Chase Brice leads team to spring game win as Clemson continues title celebration
Clemson celebrated this past year’s national championship and continued early preparation towards trying to win another one during its annual spring game Saturday afternoon at Death Valley.
Chase Brice and the White team earned a 30-10 win against Trevor Lawrence and the Orange squad in front of an estimated crowd of 60,000 fans, including former Tigers stars Christian Wilkins, Clelin Ferrell and Hunter Renfrow.
Clemson’s usual suspects shined as Lawrence, Tee Higgins and Justyn Ross all made big plays. Several Tigers newcomers also performed well, most notably freshmen receivers Frank Ladson and Joseph Ngata.
Add in the fact that Clemson’s seniors and juniors that left early for the NFL draft received their rings during halftime and Tigers coach Dabo Swinney could not have been more pleased with the way the day unfolded.
“We don’t get any jamborees... To be able to have an opportunity to create a game environment where there’s intensity and butterflies and all of those things that come with it, you can’t simulate that in practice no matter how hard you try,” Swinney said. “And to have that moment with our seniors to really get them in front of the crowd and get them up there for the team to really be able to look them in the eye one more time, I think it was a special moment.”
Both offenses did the majority of their damage through the air.
Lawrence completed 19 of 34 passes for 232 yards with a touchdown and an interception, while Brice countered with 165 passing yards and a touchdown while completing 10 of his 19 attempts.
Darien Rencher added a touchdown run for the White team, Steven Sawicki connected on all three of his field goal attempts and Sheridan Jones iced the game with a 42-yard interception return for a touchdown in the final minutes to lift the White to the victory.
The White team forced three turnovers with Jones and A.J. Terrell recording interceptions and Jones forcing a fumble, which was recovered by K’Von Wallace.
“A good game, very competitive. I thought it was pretty even. Turnovers kind of turned the thing,” Swinney said. “You got a chance to catch a glimpse of some of the young talent, some of the new guys, whether it be d-line or some of the receivers or the secondary or whatever. You saw plays from all of those guys. So it was a lot of fun.”
The young receivers were the most impressive out of the newcomers.
Ladson (White) and Ngata (Orange) each led their teams in receiving yards. Ladson caught five passes for 102 yards, while Ngata led all receivers with five catches for 127.
Ngata’s most impressive grab was a 32-yard toe-touch catch on the sideline, leading to the Orange team scoring its only touchdown of the game when Higgins caught a 6-yard pass from Lawrence later in the drive. Ngata added a 70-yard reception in the second half.
Ladson was smooth with his route running and did a nice job of getting open. He averaged more than 20 yards per catch with a long of 42.
“We feel great about them,” Lawrence said. “This summer is going to be big for us getting our timing down, but they’re going to be great players. Frank and Joe, Tee and Justyn, they’re all similar guys. We’re going to have a lot of depth and we’re going to have a great year.”
This story was originally published April 6, 2019 at 5:02 PM.