Cooking at home: Clemson explodes for 66 points in dominant win over App State

The Clemson football team just rewrote the definition of a “get right game.”

There’s beating up on a lesser team after a demoralizing loss to Georgia … and then there’s doing what the Tigers did to App State in a 66-20 win on Saturday night at Memorial Stadium. As in:

▪ Eight straight touchdown drives;

▪ 525 yards of total offense;

▪ And seven total touchdowns for quarterback Cade Klubnik.

Such was Clemson’s offensive output … in the first half.

One week after losing 34-3 to No. 1 Georgia in Atlanta and looking more or less lost on offense, coach Dabo Swinney’s team put together one of the best offensive performances in school history — and gave the No. 25 Tigers a much-needed national reputation boost after the Bulldogs ran them off the field.

Klubnik, who could only muster 142 passing yards against Georgia and had zero touchdowns and one interception, looked like he was playing as himself in the EA Sports “College Football 25” video game on easy mode and sliced and diced the App State secondary all night long.

The former five-star recruit was 24 of 26 for a career high 378 yards and five touchdowns — including one apiece to talented freshman wide receivers Bryant Wesco Jr. and T.J. Moore — and added two rushing touchdowns for seven total.

He set a school record for single-game passing efficiency (277.9) and was the first FBS quarterback in 25 years with five-plus passing touchdowns, multiple rushing touchdowns and a 90% or better completion percentage, per ESPN Stats & Info.

Remember: He also didn’t take a single snap after halftime.

Seasons and narratives can change in an instant, and it took exactly three plays on Saturday for Clemson (1-1) to start looking less like a once-elite program in gradual decline and more like one of the favorites to win the ACC championship.

Just like old times.

Swinney credited his players for bouncing back and thanked the fans who packed Memorial Stadium.

“We laid an egg last week and missed an opportunity and they just show up and sell out and you can’t get a ticket,” Swinney said postgame on ACC Network. “To see our guys play like they played last week correcting the mistakes — we were clean, we were crisp. ... I’m proud of the whole team with how they responded.”

Game recap

In front of a sellout crowd of 81,500, this game was over before it started as Klubnik hit Wesco deep down the middle for a 76-yard touchdown pass on the third play of the game to send an already jacked-up fanbase into even more night game hysterics.

It only got better from there for the Tigers, who scored more points against App State in one minute (7) than they did against Georgia in 60 minutes (three) and ended up setting a school record with 35 first-quarter points.

For a unit that looked stuck in the mud most of the game against Georgia, the pace was dizzying. In the first quarter alone, Wesco had the longest Clemson receiving touchdown (76 yards) since 2020, Phil Mafah had the longest Clemson rushing touchdown (83 yards) since 2019 and Klubnik had four completions of 29-plus yards.

Those four catches totaled 197 yards.

Recall: Clemson had 188 net yards against Georgia in total.

The fun only continued after the opening frame.

After Swinney spent a week acknowledging the Tigers did a poor job getting the ball to their playmakers, Wesco had 3 catches for 130 yards and a touchdown by himself in the first quarter.

Then Moore, another top 50 recruit who came to Clemson to help turn the offense around but barely played against Georgia, got his with a 33-yard touchdown catch in the second quarter.

He was one of many playmakers who helped Clemson record 500-plus yards of total offense in a first half for the first time ever and take a 56-13 lead into the break.

“We got the ball to the playmakers and let the guys go to work,” Swinney told the ACC Network.

The Tigers played a mix of second- and third-team players during a second half featuring much fewer points but two scoring drives by backup quarterback Christopher Vizzina and some nice plays from true freshmen defenders Sammy Brown (team-high nine tackles) and Ricardo Jones (goal-line interception).

Clemson’s defense wasn’t under as much pressure tonight as it was against Georgia. The Tigers still had some slip-ups in allowing App State to go for 363 total yards (including 199 against the starters in the first half), 24 first downs and 20 points (13 in the first half). But three forced turnovers helped mitigate the damage.

In all, it was an utter domination of an App State team widely regarded as one of the best Group of Five teams in the country. The Mountaineers (1-1) were 3-2 in their last five games against ranked teams and had not lost by more than a touchdown in any of their last eight games against power conference schools (with three upset wins).

But coach Shawn Clark’s squad didn’t get much from star quarterback Joey Aguilar, looked outmatched on the line and in the secondary and will head back to Boone with a resounding loss against a Clemson team that never slowed down.

As for the surging Tigers: Heading into their first of two scheduled off weeks before opening conference play vs. NC State on Sept. 21, expect them to rise in the national polls ... once they catch their breath from Saturday.

Next Clemson football game

Who: NC State (1-1) at Clemson (1-1)

When: Saturday, Sept. 21, time TBA

Where: Memorial Stadium in Clemson

TV channel: TBA