CHARLOTTE — Sometimes a story is too good to be true.

However, that was not the case Saturday night in the ACC Championship Game. Nolan Hauser, who hails from the Charlotte area and is the son of two former Clemson athletes, made a 56-yard field goal as time expired to lift the 17th-ranked Tigers to a 34-31 victory over No. 8 SMU.

“I just went out there and hit it,” said Hauser.

Hauser’s game-winning field goal is the longest game-winning kick in Clemson history, as well as the longest kick ever made in an ACC Championship Game. And to sum it up, it carried the Tigers to another ACC Championship and a berth in the College Football Playoff.

“You go out there and Coach (Dabo) Swinney says put it through the uprights. There was three seconds on the clock and I trusted all the guys up front,” the true freshman said. “I was just so excited to knock it through.”

No one was more excited than Hauser’s roommate, Clemson linebacker Sammy Brown.

“There was never a doubt in my mind that he was going to go out there and he was going to make that kick,” Brown said.

There was never a doubt in Hauser’s mind either. In fact, he was so confident, that just before he lined up to kick the biggest kick in his young life so far, he looked at Swinney, winked and nodded his head.

“I am just being honest with you here. I was just thinking what celebration I was going to have when I knocked it through,” he said.

It was a fitting comment considering five of Hauser’s 23 field goal attempts this season had been blocked. Generally, those are the types of things that can shake a young kicker or even a veteran kicker’s confidence.

But it has never bothered Hauser. He came into the ACC Championship Game 15-for-15 in field goal attempts he was able to get past the line of scrimmage.

And even when he did finally miss one on his own Saturday night, he did not let the earlier miss bother him. Instead, he went out there and confidently set an ACC record.

“You want a kicker that is, not cocky, but confident. That is what you want, and he is,” quarterback Cade Klubnik said. “I love that dude. I am super proud of him.

“He is just a humble dude that comes to work every day and does his job. It could not happen to a better guy.”

And there is not a better story. At least on this night inside Bank of America Stadium and on that field.