The contest was delayed roughly two hours because of pregame lightning and kicked off at 8:41 p.m. local (9:41 p.m. ET).
Prior to the contest, Clemson's two most recent games to kick off at 9:30 p.m. or later in its home time zone were both played in Tokyo: 1982 vs. Wake Forest (11 p.m. ET) and 1991 vs. Duke (9:30 p.m. ET). Clemson's next road game on Sept. 25 is a 10:30 p.m. ET kick at Cal.
With an announced attendance of 102,321, Clemson played in front of a crowd in excess of 100,000 people for the third time in program history, joining a win at Texas A&M in 2018 (104,794) and a loss at Texas in 2024 (101,150).
Losses to LSU in 2025 and 2026 snapped a streak during which Clemson had not lost to the same opponent in back-to-back seasons since losing to Florida State in three consecutive seasons from 2012-14.
Clemson has now opened three consecutive seasons against an AP-ranked opponent for the first time in school history.
Clemson opened a season against an AP Top 15 team for the 12th time in school history. The game was Clemson’s fourth such season opener in the last six years, the most in the nation.
Clemson opened its season away from home for the sixth time in the last seven years. Clemson, Nebraska, Notre Dame and LSU were the only power conference (or equivalent) teams in the nation to play only a single season opener at home from 2020-25.
Clemson opened a season against an SEC opponent for the eighth time under Head Coach Dabo Swinney.
Cornerback Ashton Hampton recorded an interception on the game’s second play from scrimmage.
The interception was Hampton’s fourth of his career and his first since Sept. 6, 2025 against Troy.
Hampton’s interception marked the first time Clemson had recorded an interception on the season’s first defensive possession since 2022, when Andrew Mukuba picked off a Georgia Tech pass on the game’s first offensive play.
Wide receiver T.J. Moore extended his streak of consecutive games with a reception to 28, a streak that covers every game of his Clemson career. He now needs a catch in his next two games to become the 12th player in school history to record a 30-game reception streak.
On his second reception of the game, Moore (1,519) surpassed 1,500 career receiving yards.
Moore recorded the 100th reception of his career on an 11-yard pass from quarterback Tait Reynolds in the third quarter.
Reynolds made his collegiate debut in the second quarter and completed a seven-yard pass to Tyler Brown on his first snap.
Running back David Eziomume recorded his first career touchdown on an 11-yard run in the fourth quarter.
With Eziomume’s rushing touchdown, Clemson has now scored at least one rushing touchdown in a national-best-tying 98 of its 110 games since the start of the 2018 season.
Wide receiver Juju Preston recorded a 25-yard gain on his first career reception, a pass from Christopher Vizzina in the fourth quarter.
Defensive tackle Champ Thompson recorded two pass breakups. He became the first Clemson defensive tackle credited by gameday stat crews with two pass breakups in a game since DeMonte Capehart at Florida State in 2024.
Though statistics are not counted on two-point conversion attempts, defensive tackle Amare Adams forced a failed two-point conversion with an uncredited sack in the third quarter.
Placekicker Nolan Hauser converted a 49-yard field goal on Clemson’s opening drive. It was his 36th career field goal, bringing him one shy of Mark Buchholz (37 from 2007-08) for 10th in school history.
Clemson is now 37-8 in regular season non-conference games since the start of the 2014 season.
The defeat dropped Clemson to 56-14 in night games since 2015.
Clemson is now 10-2 in its last 12 regular season road games.
Clemson dropped to 95-10 since 2015 when scoring first. The game was Clemson’s first loss when scoring first since last year’s season opener against LSU.
Clemson made its 31st appearance on ESPN’s College GameDay. It was College GameDay’s 500th road show all-time. Clemson has now been part of each of College GameDay’s last two centennial-milestone road shows, as Clemson’s Sugar Bowl meeting with Ohio State on Jan. 1, 2021, was the program’s 400th road show.
Clemson is now 19-12 all-time when playing in ESPN College GameDay’s featured contest, including a 10-3 mark in GameDay games in regular season play since 2015.
