Dabo Swinney is, in many ways, the last man still standing strong against the unrelenting headwinds of the modern game -- ignoring the transfer portal, lamenting roster limits, and, on Saturday, holding fast to Clemson's oldest tradition of tripping over its own shoelaces when blessed with an otherwise advantageous position. It feels like there should be some word for that -- a verb of some sort tying Clemson specifically to that type of collapse.
And yet, with just nine seconds left in the game, Clemson did something different and exhilarating, dramatic and miraculous. It won. And in doing so, it injected a small sliver of drama into championship week, a blow to the status quo that could bleed into Sunday's final CFP rankings reveal, when the first 12-team playoff field is unveiled and someone -- perhaps Swinney's alma mater, Alabama, or perhaps Swinney's latest conquest, SMU -- will be left out.