On the road for a second straight week, the Tigers held serve in a 49-14 win over the Demon Deacons and left Winston-Salem with a fifth straight victory (and fourth straight in ACC play) after an embarrassing season-opening loss to Georgia.
Quarterback Cade Klubnik had another gem of a game in his resurgent season, going 31 of 41 for 309 yards and three touchdowns; running back Phil Mafah had 108 yards and two scores; and the Tigers defense shored up after some early mishaps.
End result: A 35-point win.
There were throws Klubnik would’ve liked back, including a few behind his receivers. And some poor missed tackles from the defense against Wake Forest’s twitchy skill-position players. And some bad snaps from center Ryan Linthicum.
All in all, though, it was a relatively stress-free afternoon for coach Dabo Swinney’s program (5-1, 4-0 ACC) , which has been having a lot of those recently, thanks to lots of consistency and lots of points on offense, plus some timely forced turnovers.
One year after losing three of four ACC road games to eliminate itself from the league title race, Clemson is now a clean 2-0 in those contests this season. The Tigers also got a blowout victory over a Wake Forest team they only beat by six points in here in 2022 (51-45 in double overtime), and five points at Clemson last year (17-12).
Swinney is now 16-0 all-time against Wake Forest (2-4, 1-2 ACC) and 11-0 against Demon Deacons coach Dave Clawson . And Swinney’s offense is producing at levels unseen since the Tigers’ last College Football Playoff appearance four years ago.
After trailing 7-0 in the first quarter, Clemson rattled off 28 points in the second quarter and ended up outscoring Wake Forest 49-7 the rest of the way in a venue that started as a Wake Forest sellout of 31,553 and a designated “black out” for the home fans on hand ... but ended with a lot more orange and purple in the audience.
“It’s not easy to win, ever,” Swinney said postgame. “We came up here two years ago and it was double overtime. We didn’t have our normal fast start (Saturday). We had a slow start. ... But then we settled in.”
Clemson Tigers running back Phil Mafah (7) is tackled by Wake Forest Demon Deacons linebacker Branson Combs (21) during the first half at Allegacy Federal Credit Union Stadium. Jim Dedmon/Imagn Images
Game recap
As Clemson’s offense stalled early, Demon Deacons quarterback Hank Bachmeier started this game off with a bang by throwing a beautiful ball to receiver Horatio Fields for a 38-yard touchdown pass down the left sideline.
Just like that, the Tigers were on the ropes.
Clemson entered this game having outscored opponents 90-0 in the first half of games this season, with five consecutive first-quarter shutouts on defense to start a season for the first time since 1990.
But as Wake Forest got early pressure on Klubnik and Fields made a highlight play, the Tigers snapped that streak — and trailed 7-0 after one quarter when they’d been leading, on average, by 22.5 points in that same spot the past four games.
Klubnik, Kylon Griffin and Khalil Barnes made that an afterthought.
Clemson’s junior quarterback connected with receiver Antonio Williams for a 22-yard touchdown on 3rd and 5 to tie the game in the second quarter (7-7), and Tigers defensive backs Griffin and Barnes recorded interceptions on Wake’s next two possessions to set up two more TDs.
Bachmeier, a veteran QB transfer by way of Boise State and Louisiana Tech, had only thrown two interceptions in five previous games for Wake but sent one right to Griffin and threw a second when Barnes dove to secure a tipped pass.
As Clemson’s starting defense struggled a bit against Wake’s famous “slow mesh” offense, those two turnovers were critical to game flow — and led directly to back-to-back short Phil Mafah rushing touchdowns and a 21-7 Tigers lead.
On the second, which gave Clemson a crucial two-score lead, the Tigers went for it on 4th and 2 from Wake Forest’s 2-yard line and Mafah scored as defensive tackles Peter Woods and DeMonte Capehart cleared the way in a jumbo package .
“Those are tough calls,” Swinney said of going for it on that play while leading 14-7 midway through the second quarter. “It’s not fourth-and-1. It’s fourth-and-2. They bailed me out right there and did a great job executing.”
Wake Forest Demon Deacons linebacker Branson Combs (21) tries to stop Clemson Tigers tight end Jake Briningstool (9) during the first half at Allegacy Federal Credit Union Stadium. Jim Dedmon/Imagn Images
Wake Forest, which won a scrappy game at N.C. State last week , wasn’t fazed and put together an excellent drive (featuring a 38-yard catch and run from receiver Deuce Alexander) to narrow its deficit to 21-14 with 3:18 left in the second quarter.
In another inflection point, though, Klubnik was on the money, delivering strike after strike and threading the needle for a short slant route touchdown pass to receiver Troy Stellato to keep Clemson’s lead at two touchdowns, 28-14.
“It was the first time we’ve really been down in a while,” Klubnik said. “And it was good for us. Great to see the offense and the defense respond.”
Clemson got a stop and used its timeouts to get the ball back right before halftime, already up 14 points, but couldn’t get anything on a Hail Mary play. (Swinney opted against trotting out true freshman kicker Nolan Hauser for a 64-yard field goal.)
The Tigers added two more touchdowns in the third quarter: a Klubnik 9-yard touchdown pass to receiver Adam Randall (35-14) and a trick play touchdown pass from wide receiver Williams to tight end Jake Briningstool (42-14).
Running back Keith Adams Jr. scored in the fourth quarter, too, on a dragging-three-defenders run that took Clemson over 500 yards of total offense for the fourth time this season (its most in a season since doing it five times in 2020).
Clemson finished the game with a season-high 37 first downs, which also tied for the third most in a single game in school history.
Meanwhile, coordinator Wes Goodwin’s defense tightened up dramatically and allowed zero points, 38 yards and 1.9 yards per play in the second half after allowing 14 points, 195 yards and 5.3 yards per play in the first half.
Now, it’s on to Virginia for a Clemson team that passed its first two road tests and, along with Miami , keeps looking like one of the best teams in the ACC.
“These guys have battled their butts off and they’ve put themselves in position to stay in control and not have to sit around and wait on this and wait on that,” Swinney said. “There’s not many teams in that position.”
Clemson Tigers tight end Jake Briningstool (9) makes a catch in the red zone against the Wake Forest Demon Deacons during the first half at Allegacy Federal Credit Union Stadium. Jim Dedmon/Imagn Images
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