An ugly win: Clemson holds off Wake Forest on homecoming. Dabo Swinney ties record

Clemson football entered the weekend with three relatively clean wins, double-digit victories where the Tigers generally looked a lot better than their opponent.

Now they have an ugly one.

Running back Will Shipley had the game-icing fourth quarter touchdown and Clemson’s defense put together another swarming effort as the Tigers beat Wake Forest, 17-12, in ACC play Saturday.

Quarterback Cade Klubnik was imperfect but steady with 131 yards, no interceptions, a fumble and a rushing touchdown; Shipley had 97 rushing yards and co-starter Phil Mafah had 63; and receiver Beaux Collins had a team-high five catches and 50 yards, including a key fourth-down catch.

The Tigers defense was impressive, too, with a forced fumble, four sacks and eight tackles for loss. Clemson did bend a bit late, allowing a 11-play, 75-yard touchdown drive late after Shipley’s TD put the team up 17-6 with 5:49 remaining.

But Wake Forest (3-2, 0-2 ACC) failed on the ensuing two-point conversion, with a receiver catching a ball just out of bounds in the back of the end zone, and Clemson corralled the onside kick that followed and ran out the clock to wrap things up with a five-point win.

The win is Clemson’s 15th straight against Wake Forest and puts the Tigers at 4-2 and 2-2 in the ACC entering their scheduled off week; they’ll head to No. 17 Miami in two weeks at .500 in conference play with a chance to get a win and start complicating the ACC championship game race.

The Tigers’ home win Saturday also tied coach Dabo Swinney with College Football Hall of Famer Frank Howard on the program’s all-time wins list with 165.

Game recap

The first quarter of Saturday’s game – Clemson’s designated homecoming and breast cancer awareness weekend – nearly started off with a bang when safety Andrew Mukuba recovered a Wake Forest fumble and returned it for a touchdown five minutes into the game.

But referees, upon review, correctly ruled the Wake Forest runner down before he fumbled, setting off a snoozer of a first half featuring 10 combined points.

The only time the crowd really woke up came during a 16-play, 75-yard Clemson touchdown drive that lasted over seven minutes and included a nifty pass from Klubnik to Collins on 4th and 5 from Wake’s 30-yard line and a seven-yard Klubnik rushing TD.

Otherwise, it was 30 minutes of Clemson turnovers and Wake Forest near misses, which was the perfect combination for a 7-3 halftime result despite Clemson being a 20.5-point favorite.

Klubnik messed up another snap exchange with Shipley – the same issue that hurt them in the season opener at Duke – but Wake Forest couldn’t capitalize, missing on two straight near-touchdowns from Clemson’s 2-yard line on third and fourth down.

Demon Deacons quarterback Mitch Griffis, who’s been middling this year as Sam Hartman’s replacement, had open receivers on both plays but overthrew them twice, a credit to the pressure applied by Clemson defenders on both snaps.

Wake Forest also stalled right before halftime and missed a 39-yard field goal that would’ve made it 7-6. The golden opportunity for a go-ahead touchdown came after Clemson receiver Tyler Brown muffed a punt (the Tigers’ ACC-worst eighth lost fumble this season).

After looking sharp in back-to-back weeks versus Florida State and Syracuse, Klubnik and the Clemson offense came out slow and failed to capitalize on momentum, punting after the Tigers defense recovered a Wake Forest fumble in Clemson territory with about six minutes to half.

The Tigers started the second half with more points after a laborious 15-play, 67-yard drive ended in a short Jonathan Weitz field goal. That was a consolation prize after Shipley converted a fourth and 1 run down to Wake’s 2-yard line — only for a false start, two stuffed runs and an incomplete pass to derail the drive.

Trailing 10-3 in the third quarter, Wake Forest found itself on the right side of the most controversial call of the day: referees flagging Clemson linebacker Jeremiah Trotter Jr. for a roughing the passer penalty after he hit Wake Forest QB Griffis on a third and 12 play.

Trotter hit Griffis right after he released a pass and took him to the ground, prompting a 15-yard penalty that extended Wake’s drive and essentially led to a 22-yard field goal to make it 10-6 Clemson.

Tigers fans booed the decisions into Clemson’s next offensive possession, and Swinney also spent the majority of a TV timeout chewing out multiple officials for a call the entire stadium seemed to disagree with.

Clemson failed to extend its lead later in the fourth quarter when Weitz, after another stalled drive, missed a 51-yard field goal attempt. That dropped Tigers kickers to 4-10 on fields goal this season and 0-3 on field goals over 40 yards.

Shipley’s touchdown put Clemson up two scores, and a defensive stop on Wake Forest’s two-point conversion and a first down by Mafah put a bow on the game in the final minute.

Next Clemson game

Who: Clemson at No. 17 Miami

When: Saturday, Oct. 21, time TBA

Where: Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Fla.

TV: TBA