After top 10 win over NC State, is Clemson football officially a contender?
Last weekend, Clemson won the type of game a contender wins: a defense-optional shootout in Winston-Salem that needed two overtimes to decide a victor.
This weekend, Clemson also won the type of game a contender wins: a fight-for-every-yard matchup between AP Top 10 programs that had a serious SEC feel.
Which begs the question: Ranked No. 5 in the country and a spotless 5-0 through five weeks of college football, is Clemson a contender?
Coach Dabo Swinney wouldn’t go that far, emphasizing his Tigers are “not perfect.” But after soundly defeating No. 10 N.C. State 30-20 on Saturday night, Clemson’s certainly trending in that direction. Game flows have changed in 2022. The Tigers’ winning percentage has not.
“That’s what good teams do,” Swinney said. “It’s never perfect. Great teams can win in different ways: fastball, curveball, change-up. You’ve got to have them all.”
Clemson’s defense led the way in a season-opening win against Georgia Tech. An evolving offense flashed against Furman and Louisiana Tech before flat-out carrying Clemson in last weekend’s 51-45 double overtime win against then-No. 21 Wake Forest.
If those were the fastball and the curveball, consider Saturday night the change-up: a rare AP Top 10 matchup between the Tigers and Wolfpack (the first in series history, to be exact) that necessitated a new level of buy-in from each and every player on the roster.
Whether it was running back Will Shipley improvising out of the backfield with a 26-yard catch and run to set up a score right before halftime, or cornerbacks Nate Wiggins and Toriano Pride Jr. bouncing back after getting “baptized” against Wake Forest, or defensive end KJ Henry scrapping to secure a game-icing fumble, the little tweaks in big moments led the way.
“Next-man-up mentality,” Swinney said. “I told them in the locker room, if you can bottle that up, that’s special: that many people giving it all they got.”
Clemson hasn’t budged from its No. 5 spot in the AP Top 25 rankings since Week 2, after a less-than-convincing win against GT, but has spent the last four weeks working back up to the top-tier reputation of, say, No. 1 Georgia, No. 2 Alabama, No. 3 Ohio State.
That’s peaked over the last two weeks with consecutive wins over ranked divisional opponents. Clemson once again controls its destiny in the ACC Atlantic entering next weekend’s game at Boston College. (Syracuse is also undefeated through five weeks.)
And the Tigers are doing it like they used to: with an excellent quarterback (junior DJ Uiagalelei is up to 11 passing touchdowns against one interception this year); a substantial group of playmakers around him; and a defense with a knack for rising to the occasion.
Clemson needed all of those players and then some to get past N.C. State for an ACC record-tying 37th straight home win and remain squarely in the College Football Playoff conversation. That, Swinney said, is all his program can ask for.
“5-0 is where we hoped to be,” he said.
Here what else we learned from the Tigers’ win.
Injury update for Bryan Bresee
Clemson defensive tackle Bryan Bresee was a surprise addition to the injury list this week with what Swinney described postgame as a “non-football medical issue” that won’t be long-term. Multiple media outlets reported it was kidney-related.
“He’s good,” Bresee said. “What a week. It was a non-football medical issue that he had. Really scary ... His family did not need to deal with that at this point. It all turned out great. We got really good news (Friday). It was a really tough three or four days for him and his family.”
Among Wake Forest injury holdovers, safety Andrew Mukuba (elbow) played, though his impact was diminished after a first-half targeting call. Defensive back Malcolm Greene (undisclosed) and cornerback Sheridan Jones (shoulder/neck stinger) didn’t play, and defensive end Xavier Thomas (foot) still hasn’t played this season.
Clemson will also evaluate safety R.J. Mickens after he left the game early.
QB DJ Uiagalelei thriving as a runner
You could make a good argument for either of Uiagalelei’s rushing touchdowns being the biggest score of Saturday’s game.
The first, a one-yard stretch on a read option, capped off a furious final minute drive and put Clemson up 13-10 before half. The second, a nine-yard naked bootleg, extinguished any hope of an N.C. State comeback in the fourth quarter.
Uiagalelei led Clemson in rushing with 14 carries for 73 yards (long of 38) and became the first Clemson quarterback with 50-plus rushing yards in three straight games since Kelly Bryant in 2017. On the season, he’s up to 242 rushing yards (48.4 yards per game) and three scores.
TE Jake Briningstool making waves
Another week. Another high-usage game and short-yardage touchdown for Jake Briningstool, a sophomore tight end who’s truly come into his own.
A week after catching six passes for 72 yards and a touchdown against Wake Forest, Briningstool had four for 54 and a touchdown against N.C. State. His nine-yard jump ball catch via Uiagalelei put Clemson up two scores in the third quarter (a final margin that held).
Briningstool, who can glide at 6-foot-6 and 230 pounds, also had a catch of 30-plus yards for the second-straight game while splitting time with senior tight end Davis Allen.
Home win streak grows
Clemson’s 37th straight home win tied 1992-2001 Florida State for the longest streak in ACC history. Being associated with that streak and tying a record set under the late Bobby Bowden was “incredible,” Swinney said, and another example of why Death Valley’s “a special place.”
That’s also the 11th longest home winning streak in FBS history.
ACC Atlantic Division standings
Listed with conference record in parenthesis
- Clemson 5-0 (3-0)
- Syracuse 5-0 (2-0)
- Florida State 4-1 (2-1)
- Wake Forest 4-1 (1-1)
- Boston College 2-3 (1-2)
- NC State 4-1 (0-1)
- Louisville 2-3 (0-3)
This story was originally published October 2, 2022 at 7:00 AM.
