Quarterback Cade Klubnik and the Clemson Tigers’ offense sure look like they’ve officially arrived.
At halftime, the 19th-ranked Tigers lead NC State, 45-7, in the ACC opener for both teams at Clemson Memorial Stadium.
For the second straight week, the Tigers’ offense has started lightning fast. On just the fourth play of the game, Klubnik took a read-option straight up the middle a 55-yard touchdown run to give Clemson a 7-0 lead after Nolan Hauser’s extra point.
According to ESPN Stats & Information, it was the longest run for a Clemson quarterback since Trevor Lawrence’s 67-yard touchdown run in the second quarter of the 2019 Fiesta Bowl win over Ohio State. Klubnik’s run came just one minute and 25 seconds into the contest.
On the Tigers’ next drive, Klubnik led the offense 91 yards on six plays in just 1:34 off the clock. Phil Mafah ran 34 yards for a big gain out to the 43 and temporarily left the game with a shoulder injury.
Klubnik closed out the drive by finding Antonio Williams for a 37-yard touchdown run to put the Tigers up 14-0 with 7:56 to left in the opening stanza.
On the second play of NC State’s next possession, quarterback CJ Bailey was blindsided by T.J. Parker, who drilled the freshman quarterback and forced a fumble. Clemson recovered and took over at the 18-yard line.
From there, Klubnik hit Troy Stellato for 14 yards and a first down. On third-and-goal from the 2-yard line, Klubnik found a wide-open Williams in the back of the end-zone for his third touchdown in the first 10 minutes of the contest. Hauser’s extra point made it 21-0 with 5:07 to play in the first quarter.
Another NC State drive led to more disaster for the Wolfpack when KC Concepcion, who burned Clemson a year ago in NC State’s 24-17 victory in Raleigh, fumbled a catch to give the ball back to the Tigers. Avieon Terrell scooped it up to give Clemson the ball at the NC State 38.
With Mafah back in the game, he took a handoff and raced 38 yards on the first play of the drive to make it 28-0 with 2:08 to play in the first quarter. That made it 12 straight offensive possessions with Klubnik at quarterback in which the Tigers had found the end-zone.
Clemson had 222 yards of total offense to that point with Klubnik starting 7-of-8 for 77 yards and Mafah having 87 yards on the ground on just four carries. Clemson’s 28 points in the first quarter came in just 5:11 in time of possession.
Despite the fumble, Bailey started the game 8-for-8 for 111 yards until an incompletion with 10:52 to play in the second quarter. Bailey got NC State on the board with a five-yard touchdown pass to tailback Jordan Waters out of the backfield, cutting the lead to 28-7 with 7:25 left in the half.
Clemson made it 35-7 when Cole Turner took an end-around pitch from Klubnik 18 yards for a touchdown to cap a 75-yard drive in five plays and a minute, 35 seconds off the clock with 5:53 to play until halftime.
Jay Haynes rushed 19 yards for a touchdown on second-and-10 to make it 42-7 with 1:15 left until intermission. That made it 14 touchdowns on the Tigers’ last 15 possessions.
With Clemson still holding on to all three timeouts, Dabo Swinney showed no mercy in forcing NC State to punt the ball back. The Tigers took over at the Wolfpack 27-yard line with less than a minute to play.
Hauser connected on a chip shot 21-yard field goal to close the half. Clemson finished with 17 first downs and 408 yards of total offense in the first half. Klubnik was 14-of-21 with 180 yards at the break.