CLEMSON, S.C. — One streak continues.
Another starts anew.
And Clemson football once again finds itself in the driver’s seat for the ACC’s Atlantic Division title and conference championship game spot after losing that long-held position last year.
Quarterback DJ Uiagalelei had three total touchdowns and kicker B.T. Potter booted three field goals as the No. 5 Tigers defeated No. 10 N.C. State, 30-20, on Saturday night in Memorial Stadium.
Clemson’s defense also forced two key second-half turnovers as the Tigers emerged victorious in the first ever AP Top 10 meeting and sixth overall ranked meeting between the longtime conference opponents.
The win was Clemson’s 37th in a row at home, tying the ACC record held by Florida State (1992-2001), and it also avenged a double-overtime loss to the Wolfpack in Raleigh last season. The Tigers had won eight straight and 15 of 16 against N.C. State before that loss.
In defeating then-No. 21 Wake Forest last week and N.C. State on Saturday, Clemson has emerged through a tough two-game stretch as the clear leader in a talented Atlantic Division that had five undefeated teams entering last Saturday.
Clemson (5-0, 3-0 ACC) and Syracuse (5-0, 2-0) are now the only two remaining undefeated teams in the division.
The Tigers have now won 11 straight games — the longest active streak in college football — in their push to return to the 2022 College Football Playoff field after a one-year absence.
Clemson also moved to 12-6 against AP Top 10 teams in the CFP era (with all six losses coming to CFP participants and four coming to national champions). Coach Dabo Swinney is now 11-2 against N.C. State and 34-3 against teams from North Carolina.
The Tigers ran away with this much-hyped game, which earned ABC’s prime-time TV slot and a pregame visit from ESPN’s “College GameDay,” in the second half. But that didn’t come without a closely contested first.
Clemson and N.C. State (4-0, 0-1 ACC) alternated 20-yard field goals in the first quarter before an eventful second that featured two go-ahead touchdowns and a few controversial calls.
The Tigers went up 6-3 with 5:47 to go after Potter’s 46-yard field goal in the second quarter, but lost star safety Andrew Mukuba to a targeting call two plays into N.C. State’s next possession.
Mukuba (who was playing cornerback with Clemson once again down DBs Sheridan Jones and Malcolm Greene with injury) led with his helmet while tackling Wolfpack receiver Keyon Lesane and was ejected for the remainder of the game.
Clemson safety R.J. Mickens also got whistled for pass interference on a third-and-8 in the red zone, putting N.C. State in position for quarterback Devin Leary’s two-yard strike to tight end Cedd Seabrough with 1:51 before half.
The Tigers promptly covered 75 yards in eight plays to go up 13-10 on a one-yard Uiagalelei rushing touchdown with 31 seconds left in the first half.
A 26-yard catch and run by running back Will Shipley to the one-yard line — which was initially ruled a touchdown and, on a replay, perhaps could have also been ruled a fumble out of the end zone — set up that score.
Uiagalelei’s seven-yard touchdown pass to tight end Jake Briningstool early in the third quarter gave Clemson a 20-13 lead and 14 consecutive unanswered points.
N.C State kept it a one-possession game with a 49-yard Christopher Dunn field goal but made two crucial errors in the third. Cornerback Aydan White dropped an interception that could’ve very well been a pick six, and on NC State’s next offensive possession receiver Christopher Toudle bobbled a pass that was intercepted by Clemson cornerback Toriano Pride Jr.
Those mistakes, coupled with Potter missing his first field goal of the season from 46 yards out, helped Clemson enter the fourth quarter with a somewhat shaky 20-13 lead.
After another Potter field goal, N.C. State threw together a solid drive trailing 23-13. But that momentum ended when Leary bobbled a snap on fourth-and-13 from midfield and Clemson defensive end K.J. Henry recovered it.
Uiagalelei cruised in for a nine-yard rushing touchdown, his second of the time, to put Clemson up 30-13 on the following possession. Leary added a four-yard rushing touchdown in garbage time.
