By Hale McGranahan.

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Dabo Swinney clearly didn’t agree with the targeting penalty levied against Robert Smith in the fourth quarter of Clemson’s 34-20 victory at Wake Forest on Thursday night.

Smith, who dislodged a would-be completion to Wake Forest tight end Cam Serigne, will be suspended for the first half of Clemson’s trip to Georgia Tech next Saturday.

During his post-game interview, Swinney took a diplomatic approach when asked for his view of the call, which replay officials confirmed in the booth.

“I saw a good football play. Everybody’s got an opinion, I saw a good football play,” Swinney said. “That’s why they wear the stripes — whoever, whoever was up in the box looking at it.

“It’s disappointing, but that’s just football. They’re going to make the calls the way they see it and you’ve got to live with the call. I thought it was just a good football play. I’m the coach, not the ref. It’s disappointing that you’ve got a guy that’s got to miss a half of football next week for what looked like a good play to me.”

Smith finished the night with four tackles, but was not credited with a pass breakup on the play.

“He led with his shoulder and below the head and all that stuff, kind of a bang-bang-play. They saw something that I guess I didn’t see,” Swinney said. “That’s just the way it is. They have to do their job and we have to respond to whatever the calls are in the course of the game.”

T.J. Green was brought on as Smith’s replacement.

“I hate it for Robert. There’s not a better player on our team, a better person on our team, a cleaner football player on our team than Robert Smith,” Swinney said. “I hate that he’s going to have to miss a half next week, but that’s the way it is. That’s the rules.”

Stoudt guts it out. Cole Stoudt has been dealing with a left shoulder injury since taking over for an injured Deshaun Watson in the Louisville game.

On Thursday night, Stoudt’s banged up shoulder nearly knocked him out in the second half against the Demon Deacons.

“Deshaun was ready, I asked him in the third quarter,” Swinney said. “I said, ‘Are you ready to go if we need you?’ He said, ‘Yes sir.’
“Our goal was to try to not play him, if we could.”

Nick Schuessler would have been called into duty had Stoudt not returned to action.

“We had Nick warming up right there, weren’t really sure what was going to happen in that situation,” Swinney said. “Thought we were  going to have to make a quick change. I liked the rhythm that we had, offensively. We probably would have put Nick out there that next series, if we had to make a change, because we were in a good rhythm and didn’t want to be too exotic in what we were trying to do. Fortunately, Cole kind of shook it off and was like, let’s go.”

Swinney said Watson will be “ready to go” at practice on Monday.

“He’s our starter. He’s earned the job and won’t lose the job because you break a finger. He’s back. We’ll put him back out there Monday,” Swinney said. “Practice matters, practice counts, so, hopefully, he’ll have a great week of practice and we’ll go from there.”

No. 1 in the nation. Clemson entered Thursday night’s game as the No. 2 defense in the country, in terms of average yards allowed. The figure of 268.6 dropped to 252 after Wake Forest was held to 119 yards of total offense.

“We take pride in that,” said Vic Beasley, who had a tackle for loss against the Demon Deacons. “We want to be the best defense in the country, so we take pride in how  we perform each and every week. We just want to leave a legacy and want to be the best defense in the country.”

After the 2012 Orange Bowl performance against West Virginia, the Clemson defense was the laughing stock of college football. In two-plus season under the direction of Brent Venables, the group’s come a long way.

“Obviously, the last couple of years have been an offensive emphasis, a lot of focus on the offense, but now we’re trying to change the mold around here,” Beasley said, “To show them that we are just as good on defense.”

Swinney continues to believe this group is the best defense that he’s had since taking over as head coach in 2009.

“With the combination of talent, depth and experience, they’re a tough bunch over there,” he said.

Despite the move into the top spot, Swinney didn’t think anybody was satisfied with Thursday’s performance.

“Ok, hey, we’re No. 1 in the country in defense, gave up 119 yards, but I don’t think anybody in our locker room down there feels like we played great tonight, defensively, and I think that’s the best part about it,” he said. “We’ve got a group that is hungry. We’ve got a group that has set a high standard. They’re not satisfied with some of the mistakes we had tonight.”