Georgia Tech stunned No. 12 Clemson 24-21 at Bobby Dodd Stadium on a walk-off 55-yard field goal by Aidan Birr as time expired, with the special teams unit executing a fire‑drill sprint onto the field and a clean snap as the clock drained. The make capped a 10‑play, 38‑yard march and unleashed a field‑storming celebration as officials signaled the kick was good. The game ending was pure situational chaos with no timeouts, under 20 seconds, and a fourth‑and‑3 kick that split the uprights at the horn.

The scoring arc flipped several times before Birr’s winner. Tech jumped ahead 13‑0 on Birr’s 40‑ and 42‑yard field goals and a Jamal Haynes 5‑yard TD, only for Cade Klubnik’s goal‑line sneak with 0:49 left in the half to cut it to 13‑7. Clemson seized a 14‑13 lead on Klubnik’s 73‑yard strike to Bryant Wesco Jr., then Haynes King answered with a 1‑yard keeper and a two‑point pass from Malik Rutherford to Dean Patterson for a 21‑14 edge. Adam Randall’s 2‑yard score leveled it 21‑21 at 3:26, setting up Tech’s final drive from its 25 with two timeouts and enough clock to reach Birr’s range.

“Georgia Tech kicker Aidan Birr: ‘I felt pretty good off the foot. I just started running around. I was gonna go do a little Lambeau Leap, a Bobby Dodd Leap. The fans were coming onto the field so I kind of met them halfway. Great kick, great feeling,’” Chad Bishop relayed the kicker’s words on X after the win. The scene matched the quote. Broadcast replays captured the unit racing on and the 55‑yarder sailing at the buzzer before the sidelines and stands merged in celebration. Birr’s boot also tied the longest field goal in Georgia Tech history, adding historical heft to the chaos of the finish.

Birr’s nod to the iconic NFL Lambeau Leap framed the instinct to celebrate big, with a “Bobby Dodd Leap” as the local twist after a career‑long, walk‑off strike. At the moment, the celebration choreography could not be orchestrated like he thought. He yielded to pure adrenaline as fans poured over the wall and the kicker met them halfway, the celebration turning spontaneous and unfiltered. That energy was baked in by the last‑second mechanics in a no‑timeout, fire‑drill operation under a dying clock that demanded split‑second poise from snap to strike.

The win moves Georgia Tech to 3‑0 and 1‑0 in the ACC, a momentum marker that could nudge the Jackets back into the Top 25 discussion as the schedule deepens. Clemson falls to 1‑2 and 0‑1, continuing a trend of slow starts and week‑over‑week slippage from a lofty preseason ranking that has made the opening act feel underwhelming by program standards. On Saturday, Tech’s composure and King’s dual‑threat command edged a Tigers team still searching for clean execution in critical moments, and the difference was measured by 55 yards of fearless leg.

Record-tying finish

Birr’s 55-yarder didn’t just end the night—it etched his name alongside program history as his career-long and a tie for Georgia Tech’s longest field goal ever, matching David Bell (1986), Ron Rice (1982), and E.O. Whealler (1973). It also joins rare company as one of only six documented walk-off field goals in the school’s annals, the kind of moment that threads decades of Yellow Jackets lore into a single strike. In a rivalry stage drenched with pressure, the distance and the timing fused into a signature snapshot of both personal poise and program pedigree.

The aftermath mirrored the magnitude. Fans poured over the Bobby Dodd walls as the horn sounded, turning the end zone into a gold-and-white tide that swallowed teammates, staffers, and a grinning kicker sprinting toward the noise. Multiple angles caught the chaos: sideline cameras, upper-deck clips, and field-level shots of security weaving through a jubilant crush—each replay underscoring how quickly precision gave way to catharsis. It felt less like a single kick and more like a collective exhale, the stadium’s pulse syncing with a ball that never seemed to waver.

Context made it richer. Birr had already authored a 44-yard walk-off in Dublin to beat then-No. 10 Florida State last season, proof that his heartbeat doesn’t spike when the season does. Against Clemson, the stakes rose, the distance stretched, and the outcome stayed the same. On a night when execution under pressure decided everything, the snap, the hold, and the swing arrived on time, and Georgia Tech’s specialists met the moment in full.