Not this year Tigers.

No ACC Championship. No win over Georgia Tech.

C.J. Spiller scored four touchdowns in the ACCCG last night, contributing the majority of Clemson’s 34 points, and making Clemson fans everywhere terrified of next season when the superstar is no longer donning an orange jersey.

The last couple of games, Spiller was quiet, yet he shredded GT’s defense last night to remind everyone why he was in Heisman discussions in the first place. Hopefully, the experts held onto their Heisman votes until the last minute to witness championship weekend. Spiller deserves to be in New York City, and if certain people want to deny him of that then they clearly didn’t watch the game.

With a final score of 39-34, the heartbreak for Clemson fans continues as Georgia Tech squeaked by to continue the ridiculously long-lasting 5-points-or-less tradition, now clinching victory in six of the last seven meetings between the Tigers.

I thought the Tigers had it. When Andre Ellington went airborne over the linemen, diving into the endzone to put the Tigers in leading position with 6:11 remaning in the game, Coach Swinney gathered the defense around him and said, “You don’t DESERVE to win a Championship if you can’t do it on defense.” The defense was jacked. I foresaw a 3-and-out and some subsequent tears of happiness on my end (as opposed to Tebow’s now infamous tears of sorrow), but Paul Johnson led his Jackets in a gut-wrenching, systematic fashion that ended in Jonathan Dwyer scoring a touchdown with less than two minutes left in the game.

Apparently, the defense wasn’t jacked enough. Kevin Steele broke his hand prior to the game while trying to pump up the defense, but his self-sacrifice didn’t seem to do the trick.

When Derrick Morgan sacked Kyle Parker just short of a first down, and oranges began rolling all over the field, I knew that it wouldn’t be this year that the Tigers took home their first ACC Championship since 1991.

How many times can Clemson lose these close games? How many times can it fall one play short?!

It gets old, but I still had a magical experience in Tampa. Whether it was watching C.J. be awarded Player of the Year, listening to ACC heroes such as Danny Ford and Chris Weinke discuss their legacies, talking to Danny Ford on the sidelines of the ACCCG, or witnessing  Jonathan Dwyer run over to embrace a vastly disappointed C.J. Spiller as he hung his head, sitting on the bench right beside where I stood, it was a trip that reminded me why I love Clemson football in the first place.

And why I always will, even through all the disappointment that goes along with it.