In front of a crowd of nearly 35,000-plus fans, Clemson held its annual Orange & White Spring Game at an under-construction Memorial Stadium on Saturday, April 9.
While the Tigers were without nearly 20-plus scholarship players, they were still able to conduct the spring game in its entirety. The White team held on for a 15-7 win over the Orange team Saturday.
The game in itself was a defensive showdown. Behind makeshift offensive lines, D.J. Uigalalei and Cade Klubnik played relatively well at times but were often overwhelmed by the penetrating presence of Clemson’s defensive line.
Uiagalelei went 17-of-36 with 175 yards passing with an interception, while Klubnik went 15-of-23 with 106 passing yards and a touchdown. Neither team was able to get anything going on the ground, as they totaled negative 35 yards rushing. Of course, sack yardage is added to that total, but neither team was able to run it effectively, even with that.
Both sides combined for 12 sacks with White tallying seven sacks and Orange recording six.
After the Orange team turned the ball over on downs during the team’s opening drive, the White team took an early 3-0 lead thanks to a Jonathan Weitz 29-yard Field Goal.
From there, the two teams traded punts for over 20 minutes of play before sophomore running back Phil Mafah got the Orange team on the board with a six-yard rushing touchdown, which capped off a five-play, 18-yard drive.
The defense was the star of the first half, as both sides combined for nine sacks and 16 tackles for loss. As for the quarterbacks, Uiagalelei completed 42% of his passes going 10-of-24 with 116 passing yards, while Klubnik went 13-of-19 with 93 yards passing.
In the second half, Klubnik started alternating drives with Hunter Helms, while Uiagalelei alternated drives with Billy Wiles. Uiagalelei was intercepted by freshman safety Sherrod Covil, who returned the pass 31 yards to the 10-yard line.
The White team took advantage of the turnover as Klubnik found Hamp Greene in the corner of the endzone for a seven-yard touchdown. Klubnik nearly had Tye Herbstreit on the play before, but he dropped the pass.
White took a 12-7 lead at the beginning of the fourth quarter after the three-play, 10-yard scoring drive. They would ice the game with Weitz’s third-made field goal of the game, which was good from 40-yards out.
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