CLEMSON, SC
Clemson came into this game wanting to prove the pundits wrong about the season so far. A team that has won all of its games in dominating fashion, but one still under severe scrutiny from the national media. On this night the Tigers would take an early lead and pour it on fast and furious and by halftime the Tigers held a 38-3 lead on the 49’ers. Included in that 1st half barrage of points was a Trevor Lawrence to Tee Higgins bomb that went for 58 yards on the Tigers second play from scrimmage. Both Lawrence and Higgins would not see much more action as the Tigers played a total of 111 players in the game, a school record.
Kinda hard to point to any individual performance on the evening as so much subbing was done in the game that no one could really gather in momentum to be singled out. If such a players stood out it would be safety K’von Wallace who had an impressive 1st quarter with a few nice tackles, a PBU (pass break up) and a ‘Pick Six’ that went for 66 yards. Wallaces 4th career pick and first touchdown of his career. Another player that looked good on the night given the sample size was RB Mikey Dukes, the true freshman looked great on fresh legs late in the game and scored late in the 4th for the Tigers final trip into the endzone for the game. The final was 52-10 with the staff happy about the way they were able to set the school record playing the 111 rostered players.
The Tigers came in trying to find balance in the offense and did just that ending the game with 235 rushing and 231 yards passing. Clemson played all four scholarship QB’s and even played on walk on in the latter moments as the game wound down. Again the 111 players who saw action broke the previous record of 94.
Mini Photo Gallery:
Dabo Swinney Post Game Press Conference:
Courtesy Clemson Athletics
GAME NOTES
Clemson played a school-record 111 players in the contest. The Clemson record for player participation in a single game was 94, set initially against The Citadel in 2017 and again against Louisville in 2018.Clemson won its 14th consecutive game by 14 points or more, tying the 2012-13 Florida State Seminoles and 1955-56 Oklahoma Sooners for the third-longest streak in the AP Poll era (since 1936).Charlotte entered the contest averaging 47.3 points per game, 296.7 rushing yards per game, 225.7 passing yards per game and 522.3 total yards per game. Clemson held the 49ers to 10 points and 216 total yards (153 rushing, 63 passing).Clemson recorded two sacks and has now recorded multiple sacks in 12 consecutive games for the first time since Games 3-14 of the 2016 season. It represents Clemson’s sixth multi-sack streak of 12 games or more since 1980 (18 from 1991-92, 17 from 1998-99, 15 from 2012-13, 14 from 2000-01, 12 in 2016).Clemson’s 63 passing yards allowed mark Clemson’s 10th game holding an opponent to 100 or fewer passing yards since 2017, tied with Michigan for the most in the country.Clemson has now scored 40 points in three of the first four games of a season for the first time in school history.Clemson has now scored 40 points in back-to-back games for the first time since the South Carolina and Pitt games in 2018.Clemson scored 24 or more points for a 19th consecutive game, adding to its current school record. Clemson has recorded double-digit streaks of 24-point games twice in school history (19 presently from 2018-19, 15 from 2016-17).Clemson has now posted 2,099 yards of offense this season, the team’s most through the first four games of a season, surpassing the 2,054 posted by the 2017 squad through four games.Clemson held a 38-3 lead at halftime, representing Clemson’s first 38-point first half since Nov. 18, 2017 against The Citadel. Clemson has now won 70 of its last 72 games when leading at halftime.Quarterback Trevor Lawrence completed 7-of-9 passes for 94 yards with two touchdown passes in a little over one quarter of action.Lawrence threw a touchdown pass on his first attempt of the game, a 58-yard strike to wide receiver Tee Higgins. It marked the second time in Lawrence’s career he has thrown a touchdown pass on his first attempt of a game, joining a 64-yard pass to Higgins on his first throw at Texas A&M in 2018.On the touchdown pass to Higgins, Lawrence broke a tie with Nealon Greene (35 from 1994-97) for the sixth-most passing touchdowns in school history. He now trails only Tajh Boyd (107), Deshaun Watson (90), Charlie Whitehurst (49), Cullen Harper (42) and Woodrow Dantzler (41) in school annals.The touchdown pass was Lawrence’s 11th career touchdown pass of 50-plus yards, breaking a tie with Deshaun Watson for sole possession of second-most by a Clemson quarterback since 1950. Tajh Boyd holds Clemson’s top mark in that category since 1950 with 17.On the touchdown reception, Higgins tied Terrance Roulhac (16 from 1983-86), Derrick Hamilton (16 from 2001-03) and Jacoby Ford (16 from 2006-09) for 10th in school history career touchdown receptions. Perry Tuttle ranks ninth with 17 from 1978-81.On his sixth pass of the game, Lawrence became the 12th player to attempt 500 career passes for Clemson all-time.Wide receiver Cornell Powell recorded a two-yard touchdown reception from Lawrence in the second quarter, his first touchdown of the season and the second of his career, joining his score against Kent State in the 2017 season opener.Running back Travis Etienne scored on a two-yard rush in the second quarter. The rushing touchdown tied him with Travis Zachery (41 from 1999-2001) for the second-most career rushing touchdowns in school history. With 61 yards during the game, Etienne (2,819) passed Woodrow Dantzler (2,761) and Terry Allen (2,778) to move into eighth on Clemson’s all-time career rushing yardage leaderboard.Running back Lyn-J Dixon recorded his third touchdown run of the season on a one-yard run in the second quarter. Dixon has scored in three of Clemson’s first four games this season.Quarterback Chase Brice entered in the second quarter and completed 5-of-7 passes for 85 yards with a touchdown.Wide receiver Joseph Ngata recorded his first career touchdown reception on a 37-yard pass from Brice in the third quarter. Ngata led the Tigers in receptions (three) and receiving yards (62).Running back Michel Dukes recorded his first career rushing touchdown on a 24-yard rush in the fourth quarter.Tight end Luke Price, who transitioned from linebacker this past offseason, recorded his first career reception on a 19-yard pass from Brice in the third quarter.Wide receiver Drew Swinney gained 11 yards on his first career reception, a pass from quarterback Taisun Phommachanh.Safety K’Von Wallace recorded a 66-yard interception return for touchdown in the first quarter. It was his first interception of the season and the fourth of his career.Clemson has now intercepted a pass in eight straight games for the first time since a nine-game interception streak across the first nine games of the 2016 season.The touchdown was Wallace’s first of his career. It was Clemson’s first return for touchdown of the season and the Tigers’ first since A.J. Terrell opened last year’s College Football Playoff National Championship game with a 44-yard pick-six.Wallace’s 66-yard pick-six was the first Charlotte has thrown since Nov. 18, 2017, when they threw two against Southern Miss.Defensive end Justin Foster recorded his first sack of the season, pushing his career total to 3.5.Safety Lannden Zanders recorded his first career sack in the fourth quarter.Punter Will Spiers matched his career long with a 64-yard punt in the third quarter. He previously booted one 64 yards on Sept. 16, 2017, against Louisville.Head Coach Dabo Swinney coached his 150th game as head coach of the Tigers, joining Frank Howard (295) as the only head coaches to lead Clemson in 150 career games.The game was the first between Clemson and Charlotte all-time. Charlotte was the 105th different opponent faced by Clemson in program history. Clemson is now 63-38-4 all-time in its first meeting with its 105 opponents, including a 14-1 mark in first meetings since 2003.The game marked the third straight season in which Clemson faced an opponent for the first time, joining the team’s debut against Kent State in a 56-3 win in 2017 and Clemson’s 38-7 victory against Georgia Southern in 2018. Prior to this three-year run of new opponents, Clemson had most recently faced a new opponent in 2014, facing both Louisville and Georgia State for the first time and earning victories in both contests.The game was the first contest played by Clemson all-time against a Conference USA opponent. Prior to Saturday, Clemson had played seven other current members of Conference USA, but all of those contests came during programs’ tenures with other conferences.Captains for the contest were wide receiver Tee Higgins, safety Denzel Johnson, wide receiver Diondre Overton and defensive tackle Nyles Pinckney.
WITH THE WIN…
Clemson won its 19th consecutive game, dating to the start of the 2018 season, to extend the longest winning streak in school history and second-longest winning streak in ACC history.Clemson has now won 62 of its last 66 games overall dating to 2014.Clemson has earned victories in 65 of its last 67 games against unranked teams.Clemson improved to 12-2 all-time in games as the AP No. 1-ranked team. Thirteen of Clemson’s 14 games played at No. 1 all-time entering Saturday have come during the Dabo Swinney era.Clemson won its 18th consecutive game at Memorial Stadium, dating back to a 56-7 win against South Carolina on Nov. 25, 2016. The 18-game streak is the second-longest home winning streak in Clemson history, trailing only a 21-game Memorial Stadium winning streak from 2013-16. Clemson has now won 39 of its last 40 games at home.Clemson extended its non-conference home winning streak to 20 games. The streak is already the longest in school history. Clemson tied its longest unbeaten streak in non-conference home games in school history, matching a 20-game unbeaten streak from 1978-84 that included 18 wins and two ties.Head Coach Dabo Swinney pushed his all-time record in non-conference play as a head coach to 44-13, extending his non-conference record in regular season play to 35-8.Swinney improved to 30-3 all-time in non-conference home games.Clemson won its 21st consecutive regular season non-conference game. Clemson’s streak against non-conference opponents in the regular season dates to a 73-7 win against South Carolina State on Sept. 6, 2014. No member of Clemson’s current roster has lost a non-conference game in regular season play.Clemson pushed its winning streak in Saturday games to 33 to extend the longest Saturday winning streak in school history and the longest active streak in the country.Clemson won its 21st consecutive game in the month of September, dating back to 2014, already the longest in school history.Clemson improved to 91-2 since 2011 when leading after three quarters.Clemson scored first and Is now 42-0 when scoring first since 2015.Clemson pushed its record when totaling more first downs than its opponent to 91-2 since 2011.Clemson improved to 58-1 when rushing for 200+ yards under Dabo Swinney.Clemson rushed for 235 yards and passed for 231 yards and is now 44-0 when both passing and rushing for 200+ yards under Dabo Swinney.Clemson has won 72 straight games when holding teams under 23 points (dates to 2010).
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