Clemson football trailing Troy at halftime. What’s going wrong for Tigers?
Clemson football had a disastrous first half against Troy.
The No. 8 Tigers — who’ve never lost a home game to a Group of Five school under Dabo Swinney — are trailing Sun Belt school Troy 16-3 on Saturday at Memorial Stadium. Troy closed as a 30.5-point underdog in the game.
It’s a stunning first-half result for a Clemson team that ranked No. 4 in the country before last week’s season-opening loss to LSU and was considered a legit national championship contender.
Clemson allowed 206 total plays and 4.1 yards per carry and had two back-breaking turnovers on offense – an Adam Randall fumble in the red zone after the running back had picked up a first down, and a Cade Klubnik interception returned for a touchdown on a batted ball.
Clemson trailed 16-0 at home after Klubnik’s pick six at the 6:58 mark of the second quarter and was booed multiple times by fans. The game had already been delayed roughly one hour and 20 minutes in the first quarter.
And Troy actually left some points on the table. Its kicker missed an extra point after the pick six and a 51-yard field goal right before halftime. Had both of those been good, Troy would be leading Clemson 20-3 at half instead.
The Trojans also had a number of penalties (targeting, unsportsmanlike conduct, personal foul) that either pushed them back or gave Clemson extra yardage.
Clemson’s athletic department is paying Troy $1.5 million for Saturday’s football game, The State previously reported. Those setups — where a power conference school pays a G5 school to visit them for a road game — are called “buy games” and are common across college football.
Clemson has not lost a regular-season game to a Group of 5 team since Marshall in 1999 and has not started a season 0-2 since 1974 (51 years ago).
This story was originally published September 6, 2025 at 6:38 PM.
