Clemson's Dabo Swinney Blasts Officials: 'One of the Worst Calls I've Ever Seen'

The Clemson Tigers fell to Duke 46-45 in Death Valley on Saturday, dropping Clemson to 3-5 in 2025. After the game, head coach Dabo Swinney was left incredibly frustrated with a pass interference call against corner Avieon Terrell that was made by officials with under a minute to play, awarding Duke a first down that would lead to the game-winning touchdown moments later for the Blue Devils.

Clemson got a stop on 4th down to end the game…

Until the refs called this pass interference

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— Barstool Sports (@barstoolsports) November 1, 2025

“I don't even know what to say about the last call, Swinney said in his press conference after the game. "I mean, it's, y'all saw it. It shouldn't come down to that. We had plenty of opportunities to win the game, but you know that that's one of the worst calls I've ever seen in a game, ever, in my entire coaching career. Ever.”

The call occurred on a 4th and 1 for Duke as the Blue Devils attempted a late-game winning drive, and erased what should’ve been a 4th down stop and win for the Tigers. However, on the next play, Duke running back Nate Sheppard carried the ball in from three yards out to give the Blue Devils a 46-45 lead following a successful 2-point conversion attempt.

The game was a difficult one for the Tigers, who struggled on defense for the entire afternoon. Clemson gave up 439 total yards to the Blue Devils, continuing the season trend of disappointment on that side of the ball. And, though Swinney was frustrated with the call, he acknowledged the Tigers could’ve put themselves in a better position to succeed.

“I mean we had plenty of opportunities to win the game,” Swinney said. “But you fight your butt off and you scratch and you claw and you get in a situation like that and you just have, you have a call like that. Man, I mean, it's, it's really that's, that's just more salt in the wound, you know.

“Again, that's not why we lost because we had plenty of opportunities to win. We got them pinned on the, they gotta go 94 yards and we give, 3rd long and we give up a big play to the tight end, again, another bust. So, really just, just didn't deserve to win the game and, you know, we gotta, we gotta get it fixed.”

Unfortunately for the Tigers, Clemson has shown no ability to get things fixed this season. Apart from two blowouts of ACC bottom feeders North Carolina and Boston College, the Tigers have looked like exactly what their record says they are: a below average Power 4 team.

The loss to Duke was Clemson’s fifth of the season, the first time the Tigers have lost five games in a season since 2010, Swinney’s second full season as head coach.

Clemson has a chance to crawl back towards bowl eligibility against a reeling Florida State team on Saturday night, which has lost four of their last five games before getting back in the win column on Saturday against Wake Forest.