BOX SCORE

The No. 2 Clemson football team hung on through a back-and-forth second half for a 28-26 victory over the Texas A&M Aggies on Saturday evening at Kyle Field. With the win, Clemson moved to 2-0 on the year, while Texas A&M fell to 1-1.

Offensively, the Tigers were led by quarterback Kelly Bryant, who was 12-17 for 205 yards and a touchdown. Bryant also ran for a score and was Clemson’s leading rusher with 54 yards on 15 carries. On the defensive side of the ball, Isaiah Simmons led the Tigers with eight total tackles, and Clelin Ferrell amassed two sacks.

Clemson returns to Memorial Stadium for its next game, a Family Weekend matchup with Georgia Southern. Kickoff against the Eagles is set for 3:30 p.m.

HIGHLIGHTS

The Gameday Vlog

From wheels up to College Gameday to the final whistle, here’s vol. 2 of the Gameday Vlog.

Postgame Photos

Photos by Carl Ackerman & David Platt

Second Half Photos

Photos by Carl Ackerman & David Platt

GAME NOTES

• Clemson improved to 11-7 in College GameDay contests. Clemson has won its last seven games featured on College Gameday, dating back to 2016 (vs. Louisville, Ohio State and Alabama in 2016; vs. Louisville, Virginia Tech and Miami in 2017; Texas A&M in 2018).
• Clemson’s seven-game winning streak in College GameDay-featured contests is the longest active streak in the nation. Clemson (seven) and TCU (six) are the only schools with active winning streaks of six games or more in College GameDay games.
• Clemson won its 50th road opener in program history to improve to 50-65-8 all-time in their first road game of the year.
• Clemson has now won four straight road openers dating back to 2015. The 2018 senior class became the first Clemson class to sweep all four of its road debuts since the 1989 seniors, who won all four road openers in the midst of the program’s record streak of six consecutive road-opener victories from 1984-89.
• Clemson won its fourth straight true road game against SEC opponents, the longest such streak in program history. The Tigers had previously won road contests against South Carolina (2015 and 2017) and Auburn (2016), matching the program’s longest stretch of road wins against SEC foes (three, all at South Carolina in both 1995-99 and 2003-07).
• Clemson secured its 15th victory in its last 16 true road games.
• Clemson earning its 22nd win in its last 25 games away from home, including neutral site contests.
• Clemson extended its winning streak in Saturday games to 18, the longest of any Power Five school in the country. It is the second-longest Saturday winning streak in school history, trailing a 21-game Saturday streak across the 2014-16 campaigns.
• Clemson has now opened 2-0 for a fourth straight year and for the eighth time in the last nine years.
• Clemson extended its winning streak in non-conference regular season play to 17 games, extending the longest such streak in program history.
• Clemson led, 14-3, at halftime. Clemson has now won 54 of their last 56 games when leading at halftime.
• Clemson led 28-13 after three quarters and is now 75-2 since 2011 when leading entering the fourth quarter.
• The victory was Clemson’s 15th consecutive win in games played in September.
• Dabo Swinney improved to 14-9 as a head coach against SEC opponents. Clemson has now won eight of its last 10 games against SEC foes, including six of the last seven.
• Swinney is now 1-0 against Texas A&M as a head coach.
• Swinney pushed his all-time record in road openers to 6-4.
• Swinney broke a 4-4 all-time deadlock as a head coach against Texas A&M Head Coach Jimbo Fisher and is now 5-4 all-time against Fisher. The win was Swinney’s fourth consecutive victory against a Fisher-coached team, the longest streak of victories by either coach in their meetings dating back to 2010.
• Swinney pushed his all-time record in non-conference play as a head coach to 38-13, including a 31-8 record against non-conference opponents in regular season play.
• The game marked Clemson’s fourth straight victory in games attended by at least 85,000 people, including previous home wins against South Carolina (2014; 85,024) and Florida State (2015; 85,573) and a road win at Auburn (2016; 87,451).

While an early Aggie 26-yard field goal attempt sailed just wide right, Texas A&M still got on the board first, when kicker Daniel LaCamera hit a 40-yarder to give his squad a 3-0 lead 10 minutes into the game. However, the Tigers answered on the ensuing drive, with Bryant scoring on a one-yard run to cap a drive highlighted by a 64-yard pass from the graduate quarterback to Amari Rodgers.

Clemson upped its lead to 14-3 with less than a minute gone in the second quarter, when Tee Higgins hauled in a 64-yard touchdown pass from Trevor Lawrence on the freshman quarterback’s first play of the night under center. The Clemson defense blocked a Texas A&M 50-yard field goal attempt with just over five minutes left in the first half, and that left the Tigers taking that 14-3 lead into the break.

LaCamera hit his second 40-yard field goal of the evening to open the second half scoring, cutting the Clemson lead to 14-6 with 10 and a half minutes remaining in the third quarter. In the later minutes of that quarter, Justin Foster intercepted a Nick Starkel pass to halt a charging Aggie offense and shift the momentum back to the Tigers. On the next play, Bryant connected with Higgins for a 50-yard reception, and Diondre Overton was on the receiving end of a Bryant eight-yard scoring pass three plays later that put Clemson up 21-6.

37 seconds later, the Aggies scored their first touchdown of the night, but the Tigers got it right back with a minute left in the third quarter on a Travis Etienne one-yard rush that brought the score to 28-13. The remainder of the game saw Texas A&M bookend the fourth quarter with a pair of touchdowns, with the latter one coming with just 46 seconds remaining in the game and cutting the Clemson lead to just two points, but the Tigers intercepted the Aggie two-point conversion attempt to seal the 28-26 victory.

First Half Photos

Photos by Carl Ackerman & David Platt

Tweets of the Game

Tigers love the limelight when featured on @CollegeGameday #ALLIN 🐅 pic.twitter.com/0m3TGgy4lu

— Clemson Football (@ClemsonFB) September 9, 2018

CLUTCH! #ALLIN

(@ClemsonFB) pic.twitter.com/MknKNHv9hq

— ACC Digital Network (@theACCDN) September 9, 2018

NASTY 🔥 pic.twitter.com/VgV0A2QUPV

— ESPN (@espn) September 9, 2018

He 💰 Manziel'd the Texas A&M crowd 👀 pic.twitter.com/mTpUJmfC3L

— ESPN CollegeFootball (@ESPNCFB) September 9, 2018

Pregame Photos

Photos by Madison Williams, Carl Ackerman and David Platt

College Gameday Set

Photos by Madison Williams

Team Travel to Texas A&M

Photos by Madison Williams