Parker Responds to NC State’s Trash Talk

After last season’s loss to NC State in Raleigh, Clemson exacted plenty of revenge in Saturday’s resounding victory at Death Valley.

The 21st-ranked Tigers jumped out to a 28-0 lead in the first quarter and led 59-14 in the final minute of the third quarter in their eventual 59-35 rout of the Wolfpack. And Clemson was undoubtedly more dominant than the final score indicated, as NC State scored 21 fourth-quarter points against a Tiger defense that featured all reserves, most of whom aren’t on the two-deep.

Along with avenging last year’s loss, making the win Saturday even sweeter for the Tigers was the fact they shut down the smack talk from NC State’s players, according to Clemson sophomore defensive end T.J. Parker.

“Most definitely,” Parker said after the game. “Because coming into the game, they expected to win. They were talking trash and stuff like that.”

Parker’s performance did a lot of talking against the Wolfpack, as he posted 2.0 sacks among his five tackles, matching his career high in sacks that he set at Syracuse last season.

On Saturday, Parker also forced the first fumble of his career on a strip-sack in the first quarter for an opportunistic Clemson defense that forced two first-quarter fumbles deep in NC State territory and added a 53-yard pick-six from freshman cornerback Ashton Hampton in the third quarter.

The Tigers finished with eight tackles for loss, including four from freshman linebacker Sammy Brown and two from Parker.

“Nothing’s better than whooping up on them all game and just hearing the trash talk slowly fade away, and then those trash talks turn into compliments and stuff like that,” Parker said. “That’s how you know you got ‘em.”