QB Klubnik, Clemson Get Win Over Florida State – After fifteen years at the helm at Clemson, coach Dabo Swinney finds himself at the head of the class as the winningest coach in ACC history. And his Tigers football team keeps on trucking.
In a 29-13 win over the undermanned Florida State Seminoles on Saturday night, the No. 15 Tigers were not clicking on all cylinders by any stretch of the imagination and had two field goal attempts blocked. However, talent won out at the end of the day, eventually, in primetime at Doak Campbell Stadium.
Quarterback Cade Klubnik, who continues to improve week after week, had 297 total yards, running back Phil Mafah had 154 on the ground and the Tigers (4-1, 3-0 ACC) stifled Florida State’s struggling offense to win their fourth consecutive game and third straight conference battle.
“I thought Cade played great,” Clemson coach Dabo Swinney said. “Gritty. Made some plays with his legs. He’s just been a difference maker for us in his recognition. He’s been much more opportunistic. Has really made some big plays.”
Clemson’s 16-point victory on the road was Win No. 174 of Swinney’s Clemson career, which gave him sole possession of the record for most wins leading an ACC program. In a storybook type of moment and well-documented stroke of irony, Swinney had been tied with the late, great Bobby Bowden heading into the weekend before defeating Bowden’s former team, the Seminoles, who he led for decades, to overtake him.
“Really proud of the guys,” Klubnik said. “Obviously want to convert some of those field goals to touchdowns. I feel like we played an A-minus, B-plus game on offense in total and we still had 500 yards of offense.”
This Clemson-FSU rivalry matchup had the air taken out of its tires back in Week 1, ever since the Seminoles (1-5, 1-4 ACC) dropped their season opener to the unranked Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets in Ireland.
That was long before former Tigers starting quarterback DJ Uiagalelei was ruled out of the contest with a hand injury, robbing both fan bases of a Clemson-DJU get together that would have been interesting regardless of records.
Sticking with that theme, Clemson’s win on Saturday was more business-like. The Tigers’ offense was more subdued than they were in their previous three contest where they put up 66, 59 and 40 points, or an eye-popping amount of chunk plays down the field.
But the Tigers received production on both sides of the ball in an ACC hostile environment, and that was enough against a Seminoles team that did not give up, even though they were playing with two hands tied behind their backs, especially in the fourth quarter, but was ultimately overmatched.
Trailing by 16, 23-7 in the final frame, Florida State scored a touchdown to make it 23-13 and was a two-point conversion away from a one-score game. But quarterback Brock Glenn, who had a full week of practice for the first time in his career, knowing he was going to be the starter, failed to connect with a receiver in the end zone, FSU’s deficit stayed at 10 points and Clemson closed things out to stay perfect in conference play.
“At the end of the game, we held serve,” Swinney said postgame. “We’re still in control of our ACC destiny. and that’s what we came here to do”
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Vanderbilt Upsets Alabama – On any given Saturday, anything can happen. The Vanderbilt Commadores broke a long and painful 40-year losing streak against Alabama and got the first win over a top-five team in program history with a 40-35 stunner over the No. 1 Crimson Tide.
The Commodores got a pick-6 in the first half and put the game on ice in the fourth quarter after Alabama quarterback Jalen Milroe fumbled the rock as he was taken down to the ground and sacked.
Eight plays after Milroe’s turnover, Vanderbilt signal caller Diego Pavia located Kamrean Johnson for a 6-yard score on third down. It was yet another third-down conversion for the Commodores in an afternoon with a whole host of them.
Until Saturday, Vanderbilt had not beaten Alabama since a 1984 win in Tuscaloosa. And the series have been a landslide in recent years. In the four times Alabama played Vanderbilt when the Crimson Tide was coached by the legendary Nick Saban, who won six championships while at the university, Vanderbilt offense was anemic, scoring a grand total of 13 points.
The Commodores did not waste anytime hitting that target number in the first quarter on Saturday when Randon Fontenette picked of a deflected pass and ran it back to the house 29 yards for a touchdown.
“This is the dream, right here,” coach Clark Lea said. “And for the next 12 hours, I’m going to enjoy the dream. We’ve got more ahead of us, but this is what Vanderbilt football needs to be about: Big wins on big stages. We’re going to go get some more.”
Alabama sliced the Vanderbilt lead to five on a crucial fourth-down touchdown run by freshman sensation Ryan Williams, who is only 17 years old, late in the game. But Vanderbilt was able to milk the clock with three first downs and prevent Alabama from getting a chance to win the game with another touchdown.
Not only was the victory the first for Vanderbilt over Alabama in four decades, it is the first time the Commodores have beaten the Crimson Tide in ‘Music City’, Nashville since 1976. Alabama had won 23 consecutive games over Vanderbilt dating back to that 1984 win and Vanderbilt came into the game 0-60 against teams ranked in the top five of the AP Top 25, so they got the proverbial monkey off their backs.
Alabama had just moved to the top of the AP Top 25 last week after a win over then-No. 2 Kirby Smart and the Georgia Bulldogs. It will be a short stay, and first-year coach Kalen DeBoer said it is back to the drawing board for a team that did not match the intensity and fight that the Commodores came out of the locker room displaying.
“We’re going to find out really how much we care about each other and what it looks like moving forward,” DeBoer said. “We’ve been tested in different ways really a lot of the games here this season, and this is a different type of test now in our response.”
Last season, Pavia was the starting quarterback of a New Mexico State team that ran Auburn out of its own building. Saturday, he powered Vanderbilt to their biggest win in program history.
“Games like this change your life,” Pavia said.
Alabama’s hopes to make the 12-team playoff are not shot are not out of the question by any means, but the Tide are now the glaring example of just how tough and stressful life in the SEC is going to be for all of the top teams. If Alabama is losing on the road to Vanderbilt, who have made their name as a baseball and academic institution, it is hard to fathom anyone else going undefeated during the regular season.
