Clemson went for it on fourth down a total of six times in Saturday’s 42-21 win over Georgia Tech at Death Valley. The Tigers moved the chains and picked up first downs on all but two of those fourth-down attempts.

One of the failed fourth-down conversion attempts came in the fourth quarter, with the game already well decided, when backup quarterback Hunter Helms threw an incomplete pass on fourth-and-6 from the Georgia Tech 33.

The other unsuccessful fourth-down try was a fake punt that the Tigers called at their own 21-yard line about midway through the first quarter. It didn’t work, as punter Aidan Swanson was only able to run for 4 yards on fourth-and-9 before being stopped short of the line to gain. The Yellow Jackets took over at Clemson’s 25 and scored a touchdown four plays later to take a 7-0 lead.

Following the game, Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney explained the decision to call that fake punt.

“The fake punt, we said we were going to call it going into the game, and we just didn’t quite execute it just right, but that’s OK,” Swinney said. “I told them hey, it may not work, get ready to play defense, but don’t worry about it, we’ll be alright no matter what. We’re going to be aggressive, and we just didn’t quite execute it the way we needed to.”

Clemson was certainly aggressive on Saturday, and while the fake punt didn’t go the Tigers’ way, going for it on fourth downs paid off for them most of the time.

Clemson’s four conversions on fourth downs marked the second-most fourth-down conversions on record in the Swinney era, one shy of its five against UConn in 2021.

“It was kind of weird in that we had some fourth-and-shorts, but a couple of them were just field position, where you are, you don’t have a lot to gain. But I felt confident about our defense and then I felt confident in our plan,” Swinney said of the aggressiveness on fourth downs.

“I just thought we were efficient. Cade (Klubnik) was in a good rhythm, and our protection was good. … But we felt like we could win the trenches, we felt like we could run the ball, and we had to get some dirty yards today and we did it. So, that was definitely a difference in the game for us.”

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