CLEMSON — Clemson coach Dabo Swinney spent much of the first half of the season preaching the need for his Tigers to “learn how to win,” particularly in close games against tough opponents.

On Saturday at then-No. 8 Miami, it appeared those lessons finally sunk in.

The Tigers (4-3, 3-2 ACC) rallied from a deficit on seven occasions in the contest — which featured nine lead changes all told — to win 40-37 in overtime and regain control of their own destiny in the ACC Atlantic Division race.

“We weren’t perfect. But in those critical situations when we needed the stop, we got it,” Swinney said during a teleconference Sunday evening. “When we needed the kick, we got it. When we needed the catch, we got it. When we needed that game-winning throw — which was basically the same throw we didn’t make against TCU — we put it on the money. … And that’s the way you win games.”

The game-winning throw in question was Kyle Parker's 26-yard strike on a crossing route to Jacoby Ford that gave Clemson its highest-ranked road win since the 1981 National Championship team won at eighth-ranked North Carolina and the first win over a ranked opponent for Swinney.

The play was set up when Ford noticed that Miami safety Randy Phillips was cheating on the corner route when he saw a specific formation.

The senior wideout, who hails from Royal Palm Beach, Fla. — about an hour north of Miami — and grew up a Hurricanes fan, relayed the information to his coach, and the Tigers basically drew up a play in the dirt designed to take advantage.

“It’s funny how that works out,” Parker said after the game. “He drew it up and said he was going to run this route with the safety, and I was like, ‘We’re going to catch this, and we’re going to win it.’ And it happened.”

But while oftentimes an unranked team goes on the road and needs to play a near-perfect game to upset a top 10 team, Swinney was quick to point out that was far from the case here.

“We also made enough mistakes to lose two or three ball games. … The biggest thing from my standpoint is trying to eliminate the turnovers and giving up big plays,” Swinney said. “We had four scoring opportunities where we really could’ve put the game away, and we came up empty.”

The Tigers turned the ball over just twice, but one — a Parker interception — likely took points off the board for Clemson, and the other — a Parker fumble — was returned for a Miami score. However, the redshirt freshman finished the evening 25 for 37 for 326 yards and three touchdowns while outplaying Miami’s Jacory Harris, who threw for 256 yards and two scores, but was picked off three times.

The Clemson defense certainly gave up its share of big plays, as 282 of Miami’s 433 yards of total offense came on 10 plays. However, it also got the ball back in the final minutes to set up Richard Jackson's tying field goal, then held Miami to three points in overtime.

Safety DeAndre McDaniel had two interceptions, including one he returned 24 yards for a touchdown, and now leads the nation with seven picks on the year.

“They’ve been right there on the brink against some good teams, and so to be able to put the highest-ranked team that we’ve played away at their place, I hope we can grow from that,” Swinney said.

Star tailback C.J. Spiller, meanwhile, set a Clemson single-game record for all-purpose yardage with 310 yards, including a 90-yard kickoff return for a touchdown in the second quarter that gave the Tigers a 14-10 lead at the intermission.

“If you’re looking at MVPs and Heismans and all that, I don’t know of a player in the country that’s more valuable to their team than C.J.,” Swinney said. “Sometimes I feel kind of guilty because this is my first time to ever be a head coach and there’s a lot of coaches that coach their whole lives and don’t get the opportunity to coach a guy like C.J. Spiller.”

Miami (5-2, 2-2) dropped 10 spots to No. 18 in The Associated Press Top 25 with the loss.

The Tigers, who snapped a string of eight consecutive losses to ranked opponents, will now step out of ACC play to host FCS foe Coastal Carolina for Homecoming on Saturday.

Swinney said he didn’t expect any letdown against the Chanticleers, calling it “the biggest game of the year.”

“Our kids have been through the fire a little bit, and I think they’ve learned and grown,” he said. “So, hopefully we can continue to change that culture by starting to become the consistent, winning program that shows up every week. And I think that we’ve already seen that.”

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Injury report. Senior tight end Michael Palmer suffered a slight concussion in the game and was held out of Monday’s practice. Palmer’s status for the Coastal Carolina game is questionable at this point.

Swinney said nobody else was questionable for Saturday and he is hopeful SAM linebacker Scotty Cooper (concussion) will return as well.

Tigers honored. Spiller, Parker and McDaniel were each honored in this week’s list of ACC players of the week, as they were named the league’s top specialist, rookie and defensive back, respectively, for the week.

Wait and see. ABC/ESPN and Raycom have exercised a six-day option on Clemson’s Nov. 7 home game against Florida State. The game time and network will be announced no later than noon this coming Sunday.

An honored guest. 2009 U.S. Open golf champion and former Clemson All-American Lucas Glover visited Swinney at Memorial Stadium on Monday afternoon.

“I gave him the grand tour and hopefully in exchange he can help me with my golf game,” Swinney said. “Lucas really follows our program closely and it was great to see him.”

Glover will be honored prior to the Florida State game and accepted an invitation from Swinney on Monday to run down The Hill with the team prior to the game.

Paying his respects. Starting cornerback Chris Chancellor missed Monday’s practice to attend the funeral of Jasper Howard, the Connecticut player who was tragically killed last week. Chancellor, a high school teammate of Howard, remained in Miami after Saturday’s game to attend the visitation on Sunday and the funeral on Monday. He was to return Monday night.