The Notes: No. 9 Clemson 39, No. 23 North Carolina 10

Among Clemson’s victories in each of its last eight ACC Championship Game berths, Clemson has won each of its last five ACC Championship Game appearances by at least 24 points. 

Klubnik engineered a nine-play, 71-yard touchdown drive on his first series of the game. He accounted for 58 yards of total offense on the drive, including completing 5-of-5 passes for 50 yards and rushing once for eight yards.

Klubnik ended his first possession with a one-yard touchdown pass to tight end Davis Allen, Klubnik’s second career touchdown pass and his first since Clemson’s season opener at Georgia Tech.

Klubnik recorded a 19-yard reception on a pass from running back Phil Mafah in the first quarter, the longest reception by a Clemson quarterback since DeChane Cameron’s 37-yard reception against Virginia in 1991. Mafah’s pass was the longest by a Clemson running back since Travis Etienne’s 23-yard pass to Justyn Ross against Florida State in 2019.

Klubnik recorded his first career rushing touchdown on a one-yard touchdown run in the second quarter.

Klubnik opened the game 10-for-10 for 149 yards prior to his first incompletion late in the second quarter.

With his 12th touchdown reception, Allen tied John McMakin (12 from 1969-71), Dwayne Allen (12 from 2009-11) and Brandon Ford (12 from 2009-12) for the second-most career touchdown receptions by a tight end in Clemson history.

Allen set a new single-season career high in touchdown receptions with his fifth touchdown reception of the season.

Clemson’s tight ends have now combined for 10 touchdown receptions this season, tied for the unit’s most under Dabo Swinney (10 in 2011 and 2012).

Mafah scored his career-high fourth rushing touchdown of the season on a four-yard touchdown run in the first quarter.

Wide receiver Cole Turner recorded his second career reception on a 68-yard pass from Klubnik. The long gain setup Klubnik’s one-yard touchdown run on the ensuing play. 

The 68-yard reception by Turner was Clemson’s longest play of the season from scrimmage, surpassing 59-yard passes against Florida State and South Carolina. 

Wide receiver Brannon Spector caught a career-long 43-yard reception in the third quarter.

Running back Will Shipley scored his 15th rushing touchdown of the season on a two-yard touchdown run in the third quarter. He has now produced only the seventh individual season in Clemson history with at least 15 rushing touchdowns. He is now one touchdown shy of tying Travis Zachery (16 in 1999) for sixth-most rushing touchdowns in a season in Clemson history and three shy of a three-way tie for third.

Shipley rushed for a touchdown in a sixth straight game to tie Woodrow Dantzler (six straight games in 2000) and Travis Etienne (six straight games from 2018-19) for the 10th-longest streak of consecutive games with a rushing touchdown in school history. It pulled Shipley’s current streak one game shy of his career-long streak of seven, set across the 2021-22 seasons.

Three different Clemson players rushed for a touchdown. Clemson rushed for a touchdown in a 25th consecutive game. Clemson has scored at least one rushing touchdown in a national-best 67 of its 68 games since the start of the 2018 season. 

Clemson has also rushed for multiple touchdowns in four consecutive games for the first time since a 28-game streak across the 2018-20 seasons.

Defensively, Clemson recorded the game’s first takeaway, as defensive tackle Ruke Orhorhoro fell on a missed quarterback exchange for his second career fumble recovery.

The fumble recovery was Orhorhoro’s first since Sept. 25, 2021 at NC State.

Linebacker Jeremiah Trotter Jr. recorded a career-high 3.0 sacks and nearly doubled his career-high season sack total to 6.5.

Trotter’s third sack set an ACC Championship Game record, surpassing the 2.0 sacks produced by Florida State’s Lawrence Timmons, Florida State’s Jeremiah Attaochu (2012) and Clemson’s Dexter Lawrence (2016).

Trotter became the first Clemson player to post at least 2.0 sacks in back-to-back games since Clelin Ferrell in 2018 against Texas A&M and Georgia Southern.

Trotter has now recorded a sack in three consecutive games for the first time in his career.

On Clemson’s fourth sack of the game, Trotter’s third of the evening, Clemson (40) reached 40 sacks for the ninth consecutive year. Clemson is the only program in the country to record at least 40 sacks in every year since the inception of the College Football Playoff in 2014.

Clemson has now recorded at least four sacks in four consecutive games for the first time since last season against Florida State, Louisville, UConn and Wake Forest.

Linebacker Barrett Carter and defensive tackle Tyler Davis split a sack in the second quarter.

Cornerback Nate Wiggins recorded two pass breakups and an interception, which he returned for a touchdown.

Wiggins recorded his first career interception in the third quarter and returned his pick of Drake Maye 98 yards for a touchdown.

Wiggins’ 98-yard interception return was the longest play in ACC Championship Game history. It was the second-longest interception in Clemson history, trailing Don Kelley’s 102-yard return vs. Duke in 1970.

Wiggins' return for touchdown tied for the seventh-longest play in Clemson history and the longest for the Tigers since Derrick Hamilton's 100-yard kickoff return against UNC in 2003.

Clemson, which scored its first defensive touchdown of the season last week, scored another defensive touchdown to give the Tigers multiple defensive touchdowns in 13 straight seasons. The last time Clemson had fewer than two defensive touchdowns in a season was 2009, Dabo Swinney’s first full season as head coach, when the Tigers supplemented a single defensive touchdown with six special teams touchdowns.

Clemson scored a defensive touchdown in consecutive games for the first time since a three-game streak in 1990 against NC State (Dexter Davis fumble return), Wake Forest (Arlington Nunn interception return) and North Carolina (Davis interception return).

Wiggins recorded the first blocked field goal of his career in the second quarter.

Wiggins’ field goal block was Clemson’s fifth overall blocked punt or placekick this season, Clemson’s most in a season since 2016 (five). It was the Tigers’ third field goal block of the season and its first since Oct. 8 at Boston College.

Cornerback Jeadyn Lukus recorded Clemson’s third takeaway of the game with his first career interception in the fourth quarter. 

B.T. Potter made his 53rd career start at placekicker to take sole possession of the Clemson record at the position shared currently with Chandler Catanzaro (52 from 2010-13).

Potter appeared in his 68th career game to pull within one game of Clemson's program record for career games played (69, shared by James Skalski, Will Spiers and Will Swinney). Potter's 68 career games are the most of any active player at any level of NCAA football.

Potter scored in a 53rd consecutive game to tie the Clemson record set by Chandler Catanzaro from 2010-13. Potter has scored in every game since earning the starting placekicking job prior to the 2019 season after serving as the team's kickoff specialist in 2018. 

Potter recorded a career-long-tying 52-yard field goal on the final play of the first half. It was his fourth career field goal of 52 yards, matching 52-yarders against LSU (2019) and Wake Forest (2020 and 2022).

Potter’s 52-yarder added to his Clemson records for career field goals of 40 yards or more (33) and 50 yards or more (nine). 

On the 52-yarder, with his fourth point of the game, Potter (103) became the first player in ACC history to score 100 points in four different seasons. 

Potter’s 52-yarder was also an ACC Championship Game record for longest field goal, surpassing a 51-yarder by Notre Dame’s Jonathan Doerer against Clemson in 2020.

Holder Drew Swinney scored his first career points on a successful two-point conversion attempt in the third quarter. It was Clemson’s third successful two-point conversion of the season, its most since 2016.

After producing 15 giveaways over the last five games, Clemson produced its first giveaway-free game since an Oct. 15 game at Florida State.

Clemson won the turnover margin, 3-0, to end a five-game streak of losing the turnover margin, Clemson's longest under Dabo Swinney. Clemson now has a 71-4 record when winning the turnover margin since 2011.

Clemson finished plus-three in the turnover margin for the first time since Sept. 17 vs. Louisiana Tech.

Clemson did not allow a sack and is undefeated since 2011 in games in which it does not allow a sack.

Clemson made its ninth all-time ACC Championship Game appearance, adding to the Tigers’ ACC record (2009, 2011, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020).

Clemson represented the Atlantic Division in the ACC Championship Game for the eighth time and did so in the final year of the ACC’s divisional format. That total does not include Clemson’s appearance in 2020 in which the conference’s top two regular season teams faced off in the conference title game.

Clemson and North Carolina met with both teams ranked in the AP Top 25 for the fifth time in series history. Clemson is 5-0 in those contests, including previous wins in 1959, 1981, 1982 and 2015.

Clemson played its seventh night game of 2022, the fourth-most in a season in Clemson history.

Captains for the contest were tight end Davis Allen, defensive end K.J. Henry, wide receiver Joseph Ngata and safety Jalyn Phillips.