FINAL: Clemson 49, The Citadel 0

31 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝗿𝗲𝗴𝘂𝗹𝗮𝗿 𝘀𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗼𝗻 𝘄𝗶𝗻𝘀, passing the 2013-15 FSU Seminoles for the longest streak in ACC history.

2-0 𝗶𝗻 2020. #ALLIN 🐅🐾 pic.twitter.com/bgqJuq9EFw

— Clemson Football (@ClemsonFB) September 19, 2020

Top-Ranked Tigers Move to 2-0 with 49-0 Victory Over The Citadel in Home Opener

Box Score

CLEMSON, S.C. — No. 1 Clemson (2-0, 1-0 ACC) won its home opener on Saturday at Memorial Stadium, defeating The Citadel by a score of 49-0. The victory marked Clemson’s 31st consecutive regular season win, passing the 2013-15 Florida State Seminoles for the longest such streak in ACC history. 

Quarterback Trevor Lawrence went 8-of-9 passing for 168 yards and three touchdowns. He also ran the ball into the end zone for a fourth consecutive game, dating to last season. Freshman quarterback D.J. Uiagalelei scored his first Clemson touchdown on a 1-yard run in the second quarter, his first of two scores on the ground.  Clemson’s defense held the Bulldogs to just 162 total yards and added a score of its own when linebacker James Skalski returned a fumble 17 yards for the first touchdown of his career. Freshman Myles Murphy added two tackles for loss and forced the fumble that led to the Skalski scoop-and-score.

Clemson opened the game with a seven-play, 75-yard scoring drive capped by a 17-yard touchdown pass from Lawrence to Frank Ladson Jr. A Bulldogs punt led to a 44-yard touchdown strike, this time to Amari Rodgers. 

Ladson added a 54-yard touchdown grab en route to a three reception and game-leading, career-high 89-yard performance, helping Clemson to an eventual 49-0 halftime lead.

The Tigers cruised to the victory in a scoreless second half highlighted by three Bulldog 3-and-outs. Clemson’s defense forced 10 total punts on the day as well as a turnover on downs in the shutout. 

Clemson has an open date next week prior to returning to action against Virginia at Death Valley on Saturday, Oct. 3. Kickoff time and the television information for that game are still to be announced.

Game Notes

• Clemson produced its first shutout since the 2016 Fiesta Bowl, a 31-0 win against Ohio State. It was Clemson’s first regular season shutout since a 54-0 win against Syracuse in 2016.
• The shutout was Clemson’s seventh under Head Coach Dabo Swinney, and its fifth home shutout in his tenure.
• The shutout was Clemson’s first in a home opener since 2000, a game also played against The Citadel (38-0).
• Clemson, which allowed only 1.1 yards per carry last week, held The Citadel to 1.8 yards per carry, and has now held consecutive opponents 2.0 yards per carry or fewer for the first time since games 2-3 last season against Texas A&M and Syracuse.
• Clemson recorded four sacks and has now recorded at least four sacks in four straight games, dating to last season, for the first time since games 8-11 in 2018.
• Clemson rushed for 162 yards and has now rushed for at least 150 yards in 12 straight games, dating to last season. It represents Clemson’s longest streak since a 15-game span across the 1991-92 seasons.
• Quarterback Trevor Lawrence completed 8-of-9 passes for 168 yards and three passing touchdowns.
• Lawrence’s third touchdown pass was the 70th of his career, moving him into a tie for sixth with Jacory Harris on the ACC’s all-time career passing touchdowns leaderboard.
• Lawrence has now thrown 276 consecutive passes without an interception, passing Drew Weatherford (270 in 2007) for the third-longest streak in ACC history.
• Lawrence also scored his third rushing touchdown of the season, the 13th of his career, on a two-yard first quarter run.
• Lawrence has now rushed for a touchdown in four consecutive games, dating to last season, to become the first Clemson quarterback to rush for a touchdown in four straight games since Kelly Bryant in 2017.
• Running back Travis Etienne rushed eight times for 68 yards and caught an 11-yard pass.
• On a 28-yard first-quarter run, Etienne (4,208) moved past Maryland’s LaMont Jordan (4,147 from 1997-2000) for the fifth-most career rushing yards in ACC history.
• Etienne also recorded his first career punt return in the game, a 44-yard return in the second quarter.
• With 123 all-purpose yards in the game, Etienne (5,394) passed Warrick Dunn (5,321) and Robert Lavette (5,393) for eighth on the ACC’s leaderboard for career all-purpose yardage.
• Etienne was held without a touchdown, snapping a streak of 13 consecutive games with a touchdown, dating to last season. His streak was the second-longest in Clemson history, one game shy of C.J. Spiller’s school record of 14 set in 2009. It also snapped a school-record 10 consecutive games with a rushing touchdown.
• Wide receiver Frank Ladson Jr. recorded career highs in receptions (three), receiving yards (87) and receiving touchdowns (two).
• Clemson opened the scoring on the game’s opening possession on a 17-yard touchdown pass from Lawrence to Ladson. The touchdown reception was Ladson’s fourth of his career and his first of the season.
• Ladson added his second touchdown of the game on a 54-yard pass from Lawrence in the second quarter. The performance was Ladson’s first multi-touchdown game of his career.
• The 54-yard touchdown pass to Ladson was Lawrence’s 16th career touchdown pass covering 50 yards or more, one shy of Tajh Boyd’s school record of 17. Ladson became the sixth different player to catch a touchdown pass of 50 yards or more from Lawrence, joining Tee Higgins, Justyn Ross, Amari Rodgers, Diondre Overton and Travis Etienne.
• Wide receiver Amari Rodgers recorded his first touchdown reception of the season — the ninth of his career — on a 44-yard touchdown pass from Lawrence.
• With 37 punt return yards in the game, Rodgers (502) entered the Top 10 in school history in career punt return yards. He passed Ray-Ray McCloud (485) and Jacoby Ford (479) during the game and now sits eighth in Clemson history in the category.
• Quarterback D.J. Uiagalelei scored his first career touchdown on a one-yard touchdown run in the second quarter.
• Uiagalelei added his second rushing touchdown of the contest on a six-yard rush later in the second quarter. He became the first freshman quarterback at Clemson with two rushing touchdowns in a game since Kelly Bryant at Miami in 2015.
• Linebacker James Skalski recorded his first career touchdown in his 49th career game on a 17-yard fumble return in the first quarter.
• Skalski’s touchdown was Clemson’s first defensive touchdown of the season and its first since Logan Rudolph’s 39-yard fumble return touchdown against Boston College last October.
• The fumble that led to the touchdown was forced by defensive end Myles Murphy. Murphy and fellow true freshman defensive lineman DeMonte Capeharttied for the team lead with 2.0 tackles for loss each.
• Linebacker Trenton Simpson recorded his first career sack in the second quarter to end a drive by The Citadel. Capehart and defensive end Greg Williams also added their first career sacks in the contest, and linebacker Kevin Swintrecorded his first career half-sack.
• Clemson jumped out to a 28-0 first quarter lead. The 28 first-quarter points tied for Clemson’s fourth-most in a quarter in school history, including most recently at NC State last season. Since the start of the 2019 season, Clemson has outscored opponents in the first quarter, 219-34.
• Clemson scored 49 first-half points, its most in the first two quarters of play since scoring 49 against Temple in a 63-9 victory on Oct. 12, 2006. Previously, Clemson’s most first-half points in the Dabo Swinney era was 45 against Ball State in 2012 and against South Carolina State in 2016.
• Clemson opened the game scoring a touchdown on each of its first seven drives (including a statistical “zero-play” drive on a fumble return for touchdown) for the first time in the Dabo Swinney era. The streak of consecutive drives with a touchdown was broken only by a drive that started deep in Clemson territory with 32 seconds remaining in the first half.
• According to ESPN Stats & Info, three teams opened a game with seven consecutive touchdown drives last season: Louisiana (vs. Texas Southern), Wisconsin (vs. Kent State) and Arizona (vs Northern Arizona).
• Clemson scored three rushing touchdowns and has now opened a season with three or more rushing touchdowns in each of the first two games of a season for the first time since 2010.
• Clemson turned the ball over only once and has not produced multiple giveaways in a game in any of its last 10 games, dating to last year.
• Clemson played its 120th home opener in school history in its 125th season, as there were five seasons in which Clemson did not play a game at home.
• The game was Clemson’s latest home opener in a season (Sept. 19) since opening the 1985 season on Sept. 21 against Georgia.
• Official attendance for the contest was 18,609. Previously, Clemson’s last game attended by fewer than 20,000 at any location came at Duke on Nov. 2, 2002 (16,479). The last time Clemson played at Memorial Stadium in front of a crowd fewer than 20,000 people was on Oct. 31, 1964 against Virginia (17,000).
• The game was played 78 years to the date following Clemson’s first game at Memorial Stadium, as the Tigers opened the facility that would later become known colloquially as Death Valley with a 32-13 defeat of Presbyterian College on Sept. 19, 1942.
• Captains for the contest were running back Darien Rencher, wide receiver Will Swinney, safety Nolan Turner and defensive end Regan Upshaw.

With the Win...

• Clemson improved to 95-17-8 all-time in home openers.
• Clemson won its 17th straight home opener. Clemson has won every home opener since a 30-0 home opener loss to Georgia in 2003. It ties Clemson’s longest winning streak in home openers all-time, set across the 1944-60 seasons.
• Clemson improved to 33-5-1 in its all-time series with The Citadel since the teams’ first meeting in 1909.
• Clemson has now won its 18 most recent games in its all-time series with The Citadel since 1932, the third-longest winning streak against a single opponent in Clemson history (31 vs. Furman, 1938-Present; 29 vs. Virginia from 1955-89).
• Clemson is now 35-0 against Football Championship Subdivision teams since the NCAA formed the division prior to the 1978 season.
• Clemson won its 23rd consecutive home game to extend its school record for the longest home winning streak in school history. Clemson holds the nation’s longest active home winning streak.
• Clemson won its 24th consecutive non-conference game in regular season play, dating to 2014. Clemson’s last regular season non-conference loss came in the 2014 season opener against Georgia. Including postseason play, Clemson is now 31-4 overall in non-conference play in the College Football Playoff era (since 2014).
• Clemson has now won 31 consecutive regular season games, dating to Clemson’s last regular season loss at Syracuse in 2017. Clemson’s streak now surpasses the 2013-15 Florida State Seminoles for the longest in ACC history.
• Clemson pushed its winning streak in Saturday games to 45 to extend the longest Saturday winning streak in school history. Clemson’s current run of consecutive Saturday victories is the longest active streak in the country.
• Clemson pushed its winning streak in September games to 24. Clemson’s last September loss came in 2014 at No. 1 Florida State. Clemson is now 23-0 in September games since 2015, the only team in the country with a perfect September record in that span.
• Clemson has now won 74 of its last 79 games overall dating to 2014.
• Clemson has now won 80 of its last 82 games when leading at halftime.
• Clemson improved to 102-2 since 2011 when leading after three quarters.
• Clemson is now 52-1 when scoring first since 2015.
• Clemson improved to 101-2 when totaling more first downs than its opponent since 2011.
• Clemson has now won 83 straight games when holding teams under 23 points (dates to 2010).