Clemson vs. Wake Forest Postgame Notes

Nov. 20, 2010

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Team Notes

Clemson’s 30-10 victory is the largest margin of victory forClemson in Winston-Salem since 1978 when Clemson won 51-6. Clemsonis now bowl eligible for the 12th consecutive year (every yearsince and including 1999). Clemson won this game on head coachDabo Swinney’s 41stbirthday. He is the first Clemson coach to win a game on hisbirthday. Only Red Parker (Oct. 26, 1974) also coached a game onhis birthday as Clemson head coach. He lost at Tennessee that day29-28. Clemson basketball coach Brad Brownell also won on hisbirthday this week, a 78-70 win over Wofford on November 15.Clemson’s defense had is sixth straight game of allowing exactlyone touchdown. This is the second longest streak of allowing onetouchdown or less in Clemson history. The 1981 NationalChampionship team holds the record with seven. They did it in thefirst seven games that year and in 10 of the 12 games that season.Clemson has now scored in double figures in 32 consecutive games,all 32 games Dabo Swinneyhas been head coach. That is the longest streak of double figurescoring games for the Clemson program since the 1982-85 era whenClemson had a 34-game streak. The last time Clemson failed to scorein double figures was the 2008 game at Wake Forest, a 12-7 loss.Clemson is now 24-9 in November games since 2002, and 9-3 underDabo Swinney in November.Clemson finished the ACC regular season with a 4-4 record, theprogram’s 12th consecutive year with at least a break even recordin ACC play. Clemson had 413 yards of total offense today, the bestfor the Tigers since gaining 414 against Presbyterian in the secondgame of the year. Clemson held Wake Forest to just 205 yards oftotal offense, including just 97 in the first three periods. Thatis the best total defense performance by the Tigers this year andbest since Coastal Carolina had just 170 in 2009. Clemson was 9-16on third down today and is now 26-51 over the last three games.

Individual Notes

Kyle Parker completed 15-17 passes for 194 yards and twotouchdowns today. That computes to an efficiency rating of 222.9,the best by a Clemson quarterback in an ACC game since 2002when Charlie Whitehurst had a 241. figure at North Carolina. It wasthe best by a Clemson quarterback in any game since Cullen Harperhad a 261.1 rating against Central Michigan in 2007. It was acareer high in terms of completion percentage for Parker, .889, andthe third best completion percentage in Clemson history for asingle game by a Clemson quarterback given a minimum of 15attempts. Woody Dantzler was 16-17 against The Citadel in 2000 andCullen Harper was 20-22 against Central Michigan in 2007. Parkerbegan his Clemson athletic career in terms of ACC competition atWake Forest in March of 2008 when he played baseball against theDemon Deacons. He hit three home runs in one game in that series totie a school record for a single game. Today, in his final athleticcompetition for the Tigers against an ACC opponent he recorded thethird best completion percentage in school history on the footballfield. Parker has now completed 101 of 156 passes for 990 yardsover his last five games, a .647 completion percentage. He wassimilar last year in that he completed 61 percent of his passesover his last six regular season games. Da’Quan Bowers recorded twomore sacks today and now has 15.5 for the season. He needs just onesack against South Carolina to break Keith Adams season record of16 set in 1999. Bowers also set a Clemson record for consecutivegames with a sack today. He now has a sack in nine straight games.He and Gaines Adams had the previous record of eight. Adams had hisstreak in 2006. Jamie Harper had his second consecutive game withat least 140 yards rushing. He had 24-142 rushing today aftergaining 143 yards in 27 carries at Florida State last week. Harperis the first Clemson back to gain at least 140 yards rushing inconsecutive games since 2005 when James Davis closed the seasonwith 145 yards rushing at South Carolina and a 150-yard rushinggame against Colorado in the Champs Sports Bowl. Harper had threecatches for 39 yards today to go with his rushing performance andnow has at least 180 yards from scrimmage in each of the last twogames. He had 197 yards at Florida State last week. Kyle Parker inthe second period with less than a minute left. It was the longestpass completion for the Tigers for a touchdown since Brown had a74-yard reception from Parker at North Carolina. Chandler Catanzaro had a careerhigh three field goals in three attempts in today’s game. He hasnow made four straight field goals over two games . He is now 12-19for the season, including 5-7 in field goals of 40 yards or more.