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Barion Brown was having a huge Gator Bowl
The annual Gator Bowl was taking place in Jacksonville, FL, on Friday.
Barion Brown of Kentucky provided a game highlight, opening the second half against Clemson with a 100-yard kickoff return.
.@BarionBrown goes 100 yards for the kick return TOUCHDOWN. pic.twitter.com/6WpbcY4k1Y
— Kentucky Football (@UKFootball) December 29, 2023
Brown had a rushing TD earlier in the contest. His kickoff return gave the SEC Wildcats a 21-10 lead.
Clemson’s offense struggles as the Tigers head to the locker room trailing Kentucky.
Dabo Swinney and the Tigers trail Mark Stoops and Kentucky 14-10 as Clemson’s defense plays well, and the offense continues to lag behind.
The offensive troubles are real for the Tigers once again, who have looked brutal on all but one drive on Friday. Their one strong drive was a 5-play 59-yard drive for the Tigers, where the offense clicked in both the run and the passing games. It started with a Phil Mafah 18-yard run up the middle and ended with a Mafah 1-yard touchdown run where he ran over the Kentucky defense.
Other than that drive, however, Clemson’s offense has looked uninspired and, well, not good. They just aren’t clicking once again with questionable play calling and struggles from starting quarterback Cade Klubnik under center.
On defense, the Tigers have looked good but have been prone to allowing some big third-down plays. One of the game’s biggest plays came on a 58-yard pass from Devin Leary to Dane Key, with Key getting away with one of the worst offensive pass interferences I’ve ever seen. It was a mind-numbing no-call, and I’d love to know what the officials were looking at on that play.
Overall, it was a decent first half from the Tigers, but a performance like this won’t win them this Gator Bowl. Clemson’s offense needs to come out in the second half with more life before it’s too late.
Phil Mafah scores his 10th touchdown of the season to give Clemson a Gator Bowl lead over Kentucky.
After some poor offensive drives, Cade Klubnik and the Clemson offense got things going in the 2nd quarter to take a 10-7 lead over Kentucky.
It was a 5-play 59-yard drive for the Tigers, where the offense clicked in both the run and the passing games. It started with a Phil Mafah 18-yard run up the middle and ended with a Mafah 1-yard touchdown run where he ran over the Kentucky defense.
Klubnik did his part on this drive, setting up the 1-yard score on a beautiful 28-yard pass to tight end Jake Briningstool. This was exactly the type of drive this Clemson offense needed after an incredibly slow start to this Gator Bowl game.
Clemson takes an early lead in the Gator Bowl behind a Jonathan Weitz field goal.
The 2023 Gator Bowl has kicked off, and Dabo Swinney and the Clemson Tigers have an early lead over the Kentucky Wildcats.
On the Tigers’ first offensive play of the game, there was an unnecessary roughness call that set the offense up on the Kentucky side of the field.
They took advantage, taking 7 plays for 39 yards on a solid but not spectacular drive. The drive set up a 39-yard field goal for kicker Jonathan Weitz, who nailed the kick after playing the wind correctly.
It was a strong start for this Clemson team that has an offense that needs to end this season on a high note.
Here are five Clemson players to keep a close eye on during Friday’s Gator Bowl versus Kentucky.
As 2023 draws to an end, Clemson will play its final game of the college football season on Friday when it takes on Kentucky in the Gator Bowl.
Clemson (8-4) enters Friday on a four-game winning streak after starting the season 4-4. Kentucky (7-5), on the other hand, has dropped five of its last seven.
Records aside, Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney is expecting the Wildcats to bring their all.
“You come to Clemson, that’s every single game. You’re going to get everybody’s best every single week,” Swinney said on Thursday. “We talk about that all the time. It doesn’t matter who we play or where we play or what time we play. Whoever we play, we’re going to get their best.”
That said, here are five Clemson players to keep a close eye on when the Tigers take on the Wildcats at noon on Friday:
Here are our staff score predictions for Clemson’s Gator Bowl matchup against Kentucky.
After a long wait, we are less than a day away from Clemson’s Gator Bowl matchup against Mark Stoops and the Kentucky Wildcats.
Dabo Swinney and the Tigers ended the regular season on a high note, but the same can be said about Kentucky, who took down a tough Louisville team 38-31 the last time we saw them. Clemson heads into this game the betting favorite, but the close line indicates that this should be a highly competitive matchup.
Will Clemson come out of this matchup on top, or will the Tigers drop their second straight bowl game? Here is a look at what we are thinking heading into the TaxSlayer Gator Bowl.
The Clemson football program has an excellent history in the Gator Bowl.
Clemson is set to make history when the No. 22 Tigers meet Kentucky in the TaxSlayer Gator Bowl in Jacksonville on Friday at 12 p.m. EST on ESPN.
While the Gator Bowl isn’t exactly what most Clemson fans had hoped for entering the 2023 season, especially coming off an Orange Bowl appearance following a 10-2 regular season and an ACC championship in 2022, the Tigers are no strangers to Jacksonville or the bowl the city is famous for.
In fact, Clemson will set a new record once play begins Friday. The Tigers entered the season tied with the Florida Gators of the SEC for the most appearances by a school in Gator Bowl history, with nine apiece. With its game against Kentucky, Clemson will become the school with the most official appearances in the history of the Gator Bowl, which has been played continuously since 1946.
Clemson enters play 4-5 all-time in the Gator Bowl, with the Tigers’ most recent trip to Jacksonville ending in a closely contested 26-21 loss to Nebraska on New Year’s Day 2009. Friday’s game will also have another touch of history in that it will be Clemson’s 50th bowl game in school history. The school is 26-23 all-time in bowl games.
Clemson first appeared in the Gator Bowl on January 1, 1949, when the school defeated Missouri, 24-23. Through the years, the Tigers have also defeated Stanford (27-21 in 1986) and, most memorably, Ohio State (17-15 in 1978) in the bowl.
The game against Ohio State is famous for Buckeyes coach Woody Hayes’ punch of Clemson player Charlie Bauman, which sparked a benches-clearing brawl between the teams and led to Hayes’ firing the following morning.
To find Clemson’s last victory in the Gator Bowl, you’d have to go back to December 30, 1989, when coach Danny Ford’s team defeated West Virginia, 27-7.
Friday’s game will be the first meeting between the Tigers and Wildcats since December 2009, when Clemson defeated Kentucky, 21-13, in the Music City Bowl in Nashville.
This Clemson linebacker will be the defensive leader in the Gator Bowl.
Dabo Swinney and the Clemson Tigers face Mark Stoops and the Kentucky Wildcats on Friday, Dec. 29, in the Gator Bowl, with both teams looking to end their seasons on a high note.
For Clemson to win this game, their defense will have to play at the elite level we’ve seen from them many times this season. There are many Tigers on the defensive side of the ball that will be crucial for the team’s success, but linebacker Barrett Carter is the player we’ve identified as Clemson’s defensive X-Factor for the Gator Bowl.
Carter announced that he will return to Clemson for another season, and with Jeremiah Trotter Jr. departing for the NFL, it’s safe to say that this is Carter’s defense to lead. It’s Carter’s time to step up in the middle for the Tigers’ defense, and he is more than capable of doing so. The star defender will look to help this defense end the season on top as he prepares to take over the role we’ll see him in on Friday full-time in 2024.
Expect big things from Carter against the Wildcats.
Clemson’s quarterback has one more opportunity this season to prove why he’s the guy under center.
Dabo Swinney and the Clemson Tigers face Mark Stoops and the Kentucky Wildcats on Friday, Dec. 29, in the Gator Bowl as both teams look to end their seasons on a high note.
While I believe Clemson’s run game will be the focal point of the game plan, even against a stingy run defense like Kentucky’s, the clear offensive X-Factor for me for this Tigers’ offense is starting quarterback Cade Klubnik. If the Tigers want to end this season with a win, Klubnik will have to perform at a high level, but in a way, this goes much deeper than just that.
This is Klubnik’s last opportunity of the season to show this coaching staff and the fan base that he can be the guy under center for this program. There’s no denying that the Tigers’ offense didn’t perform as many expected, but I’d be lying if I said we didn’t see flashes of greatness from the sophomore quarterback. It’s not that I think his starting job is in jeopardy going into next season; it will just make a world of difference if we see this young man play at an incredibly high level and lead this team to a bowl win.
It’s not make or break for Klubnik, but games like this can dictate the direction a player is heading in their future. If Klubnik can strap it up one more time this season and ball, it would be a great morale boost for the program as a whole.
Here are three reasons Clemson will walk away with a Gator Bowl win over Kentucky on Friday.
Dabo Swinney and the Clemson football program are a day away from their matchup against the Kentucky Wildcats in this year’s TaxSlayer Gator Bowl.
The game takes place on Dec. 29 in Jacksonville, Fla., at Noon. It is Clemson’s 50th bowl appearance and the 10th time they will participate in the Gator Bowl. Clemson (8-4, 4-4 ACC) will face a Kentucky (7-5, 3-5 SEC) team with talent on both sides of the ball, being coached by one of the best in the game, Mark Stoops.
This game can go either way, but Clemson is the favorite heading into this matchup for a reason. The Tigers have more than what it takes to win this game and end their season on a high note. Here are three reasons Clemson will pick up a Gator Bowl win over Kentucky.
