The Notes: No. 2 Clemson 45, Florida State 14
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Clemson won its 750th game in program history, becoming the 15th FBS program to accomplish the feat and the first member of the Atlantic Coast Conference to do so.
Head Coach Dabo Swinney (122-30) improved his career winning percentage to .803. Pending the results of Washington vs. Arizona this evening, Swinney could enter next week having surpassed Washington’s Chris Petersen as the winningest active head coach among FBS coaches with at least five seasons of experience.
Clemson possessed the ball for 39:37, surpassing its 38:56 possession time against North Carolina on Dec. 5, 2015 for the longest in the Swinney era.
The 39:37 possession time was Clemson’s longest since its school-record 42:58 possession time against North Carolina on Nov. 7, 1992.
Clemson ran a season-high 91 plays, the team’s most since running 92 plays against South Carolina on Nov. 24, 2018.
Clemson gained 552 total yards, surpassing the 524 yards posted by the Tigers against the Seminoles last year for the most Clemson has posted against Florida State in a game in series history.
Clemson reached 550 yards in a game for the 33rd time under Swinney, improving to 31-2 in those contests.
Clemson rushed for 320 yards, marking Clemson’s 17th 300-yard rushing game under Swinney. Clemson is 16-1 in those contests. It was Clemson’s second 300-yard game of the season, joining a 411-yard effort against Georgia Tech.
Clemson tied its season high with four takeaways, matching the mark set against Georgia Tech in the season opener.
Three of Clemson’s takeaways came via interception, Clemson’s first time posting three picks in a game since Nov. 5, 2016 vs. Syracuse.
Clemson rushed for two touchdowns and has now rushed for multiple touchdowns in seven consecutive games for the first time since a nine-game streak to open the 2018 season. Clemson has rushed for at least one touchdown in 21 consecutive games, every game since the start of the 2018 season.
Clemson recorded three sacks and has now posted multiple sacks in a 14th consecutive game for the first time since the 2012-13 seasons. It represents Clemson's fifth multi-sack streak of 14 games or more since 1980 (18 from 1991-92, 17 from 1998-99, 15 from 2012-13, 14 from 2000-01).
Quarterback Trevor Lawrence completed 17-of-25 passes for 170 yards with three passing touchdowns and rushed six times for 40 yards with one rushing touchdown prior to exiting the game with a 42-point lead in the middle of the third quarter.
On his final passing touchdown of the game, Lawrence tied Woodrow Dantzler (41 from 1998-2001) for fifth on the program's all-time leaderboard for career touchdown passes.
Lawrence has now thrown a touchdown pass in 16 consecutive games and has thrown a touchdown in 20 of his 21 career games.
Lawrence passed for three touchdowns and rushed for another touchdown in the first half, marking the first time in his career he’s been responsible for four touchdowns in a single half.
Lawrence tied Cullen Harper (47) for eighth on Clemson's all-time leaderboard for career total touchdown responsibility.
Running back Travis Etienne recorded 127 rushing yards on 17 carries, a 23-yard pass completion and a three-yard receiving touchdown.
The 100-yard rushing performance was Etienne’s second of the season and the 11th of his career. He is now one game shy of tying Andre Ellington and C.J. Spiller for fourth-most 100-yard rushing games in school history.
With 127 rushing yards on the day, Etienne (3,013) broke 3,000 career rushing yards, becoming the seventh player in school history to record 3,000 career rushing yards.
With 130 all-purpose yards in the game, Etienne (3,630) passed Artavis Scott (3,568) to enter the Top 10 in career all-purpose yards in school history.
Etienne recorded his first career pass completion on a 23-yard pass to Justyn Ross in the first quarter. Etienne became the first Clemson running back to complete a pass since C.J. Spiller on Nov. 14, 2009, at NC State.
During the contest, Etienne (3,013) passed Kenny Flowers (2,914) for seventh on Clemson's all-time rushing yardage leaderboard.
Etienne’s 127 rushing yards were the fourth-most by a Clemson player against Florida State all-time.
Clemson opened the scoring on a three-yard touchdown pass from Lawrence to Etienne. Clemson pushed its record to 43-0 when scoring first since 2015.
The touchdown reception was Etienne’s first of the season and the third of his career. He most recently caught a touchdown pass in the College Football Playoff National Championship Game.
Lawrence added to his single-season career high in rushing touchdowns, adding his fifth of the season on an eight-yard scoring rush in the first quarter.
Lawrence has now rushed for a touchdown in five of Clemson’s first six games. He is the first Clemson quarterback to rush for a touchdown in five of the first six games of a season since Woody Dantzler in 2000.
Lawrence’s touchdown run gave Clemson a 14-0 advantage after one quarter. Florida State entered the contest having outscored its first five opponents this season, 59-9, in the first quarter of games.
Clemson added its third touchdown of the opening half of a 10-yard pass from Lawrence to wide receiver Justyn Ross.
The touchdown reception was Ross’ second of the season and his first since the second game of the season against Texas A&M.
Ross recorded his second touchdown reception of the season in the second quarter, tying his single-game career high. He recorded two touchdown catches against Notre Dame in the 2018 Cotton Bowl, a game in which both of his scoring receptions also came in the second quarter.
Wide receiver Amari Rodgers recorded his first career rushing touchdown on a 29-yard run in the third quarter.
Rodgers joined Adam Humphries, Jacoby Ford, C.J. Spiller and Chansi Stuckey as the only Clemson players since 2000 to score via rush, reception and punt return in their careers.
On his second reception of the game, a four-yard pass from Lawrence, wide receiver Tee Higgins reached 100 career catches. On that same play, Lawrence became the eighth Clemson player to complete 350 career pass completions all-time.
Safety Tanner Muse recorded his career-high third interception of the season in the first quarter, picking off Florida State Alex Hornibrook, who had opened his Seminole tenure with 62 consecutive pass attempts without an interception prior to Muse’s interception.
Clemson has now recorded an interception in nine of its last 10 games, dating to last season.
Linebacker Chad Smith recorded his first career interception in the second quarter, giving Clemson its first multi-interception game since the season opener against Georgia Tech.
Linebacker Isaiah Simmons added to his single-season career high in sacks in the second quarter, forcing a fumble on his fourth sack of the season.
Simmons added a fumble recovery in the third quarter, recovering a fumble forced by safety Denzel Johnson.
Cornerback Derion Kendrick recorded his first career interception and returned it 38 yards for a Clemson touchdown. It was Clemson’s second pick-six of the season, joining safety K’Von Wallace’s 66-yard interception return against Charlotte.
Clemson has now recorded multiple interception returns for touchdowns every year since 2013, the longest such streak in the FBS.
A 14-0 advantage in points off turnovers pushed Clemson’s edge in that category to 97-21 in the last nine games, dating to the start of the 2018 postseason.
Linebacker Kane Patterson recorded his first career sack in the fourth quarter.
Kicker Steven Sawicki recorded his first career field goal, a 26-yarder in the fourth quarter.
Clemson carried a 28-0 lead into halftime against Florida State for the second year in a row. Clemson has now won 71 of its last 73 games when leading at halftime. In the first halves of Clemson’s last two games against Florida State, Clemson holds a 56-0 edge in points, a 614-128 advantage in total yards and a 35-10 advantage in first downs.
Clemson improved to 92-2 since 2011 when leading after three quarters.
Clemson now has a 92-2 record when totaling more first downs than its opponent since 2011.
Clemson won the turnover margin, 4-2, and now has a 50-3 record when winning the turnover margin since 2011. It was Clemson’s third time winning the turnover margin this season and snapped a three-game streak of losing the turnover margin.
Clemson improved to 59-1 when rushing for 200+ yards under Dabo Swinney.
Clemson is now 45-0 when both passing and rushing for 200+ yards under Dabo Swinney.
Clemson improved to 40-1 since 2015 when outscoring opponents in the "Middle Eight," defined as the final four minutes of the first half and the first four minutes of the second half.
Clemson is now 42-2 when having a 100-yard rusher since 2011.
Clemson did not allow a 100-yard rusher in the contest and has not allowed a 100-yard rusher in 27 straight games, the longest active streak in the FBS.
Captains for the contest were offensive lineman Gage Cervenka, linebacker James Skalski, linebacker Isaiah Simmons and guard John Simpson.