The Notes: No. 1 Clemson 73, Georgia Tech 7
Clemson’s 66-point victory margin is the largest in a game between two ACC teams since the conference’s inception in 1953. It is tied for the ninth-largest victory margin by an ACC team against any opponent in conference history.
The 66-point victory margin ties for Clemson’s seventh-largest in school history and its largest since a 66-point win against South Carolina State in 2014. It’s Clemson’s second-largest win all-time against a school presently in the Football Bowl Subdivision, trailing only a 73-0 victory against Georgia Tech in 1903.
Clemson’s 73 points tied that 1903 contest for its most against Georgia Tech in a game in series history.
Clemson’s 73 points represent Clemson’s third-most against an ACC opponent all-time, trailing its 82-point performance against Wake Forest in 1981 and its 77 points against Louisville in 2018. However, both of those performances came at home, so Saturday’s output was the most scored by Clemson in an ACC road game all-time, passing its 63 at Wake Forest in 2018.
Clemson reached the 70-point mark for the 10th time in school history. The 73 points are tied for the seventh-most in a game in school history.
Clemson’s 73 points tied for Clemson’s second-most points in a road game in school history, trailing its 94 against Furman in 1915 and matching its 73 at Georgia Tech in 1903.
Clemson opened the game with a modern-era school-record 52 points in the first half. Clemson’s previous high against an ACC opponent in a first half was 49 in its opening two frames against Wake Forest in its national championship campaign in 1981.
Clemson produced 473 yards in the first half, only 14 yards shy of the school record for yards in a half (487 vs. Duke in 2012).
Clemson has now scored at least 37 points in each of its first five games, opening a season with five consecutive games of 37 points or more for the first time in school history.
Clemson has now won each of its first five games of a season by at least 18 points for the third time in school history, joining the 1929 and 2000 seasons. It is the third time since 2000 that an ACC team has opened a season with five straight wins of 18 points or more, joining the 2000 Tigers and the 2004 Virginia Cavaliers.
Clemson tied a school record for points in a quarter with 35 in the second quarter, matching its second quarter against Wake Forest in 1981 and its third quarter against North Carolina in 2011.
Clemson gained 671 total yards, ninth-most in school history and its most since a 702-yard effort against Wofford last season. The 671 yards are Clemson’s most against Georgia Tech all-time, surpassing its 632 yards against Georgia Tech last season.
Clemson threw seven passing touchdowns, breaking the school record of six set previously against Central Michigan in 2007, against Duke in 2012, against North Carolina in 2014 and against South Carolina in 2016.
Clemson finished with 500 passing yards, its second-most in a single game all-time behind its record 580 passing yards against Pitt in 2016. The total represents Clemson’s most passing yards in a victory and its most passing yards in a road game in school history. Clemson completed passes to 17 different receivers in reaching that total.
Playing roughly 40 miles from his hometown of Cartersville, Ga., quarterback Trevor Lawrence completed 24-of-33 passes with career highs in passing yards (404) and passing touchdowns (five).
Lawrence improved to 30-1 as a starter, joining Rodney Williams, Tajh Boyd and Deshaun Watson as the only quarterbacks in school history to win at least 30 games as a starting quarterback. Williams, Boyd and Watson are all tied for the school record with 32 wins each.
The game was Lawrence’s first career 400-yard passing game and the 10th by a Clemson quarterback all-time. He is the fourth Clemson quarterback to accomplish the feat, joining Deshaun Watson (five), Tajh Boyd (three) and Charlie Whitehurst (one).
Lawrence produced the first game with at least five passing touchdowns by a Clemson quarterback since Deshaun Watson’s six-touchdown performance against South Carolina in 2016.
With his fourth touchdown pass of the game, Lawrence (81) passed Chris Weinke (79) for fourth-most career passing touchdowns in ACC history. He joins Tajh Boyd, Philip Rivers and Deshaun Watson as the only players in ACC history with at least 80 career passing touchdowns.
Lawrence (95) also passed Russell Wilson and Eric Dungey (93 each) for sixth on the ACC's all-time career leaderboard for touchdown responsibility.
Lawrence has now thrown at least three touchdown passes in four straight games for the first time since a school-record eight-game stretch last season.
Lawrence recorded his 18th career game with three or more passing touchdowns, four shy of Tajh Boyd's school record of 22. Clemson is now 18-0 when Lawrence throws three touchdown passes.
Including his 410 combined rushing and passing yards in the game, Lawrence (9,283) became the fourth player in Clemson history to record 9,000 career yards of total offense, joining Tajh Boyd, Deshaun Watson and Charlie Whitehurst.
Lawrence threw an interception on his 12th pass attempt of the game, ending a streak of 366 consecutive passes without an interception, the second-longest streak in ACC history. The streak concluded 13 pass attempts shy of matching the ACC record held by NC State's Russell Wilson (379 from 2008-09). With 2020 being a leap year, Lawrence went 364 calendar days between interceptions dating to his last pick at Louisville on Oct. 19, 2019.
Lawrence finished the first half having completed 22-of-27 passes for 391 yards with five touchdowns. It was a Clemson first-half record and the first 300-yard first half by a passer since Deshaun Watson threw for 331 yards in the first two quarters vs. Pitt in 2016. His 391-yard first half alone would have ranked as the 13th-highest total in a full game in school history.
Lawrence’s five passing touchdowns in the first half tied a school record, matching Tajh Boyd, who accomplished the feat against Wake Forest and in 2012 and against The Citadel in 2013.
Lawrence became the first ACC quarterback to throw for more than 375 yards in a first half since North Carolina’s Marquise Williams (404 against Duke in 2015).
Lawrence posted his 10th career 300-yard passing game to join Tajh Boyd (18) and Deshaun Watson (13) as the only players in school history to record double-digit career 300-yard passing games.
Lawrence finished the game with a 219.5 passer rating and became only the fifth ACC quarterback since 2000 to open a season with five consecutive games with a 150 or better pass efficiency rating, joining Georgia Tech's Tevin Washington (2011), Florida State's E.J. Manuel (2012) and Jameis Winston (2013), and NC State's Jacoby Brissett (2014).
Lawrence’s 404 yards were the most by a Clemson quarterback against Georgia Tech all-time, passing Tajh Boyd’s 397-yard game against the Yellow Jackets in 2012.
Running back Travis Etienne rushed 11 times for 44 yards with a rushing touchdown and caught two passes for 29 yards.
On a three-yard second-quarter touchdown, Etienne (408) broke placekicker Chandler Catanzaro's school record of 404 career points from 2010-13 to become the program’s all-time leading scorer.
Etienne (408) passed Michael Badgley (403 from 2014-17) and Joey Slye (403 from 2014-17), Chandler Catanzaro (404 from 2010-13) and Roberto Aguayo (405 from 2013-15) for third on the ACC's career scoring leaderboard. Etienne was already the only non-kicker in ACC history with 400 career points.
Etienne has now scored a touchdown in 40 of his 48 career games.
During the game, Etienne (4,474) passed Florida State's Dalvin Cook (4,464 from 2014-16) for the second-most career rushing yards in ACC history.
With 73 all-purpose yards, Etienne (5,876) passed Leon Johnson of North Carolina (5,828 from 1993-96) for second on the ACC's all-time career all-purpose yardage leaderboard.
Etienne lost a fumble on his second carry of the game. It was his first lost fumble since Sept. 28, 2019 at North Carolina. He totaled 206 rushing attempts (and 230 total touches) between those two lost fumbles.
Wide receiver Cornell Powell recorded his fourth career touchdown reception on a five-yard pass from Lawrence in the first quarter. It was his first touchdown of the season and his first since Oct. 19, 2019 at Louisville.
Wide receiver Amari Rodgers posted his third career 100-yard receiving game, finishing with a career-high 161 yards on six receptions (121 vs. Syracuse in 2019; 156 vs. FSU in 2018).
Rodgers recorded his 12th career touchdown, his fourth of the season, on an 83-yard touchdown reception from Lawrence in the first quarter. The reception was Clemson’s longest of the season and the second-longest between the Lawrence-Rodgers connection all-time, joining an 87-yard touchdown between the two at Syracuse last season.
Rodgers added his 13th career touchdown in the second quarter, his second multi-touchdown game of the season and the fourth of his career.
Playing roughly an hour from his hometown of Calhoun, Ga., tight end Davis Allen scored his second career touchdown and his second in as many weeks on a 34-yard touchdown pass from Lawrence in the second quarter.
Allen became the first Clemson tight end with a touchdown catch in consecutive games since Jordan Leggett against South Carolina and Virginia Tech in 2016.
Wide receiver Frank Ladson Jr. recorded his third touchdown reception of the season in the second quarter.
Running back Chez Mellusi scored his second touchdown of the season in the third quarter.
Running back Kobe Pace, a native of Cedartown, Ga., scored his first career touchdown on a seven-yard pass in the fourth quarter. It came on the first passing career touchdown for quarterback Hunter Helms.
Helms threw his second passing touchdown of the day on a 35-yard pass to wide receiver Ajou Ajou. It was Ajou’s first career touchdown and represented Clemson’s record-breaking seventh passing touchdown of the day as a team.
Between Lawrence (five) and Helms (two), Clemson had multiple quarterbacks throw multiple touchdown passes in a single game for the first time since the 2018 Louisville game (Lawrence and Chase Brice).
Defensive tackle Nyles Pinckney scored on a one-yard touchdown run in the second quarter. It was Clemson’s fourth offensive “big man touchdown” by an offensive or defensive lineman since 2018, joining touchdown runs by defensive linemen Christian Wilkins (at Florida State in 2018) and Dexter Lawrence (vs. Louisville in 2018) and offensive lineman John Simpson (at NC State in 2019).
Defensive end Myles Murphy, a native of Marietta, Ga., recorded a sack on Georgia Tech’s second possession, recording his second career forced fumble on the play.
Cornerback Andrew Booth Jr., a native of Dacula, Ga., recorded his first career sack in the contest.
Defensive tackle Tyler Davis recorded his first sack of the season in the second quarter. Linebacker Jake Venables also added a sack in the second half.
Defensive end K.J. Henry recorded his first fumble recovery of the season in the first quarter. It was his second career fumble recovery, joining one he produced in his collegiate debut vs. Furman in 2018.
Defensive end Justin Mascoll, a native of Snellville, Ga., recorded his first career fumble recovery in the third quarter.
Safety Nolan Turner recorded his second interception of the season in the second quarter. It was his fifth career interception.
On his first PAT of the game, PK B.T. Potter passed Bob Paulling (107 from 1979-83) for fourth on Clemson's leaderboard for career PATs.
Clemson finished with five sacks, including one team sack when the ball slipped out of the quarterback’s hand, and has now recorded multiple sacks in 27 of its last 28 games, including each of its last 11. Georgia Tech entered the game having allowed only two sacks in four previous games this season.
Clemson recorded at least three sacks in a seventh straight game, dating to last season, for the first time since a seven-game streak across games 8-14 of the 2018 season.
Clemson finished plus-one in the turnover margin and has now won the turnover margin in three straight games for the first time this season.
Clemson's streak of games with only one or fewer giveaways ended at 12 games when Clemson turned the ball over for the second time in the first half. Clemson’s 12-game streak with one giveaway or fewer was the program's longest in the last 20 years.
After holding Miami to nine first downs last week, Clemson held Georgia Tech to seven first downs and has now held consecutive opponents to single-digit first downs for the first time since the Wake Forest and South Carolina games last November.
Clemson held Georgia Tech to 2-of-14 on third downs. The 14.3 percent average allowed on third downs was Clemson’s best performance in the category since last year’s Boston College game (13.3 percent).
Clemson outgained Georgia Tech, 671-204, and after outgaining Miami by 340 yards last week, has now outgained consecutive ACC opponents by 300-plus yards for the first time since the Louisville and Boston College games in 2018.
Clemson outgained Georgia Tech by 467 yards, tied for the fifth-largest yardage differential in a game since 1953. It is Clemson’s second-largest yardage margin against an ACC opponent all-time, trailing only a 497-yard yardage differential against Boston College last season.
Clemson has outgained Georgia Tech, 1303-498 (plus-805), in its last two meetings.
Clemson, which possessed the ball for 38:23 against Miami last week, held the ball for 35:53 against Georgia Tech and has now possessed the ball for at least 35 minutes in consecutive games for the first time since back-to-back postseason games against North Carolina (38:56) and Oklahoma (35:15) in 2015.
Clemson played its 19th game all-time while ranked No. 1 in the AP Poll, the 15th-most since the poll's inception in 1936. It was Dabo Swinney's 18th game coached at No. 1, tying him with Steve Spurrier for 18th all-time.
Captains for the contest were offensive lineman Matt Bockhorst, running back Darien Rencher, linebacker James Skalski and linebacker Baylon Spector.