The landscape of college football changed dramatically over the past offseason with the Big 12, ACC, and Big 10 essentially gutting the PAC-12. The realignment, strange as it may appear, added a trio of teams from far outside the South and Mid Atlantic regions that have traditionally made up the geographic borders of the Atlantic Coast Conference with the addition of California, Stanford, and Southern Methodist.
For the Clemson Tigers, that meant they would get a chance to tilt with the Stanford Cardinal at home, marking the first meeting between the two schools since 1986 – which was a 27-21 victory for Danny Ford’s squad in the Gator Bowl.
On Saturday night, despite a trying weekend with the effects of Hurricane Helene being felt across the upstate and Western North Carolina, the Tigers hosted a sizable crowd of people looking for a reprieve from the devastation many left at home. It did not take long for the fans to have something to roar about.
Through the first 3 games of the 2024 season, Clemson’s offense has been showing signs of trending back towards what was almost customary from 2016-2020. The team ranked 4th all time in most points scored through the first three weeks of the season with 128, an average of nearly 43 per game. They have been doing what the teams of the late 2010s were known for – jumping out to early leads. Against Appalachian State and NC State, Quarterback Cade Klubnik helped the Tigers go ahead 35-0 and 28-0 in the opening 15 minutes of the game, respectively. Under Klubnik, the Tigers had also scored touchdowns on 16 of 17 drives he played in.
Say what you want. Maybe the opposition played a part in that – especially when you consider that Georgia held this team to just three points in the season opener. But, it is hard to deny that at this moment, Cade is playing the most confident that he has yet as the starter at Clemson, and the offense is feeding off it.
On the opening drive of the game – which was a real tone-setter for the night for the Cardinal, Stanford faced a 4th and 1 from their own 34 yard line. After a review determined that Stanford QB Ashton Daniels fumbled the ball backwards on an option keeper and recovered it back at the line of scrimmage to make for a turnover on downs, Klubnik took matters into his own hands. On 3rd and 10 from the Cardinal 34, he was flushed from the pocket and with a mile of green grass ahead of him, took off untouched for a TD to give the Tigers the 7-0 lead with 12:19 to play in the first quarter.
Stanford looked like they would have the perfect answer, driving all the way to the Clemson 7 yard line. But, on 3rd and goal, Ashton Daniels was flushed and rolled to his right, throwing on the run right into the arms of Aveion Terrell in the endzone for the first of 3 big red zone interceptions by the Tigers defense. Klubnik’s arm came up big again as on the very next play, he connected with Bryant Wescot Jr on a deep ball across the middle of the field for a big gain to the Stanford 10, ultimately leading to a 20 yard fieldgoal to up the ante to 10-0 with 2:09 to play in the opening stanza.
Stanford went right down the field again only to have back to back drives end in an interception as this time, Jeadyn Lukas picked off Daniels at the Clemson 9 yard line. After trading punts, it looked like Clemson was close to putting the game away in the first half, driving to the Stanford 38 before Klubnik made his lone error of the game – a throw on the run under pressure where he was picked off by Stanford’s Collin Wright at the Cardinal 6. But, nothing came of it and once again the two sides traded punts.
It would take until the 1:49 mark of the first half for either team to find the scoreboard again, as Klubnik hit Jake Briningstool for a 5 yard TD connection to up the lead to 17-0 before Stanford finally broke the goose egg. They put together a 7 play, 75 yard drive, capped by a 19 yard TD reception by Alic Ayomanor, making for a 17-7 Clemson lead at the break.
In the 2nd half, the Tiger offense kicked into high gear, scoring the next 33 points unanswered. Klubnik threw three touchdown passes – a 43-yarder to Cole Turner, a 34-yard strike to Bryant Wesco Jr, and another for 2 yards to Olsen Patt-Henry. In total, Cade finished the night 15 for 31 with 255 yards and 4 touchdowns along with 7 carries for 48 yards and a TD. Bryant Wesco Jr led the aerial attack with 2 catches for 104 yards and a TD as Clemson amassed 405 yards of total offense on 61 plays.
“Cade was awesome, Had a couple of plays he would like back. But he is making plays with his legs. Something you did not see much last year. He has really grown there. He is a smarter player. He made a critical mistake on the slide. That is an easy first down you have to make. Those are things that can change games and really cost you. But besides that, he is playing with so much confidence and vision and making really good decisions. He has done a great job of taking care of the ball, as have the rest of the guys. And again, if you are gonna have a great year, you have to win the turnover margin”, said Swinney.
But, the story besides continuing to hang crooked numbers on offense was their defense.
From a glance, the numbers don’t look all that great. Stanford tallied 361 yards of total offense- 236 of which came on the ground. But, the Clemson defense forced 3 takeaways in the red zone and 3 more turnovers on downs. Stanford mustered just 1 score from inside the Clemson 25 yard line in 4 attempts – the lone one being the “garbage time” TD they scored with 2:31 to play in the game.
“Our first few games, we had given up some busted plays in the red zone with some guys left wide open. We did some things there that we weren’t in the open field. But, tonight, we were at our best in the red zone. If you are going to be a great team, you have to win those situations. That is why we work really hard on goal line and red zone defense. It was good to see our offense put some drives together against some tough field position. All of those situations will help us. But to see our defense make those plays will give them a lot of confidence. To create turnovers and get some stops on downs in the red zone were great. The defense reset and won the situation, and that is winning football”, said Dabo.
“We shut them down in the 2nd half with our 1’s {first string guys}. They had a few things we were not prepared for (in the first half). We knew we were gonna see a lot of QB runs. But Stanford did a few things schematically well in the first half. Despite that we had a nice lead. Our guys have had some ‘comfortable’ halftimes the last couple of games. But, they went out and did what they needed to do in the 2nd half. They played a really good half in all three phases. We won the turnover margin and big play margin and those are the biggest positives for our team. We were not perfect tonight, but we did what we needed to do. When you win the turnover margin and you have at least 2 more big plays than your opponent, you win 98% of the time”, Swinney later added.
With the 40-14 victory – marking the 173rd in Dabo’s coaching career at Clemson (which ties him with Bobby Bowden for the most while coaching an ACC program and surpassing Dan Devine on the all-time wins list while tying Robert Neyland) in the books and the Tigers sitting at 3-1 on the season, Clemson will set their eyes on a road matchup with DJ Uiagelelei and the Florida State Seminoles.
“This was a good team win. We showed a lot of grit and there was adversity we had to overcome. We didn’t play our best game up front. But we overcame a lot. It is great to win at home. But now we have to go on the road. Good teams win at home; great teams win on the road”, said Dabo, later adding that he is not concerned with records when it comes to Florida State.
Kickoff between the Tigers and Noles is set for 7:00 PM in Tallahassee.
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