Clemson's Andy Teasdall redeems himself with successful fake punt
MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — Redemption couldn’t have been much sweeter for Clemson punter Andy Teasdall during the Tigers’ 37-17 win Thursday in the College Football Playoff semifinals at the Orange Bowl.
Teasdall, who had received more than a punter’s share of attention after foolishly attempting a self-called fake punt in the Atlantic Coast Conference title game against North Carolina, made one of the most scintillating plays of the playoff semifinal.
He hit 315-pound defensive tackle Christian Wilkins with a perfect, 31-yard pass on a called fake punt, setting up the Tigers for their first touchdown and lead of the game early in the second quarter. The high-arcing toss was executed with guts and glory, wafting through the South Florida sky and into the waiting, beefy arms of Wilkins. Two plays later, quarterback Deshaun Watson scrambled for a 5-yard score to give Clemson a 10-7 lead.
Teasdall was off the hook … by any definition of the phrase.
“We shocked ‘em didn’t we?” Clemson coach Dabo Swinney beamed. “No one covered that big old guy. We call that play UConn because Christian is from Connecticut."
“Teasdall did an awesome job. He sold it perfectly. It was a great play and spark we needed. We were a little saggy, a little tight and needed a boost.”
Teasdall was happy to provide the lift and shed the goat horns.
“Awesome to redeem myself a little bit,” Teasdall said. “But you have to take the good with the good and the bad with the bad. I didn’t let that play (in the ACC Championship Game) define me and I won’t let this play define me.”
Wilkins, who once played tight end in high school, knew the pressure was on to make this fake for real.
“I'm sure when people saw him roll out they thought, ‘oh no,’” Wilkins said. “(He) makes a better quarterback than a running back.”
The guy who was pilloried on social media for his gaffe against the Tar Heels in early December was now being feted on New Year’s Eve for his brilliance.
It was quite a contrast from the beginning of this month. Then, Swinney, Clemson’s high-energy, uber-positive coach, had given Teasdall a brutal tongue-lashing after his screw up against UNC. Teasdall had chosen, on his own, to try to run for a first down rather than boot the ball away. His efforts were futile and led to a Tar Heels score.
Swinney’s rant, which included the coach grabbing Teasdall by the jersey and shouting him down on the sideline, left the punter staring blankly into space. Video of the reaction to the fake punt gone wrong went viral.
This time, it was the Sooners who were left red-faced as the fake punt succeeded.
“We go over all kinds of fake punts every week,” Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops said. “They executed it. We had one of our backers zoned out to three of the guys and one of our backers didn’t zone out to three and stayed with his guy. So we were late getting to the guy down the boundary. It was our lack of execution where they executed.”
Teasdall exorcised the ghost of his poor decision in the ACC title game.
He replaced it with a moment that will go down in Clemson history should the Tigers claim the national championship.