Clemson’s offense came away from Saturday feeling much better about itself than it did a week ago.
Of course, that was to be expected. After last week’s slugfest against No. 2 Georgia that resulted in a 10-3 loss, No. 6 Clemson opened its home slate by taking a step down in the competition level against in-state FCS foe South Carolina State.
The end result was a 49-3 win in front of a capacity crowd at Memorial Stadium for the first time since the 2019 season. The Tigers rolled up a nearly even split’s worth of 504 yards — 262 passing, 242 rushing — in their 18th straight win in a home opener, the longest such streak in program history.
When facing an inferior opponent, the execution that goes into piling up those yards and points was just as important for Clemson coach Dabo Swinney as the numbers themselves. That was especially true for the Tigers given some of the breakdowns in timing, communication and blocking assignments that added to their frustration in that one-score loss a week ago.
Swinney’s initial impression was that his team performed better in those aspects.
“Just played a lot cleaner from an assignment standpoint, and hopefully when I watch the tape, I’ll see some improvement in some of the fundamentals that we need to improve on from last week,” Swinney said.
Clemson made the running game a priority, as evidenced by its 125 rushing yards after the first quarter and 6.7 yards per carry for the night. It helped take some of the pressure of quarterback D.J. Uiagalelei, who wasn’t perfect Saturday but improved on his subpar performance the previous week.
Uiagalelei led six scoring drives, including four straight ending in touchdowns to start the game, before turning things over to backup Taisun Phommachanh with Clemson up 42-3 early in the third quarter. He finished 14 of 24 passing for 171 yards with an 11-yard touchdown pass to Justyn Ross.
He also wasn’t sacked after being harassed for seven of them a week ago.
“I thought we, right out of the gate, took control of the game,” offensive coordinator Tony Elliott said. “Played with some pretty good precision and rhythm, kind of being able to run and pass in the situations we wanted to.”
There were also some throws Uiagalelei wishes he could have back. Three plays before Will Shipley scored to cap the Tigers’ second possession, he overthrew a wide-open Ross in the back of the end zone while rolling out, though that’s not exactly how Swinney saw it.
“I thought Ross, he kind of stopped and jumped a little early,” Swinney said. “And I think D.J. throught … he kind of mistimed it. But I thought that was a good throw.
“I thought (Uiagalelei) was excellent today.”
But an interception in the second quarter fell squarely on the shoulders of Uiagalelei, who threw high of Ajou Ajou on a screen. The ball tipped off Ajou’s fingertips and into the arms of South Carolina State’s Decobie Durant, ending a scoring threat inside the Bulldogs’ 40-yard line.
“Dumb mistake,” Uiagalelei said. “Just got to make sure I lock in right there and focus in on every little detail. … In a big-time game, that could be a big gamechanger. Just got to continue to be locked in, make the easy plays and continue to make all the hard plays as well. Just make sure I’m locked in play to play.”
Turnovers were the glaring negative on a night when the Tigers started emptying the bench early and got 102 players into the game, the third-most in the Swinney era. Reserve running back Michel Dukes fumbled trying to cut back after making a catch, and Phommachanh’s overthrow of his intended receiver early in the fourth quarter was picked by Durant again.
Clemson finished minus-2 in the turnover margin, which drew the ire of Swinney afterward.
“We can’t be turning the ball over,” he said.
Swinney said he also would’ve liked to have seen a few more shots downfield in the passing game — the Tigers’ longest completion went for 38 yards — though he noted South Carolina State was more than content to give Clemson routes underneath with their off coverage. But the Tigers got the running game going early and often after netting just 2 yards on the ground against Georgia, and Swinney said playing as many players as Clemson was able to is also a positive in terms of building depth ahead of ACC play.
That begins next week when the Tigers return to Memorial Stadium against Georgia Tech.
“Just continuing to clean up the mistakes and play with the precision and details that it’s going to take for us to execute against really, really good opponents,” Swinney said. “I think we did what we needed to do today.”
Football season has finally arrived. Time to represent your Tigers and show your stripes!
