CLEMSON — Syracuse head coach Fran Brown said his comments minutes after his Orange knocked off Miami and sent Clemson to the ACC Championship Game was spontaneous.

The Tigers needed Syracuse to beat Miami to qualify for the ACC Championship Game last year, however, no one outside of Syracuse thought that was possible, especially after Miami took a 21-0 lead early in the second quarter.

However, the Orange rallied to stun the Hurricanes, 42-38. After the game, an ecstatic Brown shouted into the mic “Hey Dabo Swinney, congrats, I got you in, baby!”

For the first time since the Miami game, Brown spoke about his message to Dabo Swinney, as he meet with the media on Day 2 of ACC Football Kickoff in Charlotte.

“He is a good person. He is a faith driven man,” Brown said. “He deserved to be able to play in that game because they were a really good football team.”

Clemson, the likely preseason favorite to win the ACC this year, went on to beat SMU in the ACC Championship Game to qualify for the College Football Playoff.

Brown calls his relationship with Swinney as “cool” and “I call him for things and hit him up.”

“He has been coaching a lot longer than myself. I just try to follow him and take from some of the things and see what he does,” Brown said.

Brown first got to know Swinney through recruiting when he was coaching at Georgia.

“I used to kick his butt in recruiting battles,” Brown said jokingly. “Naha, I just do that, and he won some too, right? He came in (Georgia) and got some good players. It was through recruiting and knowing who he was.

“He has done an amazing job. He won two national championships, so to be able do that…he is on that list of those in the top 5 coaches that are really good in my eyes and get a chance to look up too.”

—Photo by Jim Dedmon / Imagn Images