Cade Klubnik and the Clemson Tigers earned a solid 40-14 victory over the Stanford Cardinal in the two teams’ first meeting as ACC opponents Saturday night in Death Valley.
After a bit of a rusty first half, Clemson pulled away on three second-half touchdown passes. The first came after linebacker Wade Woodaz picked off a pass from Ashton Daniels to give Clemson the ball at the Cardinal 43.
From there, Klubnik hit Cole Turner on a deep ball down the middle for a touchdown strike that extended Clemson’s lead to 27-7 with 1:09 left in the third quarter. It was the start of the Tigers (3-1) pulling away.
One play after a turnover on downs, Klubnik hit five-star freshman receiver Bryant Wesco for 34 yards and a touchdown to extend the lead to 33-7 early in the fourth quarter.
A blocked punt by Jamal Anderson gave Clemson a new set of downs at the Cardinal 35-yard line. Klubnik would hit tight end Olsen Patt-Henry on a play-action pass on first and goal from the 3 to make it 40-7
Klunik finished the night 15-of-31 for 255 yards to go with his four touchdowns. He now has 12 touchdown passes through four games.
The Tigers finished with 405 yards of total offense and allowed 361. Clemson’s defense picked off Daniels three times, two of them coming on back-to-back series as Stanford began the night by turning the ball over on each of its first three possessions.
The win was the 100th home victory for Clemson coach Dabo Swinney.
The Tigers will head to Tallahassee to face the Florida State Seminoles next Saturday. Earlier this week, it was announced that the game would be either a 7 p.m. ET start on ESPN on a 7:30 p.m start on ABC.
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