking about how I was going to celebrate after we made it," Hauser said. "The trust I have in [this team], it'll go down in history."
Hauser entered the ACC championship with eight missed kicks on the season then saw another -- a 44-yarder in the first half -- sail wide against SMU. Still, Clemson's players said there was no doubt his final kick would be true.
"I was nonchalant about it," defensive end T.J. Parker said. "The confidence in him is through the roof. This definitely won't be his last."
After Hauser's kick, Clemson players stormed the field in a moment of triumph. Linebacker Barrett Carter held up a white board that read, "Clemson against the world." Players carried Hauser off the field, and outside the locker room, Swinney joked with athletic director Graham Neff that "the [revenue] share for the kicker just went up."
The kick delivered Swinney his ninth ACC championship and his seventh berth in the College Football Playoff, an outcome that seemed nearly impossible a week ago.
Clemson was blown out by Georgia in its opener, lost another game at home to Louisville then failed to bring down South Carolina quarterback LaNorris Sellers in the finale to sink to 9-3. Through it all, Swinney and the Tigers heard their fair share of criticism -- over Swinney's lack of transfer additions, over a defense that lacked punch, over an offense that struggled against top opponents -- but the coach continued to preach the Gospel of Clemson.
"We're at a point now where we don't win a championship and we've got to fire everybody, and it's just -- same ol' tired narratives that come up every single year when we lose a game," Swinney said. "You can check our record versus the SEC. You can check it versus the Big Ten. You can check it versus Notre Dame because that's really who runs college football."
Clemson's record against the ACC this season is better than any other team, and that's what secured the Tigers this latest berth in the playoff.
The Tigers figure to slide in as either the 11th or 12th seed, meaning it will be a long road to another national championship, but this is a team that believes, Parker said.
"Everybody counts us out, everybody talks down on Clemson like -- 'Oh, they play in the ACC,'" Parker said. "We don't listen to none of that. We see it, and we save it for later and keep working. The more we win, they'll change the narrative. [The ceiling] is through the roof. We just need to keep our head down and keep working."