While he was having dinner with Dabo Swinney Sunday evening, Clemson offensive Garrett Riley told his head coach how amazed he was by the Clemson atmosphere on Saturday.

In the past, Riley has seen some good college football atmospheres while coaching and playing at schools such as Texas Tech, East Carolina, Kansas, App. State, SMU and TCU. But what he saw at Memorial Stadium on Saturday, he has never seen before.

“He said, ‘Man, Coach. That atmosphere is unbelievable. I mean, it is unbelievable.’ That’s pretty cool to hear (that),” Swinney said. “Obviously, he is new here, but he has been around a lot.”

Riley is in his first season at Clemson, and Saturday’s game against No. 5 Florida State was his third home game. However, he was still amazed by how loud and energetic the 81,500 that sold out Death Valley were the entire afternoon.

“We were literally talking about how special it was,” Swinney said. “I just hurt for all of our fans that we were not able to reward them because man they did their part. They were freaking amazing. It was awesome.”

With Clemson holding a 24-17 lead late in the third quarter on the Seminoles, and driving to go up two touchdowns, Swinney was excited to see what Death Valley was going to be like in the fourth quarter if they had a two-touchdown lead on FSU.

“I wish we could have been able to finish that and not (allow) that scoop-and-score because I would have loved to have seen the Valley in the fourth quarter with a two-score lead,” he said. “I have seen that before. That would have been amazing.”

Though that drive ended with FSU’s Kalen DeLoach strip-sacking Cade Klubnik and then taking the loose football and rumbling 56 yards for a touchdown, Swinney said the home crowd was still amazing all afternoon.

“Our fans were incredible as they always are,” he said. “It was an amazing environment. We have had a lot of good days there and there are a lot more ahead. I just wish we could have awarded them yesterday because that was a big-time missed opportunity.”

–Photo by Kevin Vandervort

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