Freshmen shine for Clemson in dominant win over S.C. State

Several of Clemson’s young playmakers received extended playing time in the Tigers’ 59-0 thrashing of S.C. State Saturday. Running back Tavien Feaster and receiver Diondre Overton were among the freshmen able to make the most of their opportunities.

Overton’s first career catch went for a 45-yard touchdown in the first quarter, and Feaster led Clemson in rushing with 12 carries for 83 yards and his first career score.

In addition to those highly-touted freshman, Cornell Powell hauled in his first career catch and finished with two grabs for seven yards in the victory.

“It’s great and I think it’s going to be an exciting future,” Overton said. “We have a lot of offensive weapons and I think that we can use them very well.”

Feaster said he viewed the game as an audition to gain more playing time.

“I feel like I showed the coaches what I bring to the table and what I can do for this offense. Hopefully it’ll open their eyes up and get me a little bit bigger role,” he said. “I went in and tried to be the best Tavien Feaster I could be. I looked at this as a big opportunity to showcase what I have.”

BACKUP QBS EXCEL

Clemson played three quarterbacks in the first quarter and backups Nick Schuessler and Kelly Bryant played well in extended playing time.

Schuessler passed for 118 yards while completing 7 of 11 passes and threw a touchdown pass. Bryant completed 4 of 5 passes for 27 yards with a score. The two combined for 28 rushing yards.

Redshirt freshman Tucker Israel received the first playing time of his career and completed all three of his pass attempts for 22 yards. Fellow redshirt freshman James Barnes completed his lone attempt for nine yards.

The quarterbacks spread the ball out to 15 receivers.

“Everybody can gain some confidence from that. The coaches can gain some confidence and certainly the players can,” Clemson coach Dabo Swinney said. “There’s nothing like experience.”

SURE-HANDED

Clemson didn’t drop a pass in the first half after struggling with drops last week against Troy.

The Tigers offense was able to find a rhythm and get going as Clemson scored 45 points and had 319 total yards in the first half.

“We’ve got to catch the football. We made that first third-down catch with Artavis (Scott) and here we go. That’s what we do. We didn’t have a single drop in the first half,” Swinney said. “Those veteran guys caught the ball well today.”

INJURY REPORT

The only major injury for Clemson was the loss of Adrien Dunn, who was hurt while returning a punt in the first half. Dunn returned the punt 30 yards before going down.

“I don’t have confirmation but the initial testing didn’t look good, worried about his ACL,” Swinney said. “He went out in a big way if it is ACL. At least he wasn’t in practice. He made a huge play, and I’m glad he had that opportunity.”

This story was originally published September 17, 2016 at 7:38 PM with the headline "Freshmen shine for Clemson in dominant win over S.C. State."