Miami defeated Clemson 28-20 on Saturday night in double overtime.

The victory is the first ACC home win of Mario Cristobal’s tenure with the Hurricanes. It’s also the team’s first ACC win of any kind so far this season.

It was a must-win game for the Hurricanes, and they got the job done. Miami is now 5-2 on the season while Clemson has picked up its third ACC loss of the season.

Here are 3 takeaways from Miami’s win:

Emory Williams in for Tyler Van Dyke

Tyler Van Dyke was not able to start in this game, setting the stage for Emory Williams to make his first career start. Williams was a 3-star prospect in the class of 2023 and won the Canes’ backup QB job out of fall camp.

Williams struggled with his efficiency throughout the game, but came up clutch late in regulation. He led a pair of scoring drives in the fourth quarter to help force overtime. He also completed a key 3rd down pass in double overtime to help set up Miami’s game-winning score.

Williams finished his first career start with 151 yards and 1 touchdown.

Miami’s defense was elite

Miami’s defense was too much for Clemson to handle. The Hurricanes forced four fumbles, recovering two of them, and picked off Cade Klubnik once in the win. They also held Clemson to just 4-of-14 on third down and 0-1 on fourth down.

Clemson’s offense averaged just 5.1 yards per play and a staggering 0.9 yards per rush. The game ended on a goal line stand in-which Miami’s defensive front stuffed the Tigers multiple times to secure the win.

It was a huge performance from a Miami team that was reeling after giving up 41 points to North Carolina a week ago.

ACC Championship path

Miami will still have a tough path to the ACC Championship Game because of its head-to-head loss to North Carolina, but getting there is now possible with this win. The Hurricanes will need to run the table and hope Carolina loses twice (along with Duke and Louisville losing at least one more conference game apiece) in order to reach Charlotte.

Another possible path would be Miami beating Florida State later this season and having the Noles pick up another ACC loss along the way. In that scenario, if Miami doesn’t lose another conference game, it would hold the tiebreaker over FSU.

Miami will host Virginia next week.