The Clemson Tigers shook off their tough result in Durham, NC a week ago to come home and beat a Charleston Southern team by a final score of 66 to 17 on Hall of Fame weekend in Death Valley. The Tigers responded to some early adversity to win convincingly. A common theme of the night was “Respond.” Coach Swinney started his postgame comments with that very feeling:
Clemson fans came into the day thinking, or maybe hoping rather, that the Tigers would show that last week was a little bit of a fluke. Taking nothing away from the Blue Devils, but there was a lot of sloppy football played by the team with the paws on their helmets 5 days ago. Early on in this game, some fans were scratching their heads.
Charleston Southern won the coin toss and elected to defer. The Tigers got the ball first and while clunky at times, marched down the field and scored on a beautiful throw from Cade Klubnik to Antonio Williams for 10 yards. From that point on, clunky may be generous when describing the rest of the half.
However, after the 1st quarter mishaps, the Tigers started to really respond on offense, culminating in 2nd half-explosion of complimentary football.
Sophomore Quarterback Cade Klubnik (28 for 37; 315 yards 4 TDs, 1 Interception), after what Coach Swinney called “three bad plays,” lived up to his pre-season hype and played like the quarterback Clemson fans were hoping to see and hearing about all off-season.
The offense had 679 yards of total offense; 405 yards coming through the air and 274 on the ground. Contributions from many players. 117 players played today, believed to be a Clemson record.
The Tigers ended up playing all four quarterbacks (Hunter Helms, Paul Tyson and Chris Vizzina). Helms and Tyson added a touchdown apiece.
The Tigers continued to show their depth against the Buccaneers with 16 Tiger pass catchers. Led by Beaux Collins with 7 catches for 137 yards and a score and Antonio Williams adding 5 catches for 64 yards and two visits to the end zone.
Collins talked about his relationship with his quarterback, especially after throwing the interception early, “We just tell him we have his back, he’s not out there by himself. Once he sees that we’re not panicking he’ll be great.”
Beaux Collins
A great performance by Collins, responding after his season-ending injury a season ago.
The Tigers got really great performances from running backs, Will Shipley (9 Attempts for 73 yards; 3 catches for 22 yards) and Phil Mafah (9 Attempts for 59 Yards and 2 TDs) as well as the backups; Dominique Thomas, Keith Adams, Jr., Tristan Rigsby, as the game went out of reach in the third quarter when the Tigers added four touchdowns.
The Tigers rushing attack had 10 players with attempts and finished the day with 274 yards and 3 touchdowns.
Klubnik looked to be getting in a great rhythm at times but then would lose focus and leave the fans scratching their heads. On a 4th and 1 Klubnik and Mafah were not on the same page which led to a scoop and ALMOST a score for the Buccaneers. One play later, the Bucs would score on a run from running back JD Moore to tie the score at 7.
Klubnik again talked about “responding” after making mistakes post-game, “I know I’m not defined by one play…I’ll never play a perfect game, so when I do make mistakes we have to respond. We’ve put the work in to go make plays, have great drives and score touchdowns.
The following drive Klubnik missed a wide-open Troy Stellato and while trying to throw it away as the pocket started to collapse around him, found the waiting arms of Charleston Southern DB Leon Thomas, and all of a sudden the Tigers trailed 14-7.
Clemson ended up being 4-4 in the red zone for the day. Klubnik quipped, “we drove all the way down the field, we might as well score.”
Up to that point, the Bucs had 0 yards of total offense and 14 points.
From that point on, Klubnik relied on his steady hands of Shipley and Mafah behind him as well as some short, quick throws to capable receivers that seemed to steady the offense.
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On the other side of the ball, Clemson’s defense was swarming all day led by Freshman TJ Parker who led the team with tackles. Wade Woodaz added a pick 6 of his own.
Asked after the game about it he said, “I felt like Will Shipley our there, and I told him that too, I didn’t look that fast trying to set up my blocks like a running back…I kept running thinking, ‘why is there no one in front of me?’ and then I scored. It was a great feeling.”
Wade Woodaz
Clemson ended up being 4-4 in the red zone for the day. Klubnik quipped, “we drove all the way down the field, we might as well score.”
A great day in Death Valley for the Tigers and their fans. They return next Saturday as they play host to Florida Atlantic University at 8 p.m.
