Hello, goodbye: Clemson welcomes back Tony Elliott by blowing out Virginia

For the second week in a row, Clemson football didn’t look exactly like the No. 10 team in the country in the first quarter.

Luckily for the Tigers, they had three more periods to work with.

Back in the friendly confines of Memorial Stadium, Clemson’s top-to-bottom talent bore out over the course of the game and the Tigers beat Virginia 48-31 in a relatively stress-free contest to move to 6-1 overall and 5-0 in the ACC.

After trailing 10-3 at the start of the second quarter, the Tigers rattled off 35 unanswered points and got big days from quarterback Cade Klubnik, running back Phil Mafah and wide receiver Antonio Williams to get past the Cavaliers.

Klubnik had 308 passing yards and three touchdowns, Mafah had 78 rushing yards and two touchdowns and Williams had 116 total yards as Clemson recorded its fifth game of 500 or more offensive yards — the first time it’s ever done that in the first seven games of a season in school history .

Virginia coach Tony Elliott, the former Clemson player and assistant coach, had his squad ready early in a unique situation; It was Clemson’s first meeting with a former player now serving as an opposing team’s head coach in 25 years.

But the Tigers and coach Dabo Swinney squashed any dreams of a signature upset by playing clean football and shutting out Virginia ( 4-3, 2-2 ACC) for nearly two quarters before some late garbage-time scores made the game a little tighter.

Heading into their second off week, Clemson remains perfect in conference play and continues to control its own path to the ACC championship game in Charlotte — and, with a win, a likely automatic bid to the 12-team College Football Playoff.

“That was awesome,” Swinney said postgame. “Really proud of our team. Virginia’s a tough team. Tony’s got them going in the right direction. ... I knew it would be a tight game early but proud of our guys and how they weathered the storm.”

Game recap

A pregame Ring of Honor ceremony for former star Tigers running back and current assistant coach CJ Spiller generated a lot of buzz at Memorial Stadium.

But early on, something just felt off for Clemson.

On the Tigers’ first offensive possession, they missed out on two touchdowns when receiver T.J. Moore couldn’t hang onto the ball on a short slant route (Klubnik’s throw was a little high). Then, a touchdown pass to Moore got nullified because of an ineligible man downfield.

Clemson had to settle for a short field goal (3-0) and proceeded to get gashed on consecutive defensive possessions, with poor tackling and pressure throughout.

Virginia went 14 plays and 80 yards for a game-tying field goal (3-3) in the first quarter — and got the ball right back when Klubnik threw an interception directly to a UVA linebacker (only his third interception of the year and first since Sept. 28).

Then, the Cavaliers put Clemson on the ropes. On third and 17 from Clemson’s 41, shifty UVA quarterback Anthony Colandrea got 20 yards on a QB draw (beating multiple defenders to the sideline) and followed it up with a short touchdown pass.

Minutes into the second quarter, Virginia — a 21-point underdog — was up 10-3.

Four first-quarter penalties for a Clemson team that entered averaging just 4.7 total penalties per game didn’t help the cause either.

And when Klubnik overthrew tight end Jake Briningstool wide open in the end zone trailing 10-7 — against an upset-minded Virginia team that knocked off No. 10 UNC in Chapel Hill last year — there was reason for concern.

“Personally I’m upset about a couple of my throws today,” Klubnik said. “Some days you’re just not on it. I’ll look back on it and figure out why.”

A methodical turnaround started soon after, though.

After Klubnik’s overthrow, Clemson finished that drive with a Mafah 1-yard rushing touchdown to tie the game (10-10), got a defensive stop and used a trick-play wide receiver pass from Williams to set up another short Mafah rushing score (17-10).

It wasn’t the Tigers’ best half of football by any means. Fans have gotten used to big leads at halftime around these parts — not merely a touchdown.

But holding serve proved beneficial.

Clemson came out of the break looking steadier with an 11-play, 90-yard scoring drive — which ended with a bulldozing 11-yard catch and score by backup TE Olsen Patt-Henry — to go up 24-10 and provide breathing room against Virginia.

The Tigers ended up outscoring UVA 21-0 in that third quarter, with receiver Williams adding a rushing touchdown and Patt-Henry scoring a second touchdown (which came on a fourth-and-1 play near midfield and felt like a dagger).

“I think that’s where we’re going to learn to get better, especially in an environment like this, right?” Elliott said. “You’ve got to learn to play with the lead. ... Proud that we were able to come in and get off to a good start and take a lead, but also an opportunity for us to grow.”

Up 38-10 after three quarters, Clemson surrendered a long passing touchdown at the start of the fourth and two more late but was undaunted during a final 15 minutes that included a Virginia player getting ejected for unsportsmanlike conduct.

UVA had a late touchdown and two-point conversion against Clemson’s backups to cut the score to 41-25, and its kicker gave the Cavs a chance with a great onsides kick that initially bounced off a member of Clemson’s hands team.

But defensive back Ronan Hanafin, a former receiver, fell on the ball and Klubnik threw an insurance touchdown to Moore (48-25) to wrap this one up.

“Sometimes you just don’t have as good of a game as you do others, and that’s OK,” Klubnik said. “You get to have peace after the game knowing we still put up 500-something yards and 40-something points.”

Swinney wasn’t happy with the backup defense getting beat again to end the game, as a coverage bust led to a wide-open 65-yard Virginia touchdown (48-31).

But the end result didn’t change:

Clemson remains spotless through five of eight ACC games and will head into its second off week with a few things to work on but a lot more to feel good about before a tougher conference stretch run (Louisville, Virginia Tech, Pitt).

“At the end of the day, we’re just 6-1,” Swinney said. “We’ve worked really hard to get to this point, but, man, it’s just going to get tougher. The air gets thinner in November. The margin for error gets smaller. So we’ve all got to improve.”

Next Clemson game

Who: No. 10 Clemson (6-1, 5-0 ACC) vs. Louisville (4-3, 2-2 ACC)

When: Saturday Nov. 2 (time TBA)

Where: Memorial Stadium in Clemson

TV: TBA

Clemson football 2024 schedule

• Aug. 31: vs. Georgia in Atlanta, L 34-3

• Sept. 7: vs. App State, W 66-20

• Sept. 14: OPEN

• Sept. 21: vs. NC State, W 59-35

• Sept. 28: vs. Stanford, W 40-14

• Oct. 5: at Florida State, W 29-16

• Oct. 12: at Wake Forest, W 49-14

• Oct. 19: vs. Virginia, W 48-31

• Oct. 26: OPEN

• Nov. 2: vs. Louisville

• Nov. 9: at Virginia Tech

• Nov. 16: at Pitt

• Nov. 23: vs. The Citadel

• Nov. 30: vs. South Carolina

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