Inside the Numbers: No. 25 Clemson 66, App State 20
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1 - Clemson recorded its first takeaway of the season when safety Peter Nearn recovered a fumble in kickoff coverage.
2 - Clemson reached 450 passing yards and 250 rushing yards in a game for the second time on record, joining its performance against SC State in 2014 (467 passing, 268 rushing).
3 - Freshman wide receiver Bryant Wesco Jr. caught three passes for 130 yards with a touchdown.
7 - Quarterback Christopher Vizzina entered the game at the start of the second half and completed 7-of-11 passes for 78 yards and rushed six times for 31 yards and touchdown.
8 - Clemson scored a touchdown on its first eight offensive possessions. Clemson was not held out of the end zone until the first drive of the second half.
10 - Running back Phil Mafah rushed 10 times for 118 yards and a touchdown.
13 - Quarterback Cade Klubnik completed his first 13 passes of the game, the longest streak of consecutive completions in his career.
17 - According to Stats Perform, Clemson’s performance marked the 17th time since 2012 that an FBS team scored a touchdown on eight consecutive drives against an FBS opponent.
19 - Despite playing only one half, Klubnik’s 378 passing yards tied for the 19th-most in a game in school history. It was the most by a Clemson quarterback since Trevor Lawrence’s 400 passing yards against Ohio State to end the 2020 season.
25 - Clemson’s 66 points tied for the 14th-most in school history. It was Clemson’s 25th game with 60 or more points all-time and its ninth such game under Dabo Swinney.
35 - Clemson scored 35 points in the first quarter, setting a Clemson record for the most points in a first quarter and tying the school record for the most points in any quarter, tying the second quarter against Wake Forest in 1981, the third quarter against North Carolina in 2011 and the second quarter against Georgia Tech in 2020.
56 - Clemson’s 56 first-half points were the program’s most on-record, surpassing its modern record of 52 set against Georgia Tech in 2020.
105 - Unofficially, 105 players played for Clemson in the contest. It tied for the third-most players played in a game under Dabo Swinney and marked the fifth time Clemson has played 100 players in a game in his tenure.
282 - Clemson scored in 282 consecutive games to tie the 1980-2004 Texas Longhorns for the 16th-longest streak of games without being shut out in FBS history.
525 - Clemson gained 525 yards in the first half, setting the record for the most yards gained in any half in school history. It surpassed the previous record of 487 set in the first half against Duke in 2012.
700 - Clemson reached 700 yards of total offense for the seventh time in team history and for the first time since a 702-yard performance against Wofford in 2019.
Additional Notes and Numbers
Clemson’s 712 yards of offense were the sixth-most in school history. Its 460 passing yards also ranked sixth in school history.
Clemson recorded both 250 passing yards and 250 rushing yards in a game for the 23rd time since 1954 and the first time since last year’s Charleston Southern game. It was Clemson’s 16th such game under Dabo Swinney.
According to Stats Perform, Clemson’s 525 yards were the most by an FBS team against an FBS opponent since Utah State had 557 yards in a half against New Mexico on Oct. 27, 2018.
Clemson averaged 9.8 yards per play, the eighth-best mark in school history, its fifth-best mark under Dabo Swinney and its most since averaging 11.0 yards per play against Wofford in 2019. It was Clemson’s most against an FBS opponent since averaging a school-record 11.6 yards against Louisville in 2018.
Quarterback Cade Klubnik only played the first half but finished the contest having completed 24-of-26 passes for a career-high 378 yards and five passing touchdowns in addition to scoring two rushing touchdowns.
Klubnik finished with a pass efficiency rating of 277.9, breaking Tajh Boyd’s school record for a single game with a minimum of 20 attempts (261.9 vs. Syracuse in 2013).
Klubnik’s five passing touchdowns set a career high, passing his previous high of four set twice last season. It was the first five-touchdown passing game by a Clemson quarterback since DJ Uiagalelei’s five passing touchdowns at Wake Forest in 2022.
Klubnik became the first Clemson quarterback to be responsible for seven combined passing and rushing touchdowns since Tajh Boyd’s ACC-record eight-touchdown performance against NC State in 2011. (Note: Lamar Jackson later tied Boyd’s ACC record against Charlotte in 2016).
Klubnik’s seven combined passing and rushing touchdowns were a career high and marked the most touchdowns for which a Clemson quarterback was responsible since Deshaun Watson’s six-touchdown performance (all passing) against South Carolina in 2016.
Klubnik became the first ACC quarterback to record at least four passing touchdowns and multiple rushing touchdowns in a single half since Louisville’s Lamar Jackson in 2016, according to ESPN Stats & Info. Klubnik finished with five passing touchdowns and two rushing touchdowns in the first half.
Klubnik recorded multiple passing touchdowns and multiple rushing touchdowns in a single game for the first time in his career. He became the first Clemson quarterback to accomplish the feat since Deshaun Watson against Virginia Tech in the 2016 ACC Championship Game.
According to ESPN Stats & Info, Klubnik became the first FBS quarterback in the last 25 years with five or more passing touchdowns, multiple rushing touchdowns and a completion percentage of 90.0 percent or better.
With his fourth touchdown pass of the game, Klubnik (26) became the 11th player in Clemson history to throw 25 career touchdown passes.
During the game, Klubnik (26) passed Steve Fuller (22 from 1975-78), Bobby Gage (24 from 1945-48) and Tommy Kendrick (24 from 1969-71) for the 11th-most career passing touchdowns in school history.
With the performance, Klubnik (4,061) passed Tommy Kendrick (3,893 from 1969-71) for 12th on Clemson's all-time leaderboard for career passing yardage. He became the 12th Clemson player to record 4,000 career passing yards.
With 383 yards combined passing and rushing yards, Klubnik (4,370) entered the Top 15 in Clemson history in career yards of total offense. He passed DeChane Cameron (4,226 from 1988-91) and Kelly Bryant (4,311 from 2015-18) to move into 14th in school history.
On his 17th pass attempt of the game, Klubnik (609) became the 12th player in Clemson history to throw 600 career pass attempts.
By accruing those numbers in his second career game, Wesco tied Artavis Scott, Justyn Ross and Cole Turner for the fewest career games needed to record a 100-yard receiving game in Clemson history (two).
Clemson opened the scoring on a 76-yard touchdown pass from Klubnik to Wesco.
The 76-yard pass was a career-long for Klubnik and the longest pass completion by the Tigers since an 83-yard touchdown pass from Trevor Lawrence to Amari Rodgers at Georgia Tech in 2020.
Wesco’s 76-yard touchdown was Clemson’s first of the season. It was the longest season-opening touchdown by Clemson since C.J. Spiller’s 96-yard kickoff return against Middle Tennessee State in 2009. It was Clemson’s longest season-opening touchdown from scrimmage since an 80-yard touchdown reception by Perry Tuttle against Wofford in 1981.
Klubnik finished Clemson’s second scoring drive of the game — a six-play, 84-yard drive — with a two-yard touchdown run.
The 100-yard rushing game was Mafah’s first of the season and third of his career. Clemson is now 64-4 when having a 100-yard rusher since 2011.
Mafah recorded a career-long 83-yard touchdown run on Clemson’s third drive.
Mafah’s 83-yard rush was Clemson’s longest since a 90-yard touchdown run by Travis Etienne in the 2019 season opener against Georgia Tech.
Mafah’s 83-yard run tied his position coach C.J. Spiller for the 11th-longest touchdown run in school history. Spiller had an 83-yard touchdown run against Auburn in 2007.
Clemson has now scored at least one rushing touchdown in a national-best 79 of its 84 games since the start of the 2018 season.
With multiple rushing touchdowns Saturday, Clemson has also rushed for multiple touchdowns in a national-best 66 games in that span.
Tight end Jake Briningstool caught seven passes for 100 yards with two touchdowns.
The pair of Briningstool and Wesco became the first Clemson duo to reach 100 receiving yards each in a game since Cornell Powell (161) and Amari Rodgers (134) reached the century mark at Notre Dame in 2020.
Briningstool scored on a 41-yard touchdown pass from Klubnik on Clemson’s fourth drive.
Wide receiver Antonio Williams scored his first touchdown of the season on Clemson’s fifth drive, catching a 29-yard touchdown pass from Klubnik.
The touchdown was Williams’ seventh of his career. By virtue of an injury that cost him the majority of the 2023 season, it was his first touchdown since a two-touchdown effort against Charleston Southern in Week 2 of last season.
Klubnik capped Clemson’s sixth drive with a three-yard touchdown run. It was the first game of his career with multiple touchdown runs and the first such game by a Clemson quarterback since DJ Uiagalelei’s two rushing touchdowns against NC State in 2022.
Wide receiver T.J. Moore scored Clemson’s seventh touchdown of the game on its seventh drive, scoring on a 33-yard touchdown reception from Klubnik.
The touchdown was the first of Moore’s career.
Briningstool recorded his second receiving touchdown of the game on a 17-yard touchdown reception from Klubnik on Clemson’s eighth drive.
Briningstool’s second touchdown of the game was the 12th receiving touchdown of his career. He tied John McMakin (1969-71), Dwayne Allen (2009-11), Brandon Ford (2009-12) and Davis Allen (2019-22) for the second-most career receiving touchdowns by a tight end in school history.
On his seventh reception, Briningstool (88) tied Allen (88) for the fourth-most receptions by a tight end in Clemson history.
Clemson recorded a 100-yard rusher (Mafah) and at least one 100-yard receiver (Wesco & Briningstool) in a single game for the first time since the 2021 Wake Forest game (Kobe Pace & Will Shipley rushing; Beaux Collins receiving).
It was Clemson’s first game with a 300-yard passer (Klubnik), 100-yard rusher (Mafah) and at least one 100-yard receiver (Wesco & Briningstool) since the 2020 ACC Championship Game against Notre Dame when the trio of Trevor Lawrence, Travis Etienne and Amari Rodgers accomplished the feat.
Clemson recorded its first game with a 300-yard passer (Klubnik), a 100-yard rusher (Mafah) and two 100-yard receivers (Wesco & Briningstool) since 2012 against NC State when Clemson had a 300-yard passer (Tajh Boyd), two 100-yard rushers (Andre Ellington and Tajh Boyd) and two 100-yard receivers (Sammy Watkins and Brandon Ford).
Vizzina recorded the first touchdown of his career on a five-yard touchdown run in the third quarter, capping a seven-play, 61-yard drive.
The fumble was forced by linebacker Fletcher Cothran. It was the first forced fumble of Cothran’s career and the first fumble recovery of Nearn’s career.
Safety Ricardo Jones recorded an interception in his collegiate debut, picking off a wide receiver pass in the fourth quarter.
Defensive end Levi Matthews recorded his first career interception in the fourth quarter for Clemson’s third takeaway of the game.
Cornerback Avieon Terrell recorded a career-high four pass breakups, one shy of Perry Williams’ school record set in 1985.
Defensive tackle Stephiylan Green recorded his first career sack in the third quarter.
Linebacker Barrett Carter played his 40th career game.
Captains for the contest were tight end Jake Briningstool, defensive end Cade Denhoff, offensive lineman Marcus Tate and defensive tackle Tré Williams.
