Oct 17, 2020

FINAL: Clemson 73, GT 7

Game #1

No. 1 Clemson’s High-Powered Offense Shines in 73-7 Victory over Georgia Tech

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— Clemson Football (@ClemsonFB) October 17, 2020

ATLANTA — Clemson piled up 52 points in the first half behind five touchdown passes from quarterback Trevor Lawrence in the top-ranked Tigers’ 73-7 win over Georgia Tech (2-3, 1-3 ACC) on Saturday. Clemson (5-0, 4-0 ACC) upped its school-best road winning streak to 14 games and its ACC-record regular season winning streak to 34 games.

Clemson’s 52 points were its most in a first half against an ACC opponent, breaking its previous record of 49 against Wake Forest in 1981. Lawrence was 22-27 passing for 391 yards and five touchdowns in the first half alone. Lawrence finished with a career-best 405 yards through the air.

Wide receiver Amari Rodgers found the end zone twice and recorded the third 100-yard game of his career in a career-high 161-yard performance. Running back Travis Etienne recorded a touchdown on 11 rushing attempts for 44 yards. He has now scored a touchdown in 40 of his 48 career games.

The Tigers’ defense forced three turnovers and totaled four sacks. This marked the 11th straight and 27th of its last 28 games that Clemson recorded multiple sacks.

Clemson opened the scoring when Lawrence found Cornell Powell for a five-yard touchdown. The Yellow Jackets responded with a 59-yard touchdown pass to even the score at seven apiece.

The Tigers came back on the first play of their ensuing possession with an 83-yard bomb of their own from Lawrence to Rodgers to start their run of 66 unanswered points. The play was the longest of Clemson’s season and the second-longest connection between the pair.

After a 4th down stop by the Tiger defense, Lawrence delivered a 34-yard touchdown pass to Davis Allen for his second career touchdown reception and second in as many weeks to give Clemson a 24-7 advantage.

Defensive tackle Nyles Pinckney got in on the scoring with a one-yard touchdown run in the second quarter. The Tigers would add three more second quarter touchdowns, scored by Frank Ladson, Jr., Travis Etienne and Rodgers before entering halftime with a commanding 52-7 lead. Etienne’s three-yard rushing touchdown broke Chandler Catanzaro’s school record of 404 career points.

Chez Mellusi, Kobe Pace and Ajou Ajou would add second half touchdowns. Pace’s was the first of his career and came on Hunter Helms’s first career touchdown pass. Ajou’s touchdown marked the first of his career. The Tigers defense closed out the game as Clemson cruised to its sixth consecutive victory over the Yellow Jackets.

Clemson will return home next Saturday, Oct. 24, when the Tigers take on Syracuse at Death Valley. Kickoff for that game is scheduled for noon ET.

GAME NOTES

Clemson’s 66-point victory margin ties for its seventh-largest all-time and its largest since a 66-point win against South Carolina State in 2014. It’s Clemson’s second-largest win all-time against a school presently in the Football Bowl Subdivision, trailing only a 73-0 victory against Georgia Tech in 1903.
Clemson reached the 70-point mark for the 10th time in school history. The 73 points are tied for the seventh-most in a game in school history.
Clemson’s 73 points tied that 1903 contest for its most against Georgia Tech in a game in series history.
Clemson’s 73 points represent Clemson’s third-most against an ACC opponent all-time, trailing its 82-point performance against Wake Forest in 1981 and its 77 points against Louisville in 2018. However, both of those performances came at home, so Saturday’s output was the most scored by Clemson in an ACC road game all-time, passing its 63 at Wake Forest in 2018.
Clemson’s 73 points tied for Clemson’s second-most points in a road game in school history, trailing its 94 against Furman in 1915 and matching its 73 at Georgia Tech in 1903.
Clemson opened the game with a modern-era school-record 52 points in the first half. Clemson’s previous high against an ACC opponent in a first half was 49 in its opening two frames against Wake Forest in its national championship campaign in 1981.
Clemson produced 473 yards in the first half, only 14 yards shy of the school record for yards in a half (487 vs. Duke in 2012).
Clemson has now scored at least 37 points in each of its first five games, opening a season with five consecutive games of 37 points or more for the first time in school history.
Clemson has now won each of its first five games of a season by at least 18 points for the third time in school history, joining the 1929 and 2000 seasons. It is the third time since 2000 that an ACC team has opened a season with five straight wins of 18 points or more, joining the 2000 Tigers and the 2004 Virginia Cavaliers.
Clemson tied a school record for points in a quarter with 35 in the second quarter, matching its second quarter against Wake Forest in 1981 and its third quarter against North Carolina in 2011.
Clemson gained 671 total yards, ninth-most in school history and its most since a 702-yard effort against Wofford last season,
Clemson threw seven passing touchdowns, breaking the school record of six set previously against Central Michigan in 2007, against Duke in 2012, against North Carolina in 2014 and against South Carolina in 2016.
Clemson finished with 500 passing yards, its second-most in a single game all-time behind its record 580 passing yards against Pitt in 2016. It is Clemson’s second 500-yard passing game all-time.
Playing roughly 40 miles from his hometown of Cartersville, Ga., quarterback Trevor Lawrence completed 24-of-33 passes with career highs in passing yards (404) and passing touchdowns (five).
Lawrence improved to 30-1 as a starter, joining Rodney Williams, Tajh Boyd and Deshaun Watson as the only quarterbacks in school history to win at least 30 games as a starting quarterback. Williams, Boyd and Watson are all tied for the school record with 32 wins each.
The game was Lawrence’s first career 400-yard passing game and the 10th by a Clemson quarterback all-time. He is the fourth Clemson quarterback to accomplish the feat, joining Deshaun Watson (five), Tajh Boyd (three) and Charlie Whitehurst (one).
Lawrence produced the first game with at least five passing touchdowns by a Clemson quarterback since Deshaun Watson’s six-touchdown performance against South Carolina in 2016.
With his fourth touchdown pass of the game, Lawrence passed Chris Weinke (79) for fourth-most career passing touchdowns in ACC history. He joins Tajh Boyd, Philip Rivers and Deshaun Watson as the only players in ACC history with at least 80 career passing touchdowns.
Lawrence (95) also passed Russell Wilson and Eric Dungey (93 each) for sixth on the ACC’s all-time career leaderboard for touchdown responsibility.
Lawrence has now thrown at least three touchdown passes in four straight games for the first time since a school-record eight-game stretch last season.
Lawrence recorded his 18th career game with three or more passing touchdowns, four shy of Tajh Boyd’s school record of 22. Clemson is now 18-0 when Lawrence throws three touchdown passes.
Including his 410 combined rushing and passing yards in the game, Lawrence (9,283) became the fourth player in Clemson history to record 9,000 career yards of total offense, joining Tajh Boyd, Deshaun Watson and Charlie Whitehurst.
Lawrence threw an interception on his 12th pass attempt of the game, ending a streak of 366 consecutive passes without an interception, the second-longest streak in ACC history. The streak concluded 13 pass attempts shy of matching the ACC record held by NC State’s Russell Wilson (379 from 2008-09). With 2020 being a leap year, Lawrence went 364 calendar days between interceptions dating to his last pick at Louisville on Oct. 19, 2019.
Lawrence finished the first half having completed 22-of-27 passes for 391 yards with five touchdowns. It was Clemson’s first 300-yard first half by a passer since Deshaun Watson threw for 331 yards in the first two quarters vs. Pitt in 2016. His 391-yard first half alone would have ranked as the 13th-highest total in a full game in school history.
Lawrence’s five passing touchdowns in the first half tied a school record, matching Tajh Boyd, who accomplished the feat against Wake Forest and in 2012 and against The Citadel in 2013.
Lawrence became the first ACC quarterback to throw for more than 375 yards in a first half since North Carolina’s Marquise Williams (404 against Duke in 2015).
Lawrence posted his 10th career 300-yard passing game to join Tajh Boyd (18) and Deshaun Watson (13) as the only players in school history to record double-digit career 300-yard passing games.
Running back Travis Etienne rushed 11 times for 44 yards with a rushing touchdown and caught two passes for 29 yards.
On a three-yard second-quarter touchdown, Etienne (408) broke placekicker Chandler Catanzaro’s school record of 404 career points from 2010-13 to become the program’s all-time leading scorer.
Etienne (408) passed Michael Badgley (403 from 2014-17) and Joey Slye (403 from 2014-17), Chandler Catanzaro (404 from 2010-13) and Roberto Aguayo (405 from 2013-15) for third on the ACC’s career scoring leaderboard. Etienne was already the only non-kicker in ACC history with 400 career points.
Etienne has now scored a touchdown of any kind in 40 of his 48 career games.
Etienne lost a fumble on his second carry of the game. It was his first lost fumble since Sept. 28, 2019 at North Carolina. He totaled 206 rushing attempts (and 230 total touches) between those two lost fumbles.
Wide receiver Cornell Powell recorded his fourth career touchdown reception on a five-yard pass from Lawrence in the first quarter. It was his first touchdown of the season and his first since Oct. 19, 2019 at Louisville.
Wide receiver Amari Rodgers posted his third career 100-yard receiving game, finishing with a career-high 161 yards on six receptions (121 vs. Syracuse in 2019; 156 vs. FSU in 2018).
Rodgers recorded his 12th career touchdown, his fourth of the season, on an 83-yard touchdown reception from Lawrence in the first quarter. The reception was Clemson’s longest of the season and the second-longest between the Lawrence-Rodgers connection all-time, joining an 87-yard touchdown between the two at Syracuse last season.
Rodgers added his 13th career touchdown in the second quarter, his second multi-touchdown game of the season and the fourth of his career.
Playing roughly an hour from his hometown of Calhoun, Ga., tight end Davis Allen scored his second career touchdown and his second in as many weeks on a 34-yard touchdown pass from Lawrence in the second quarter.
Allen became the first Clemson tight end with a touchdown catch in consecutive games since Jordan Leggett against South Carolina and Virginia Tech in 2016.
Running back Chez Mellusi scored his second touchdown of the season in the third quarter.
Running back Kobe Pace, a native of Cedartown, Ga., scored his first career touchdown on a seven-yard pass in the fourth quarter. It came on the first passing career touchdown for quarterback Hunter Helms.
Helms threw his second passing touchdown of the day on a 35-yard pass to wide receiver Ajou Ajou. It was Ajou’s first career touchdown and represented Clemson’s record-breaking seventh passing touchdown of the day as a team.
Defensive tackle Nyles Pinckney scored on a one-yard touchdown run in the second quarter. It was Clemson’s fourth offensive “big man touchdown” by an offensive or defensive lineman since 2018, joining touchdown runs by defensive linemen Christian Wilkins (at Florida State in 2018) and Dexter Lawrence (vs. Louisville in 2018) and offensive lineman John Simpson (at NC State in 2019).
Defensive end Myles Murphy, a native of Marietta, Ga., recorded a sack on Georgia Tech’s second possession, recording his second career forced fumble on the play.
Cornerback Andrew Booth Jr., a native of Dacula, Ga., recorded his first career sack in the contest.
Defensive tackle Tyler Davis recorded his first sack of the season in the second quarter.
Defensive end K.J. Henry recorded his first fumble recovery of the season in the first quarter. It was his second career fumble recovery, joining one he produced in his collegiate debut vs. Furman in 2018.
Defensive end Justin Mascoll, a native of Snellville, Ga., recorded his first career fumble recovery in the third quarter.
Safety Nolan Turner recorded his second interception of the season in the second quarter. It was his fifth career interception.
Clemson finished with five sacks and has now recorded multiple sacks in 27 of its last 28 games, including each of its last 11.
Clemson recorded at least three sacks in a seventh straight game, dating to last season, for the first time since a seven-game streak across games 8-14 of the 2018 season.
Clemson’s streak of games with only one or fewer giveaways ended at 12 games when Clemson turned the ball over for the second time in the first half. Clemson’s 12-game streak with one giveaway or fewer was the program’s longest in the last 20 years.
Clemson played its 19th game all-time while ranked No. 1 in the AP Poll, the 15th-most since the poll’s inception in 1936. It was Dabo Swinney’s 18th game coached at No. 1, tying him with Steve Spurrier for 18th all-time.
Captains for the contest were offensive lineman Matt Bockhorst, running back Darien Rencher, linebacker James Skalski and linebacker Baylon Spector.

With the Win...

Clemson earned its 33rd all-time victory against Georgia Tech. Georgia Tech is one of 11 schools against whom Clemson has earned at least 30 all-time victories (South Carolina, Wake Forest, North Carolina State, Furman, Virginia, North Carolina, Duke, Maryland, Presbyterian and The Citadel). It marks the second time this season Clemson has earned its 33rd all-time win against an opponent after having moved to 33-5-1 all-time against The Citadel earlier this year.
Clemson won its sixth consecutive game against Georgia Tech, dating back to a 43-24 home win in 2015. It extended Clemson’s longest winning streak in the all-time series, as the current streak already surpassed four-game winning streaks across the 1898-1903 seasons and the 1993-96 campaigns.
Clemson won a third straight road game at Georgia Tech for the first time in series history. Clemson had won consecutive games at Georgia Tech five times in school history (1902-03, 1906-07, 1986-88, 2001-03, 2016-18) but had previously never beaten the Yellow Jackets three consecutive times on the road.
Clemson recorded its 15th all-time road win against Georgia Tech.
Head Coach Dabo Swinney secured his 135th career win as a head coach to pass Virginia’s George Welsh (134) for the second-most career wins by an ACC head coach. At the time of his retirement following the 2000 season, Welsh was the winningest head coach in ACC history prior to being passed by Bobby Bowden.
Swinney improved to 9-5 all-time against Georgia Tech, including postseason play. He became the first Clemson head coach ever to defeat Georgia Tech in Atlanta three times.
Swinney improved to 12-6 as a head coach all-time in games against schools from the state of Georgia. He now has a 9-5 mark against Georgia Tech, a 1-1 record against Georgia and a 1-0 mark against both Georgia State and Georgia Southern.
Clemson earned its 14th consecutive victory in true road games, extending its current school record.
Though 2020 is technically a divisionless season, Clemson improved to 31-8 against opponents historically from the ACC Coastal Division, including postseason play, under Head Coach Dabo Swinney. Clemson has now won 17 of its last 18 games against the Coastal Division since 2015.
Clemson pushed its streak of consecutive victories in games that would typically count as ACC interdivisional matchups to 13 games, dating back to the 2016 ACC Championship Game.
Clemson won its 26th consecutive game against an ACC opponent, including postseason play. The 26-game winning streak against conference opponents pulls Clemson within two games of the 2012-15 Florida State Seminoles for the second-longest streak in ACC history.
Clemson has now won 34 consecutive regular season games, the longest such streak in ACC annals and the second-longest FBS streak since 2005. Clemson’s last regular season loss came in October 2017 at Syracuse.
Clemson won a 37th consecutive non-bowl game, tying the 1992-96 Nebraska Cornhuskers for the third-longest streak in the AP Poll era. Clemson has won 34 regular season games and three conference championship games in that span.
Clemson improved to 24-1 in October games in the College Football Playoff era (since 2014).
Clemson pushed its winning streak in Saturday games to 48 to extend the longest Saturday winning streak in FBS history.
Clemson improved to 17-2 all-time when ranked No. 1 by the Associated Press. Clemson has never lost a regular season game as the nation’s top-ranked team.