Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney gave a shoutout to Tiger fans for sticking it out through a lengthy lightning delay before the Tigers’ home opener against Georgia Southern on Saturday night at Memorial Stadium.

The nearly two-hour delay resulted in the latest home kickoff time in program history just after 9:30 p.m. ET. Fans packed into Memorial Stadium’s concourses and weathered the lightning warnings before kickoff.

Despite the disruption and a very late finish stretching into Sunday morning, loyal supporters stayed through the delay to watch the Tigers secure a 22-7 victory. Swinney noted how crazy it is to deal with a weather delay, but praised the crowd’s dedication in sticking it out at Death Valley.

“The fans were awesome,” Swinney said during his postgame press conference, which started after 2:15 a.m. “I mean, you know, some of our fans probably got up and drove a long way, and they’re in the car now driving a long way back. So, just appreciate that. It was awesome.”

It marked Clemson’s second straight game with a pregame lightning delay after its season opener at LSU was delayed roughly two hours as well.

Swinney also had a message for Clemson fans ahead of the team’s conference game this Saturday against North Carolina at Memorial Stadium (noon, ESPN).

“We’re gonna need ‘em next week,” Swinney said. “I mean, surely we can kick off on time next week. We’ve got a noon game, so we need ‘em. We’re going to need The Valley rocking.”

Clemson (1-1) will look to build on its first win of the season, while Bill Belichick’s Tar Heels (2-0) will try to stay undefeated.

UNC opened the season with a 15-10 win over TCU in Ireland on Aug. 29, and the Tar Heels are coming off a 35-3 victory over ETSU on Saturday in Chapel Hill.

Saturday’s game will be the ACC opener for both teams.

“We’re undefeated in the league, North Carolina is undefeated in the league. So, this is obviously a huge, huge matchup,” Swinney said. “Everybody has aspirations to win the league, and every time you win a conference game, you kind of narrow the field a little bit. So, this is a huge, huge game and opportunity to create momentum in conference play.”