Clemson’s Spring Game was supposed to be about its quarterbacks, and it was to a certain extent. However the day belonged to wide receiver Tee Higgins, who caught four passes for 118 yards and two touchdowns in leading the Orange to a 28-17 victory over the White team Saturday in Clemson’s Orange & White Game.
Higgins caught a 50-yard touchdown pass from freshman Trevor Lawrence and an 18-yard scoring pass from Hunter Johnson. He would have been credited with another bomb from Lawrence in third quarter, but the pay was negated as the official ruled Lawrence down on the play.
Speaking of Lawrence, he completed 11-of-16 passes for 122 yards for the Orange team as he clearly won the day between the four quarterbacks. Lawrence showed off his arm strength and touch on both long passes to Higgins.
Though he threw an interception, Johnson led the Orange on two scoring drives, throwing the 18-yard touchdown pass to Higgins in the second quarter and running for another score. Johnson ended the game 8-for-14 for 85 yards.
It did not take Lawrence long to get the estimated crowd of about 55,000 at Death Valley on its feet.
On the drives’ third play, his second pass, Lawrence found a streaking Higgins down the sideline for a 50-yard touchdown. Lawrence finished the first half 8-for-12 for 113 yards.
Last year’s starter, Kelly Bryant quarterbacked the White team. However, he had struggled with a couple of overthrows to tight end Milan Richard and Hunter Renfrow, when both were running wide open. Bryant finished the game 8-of-15 for 35 yards.
Bryant was 1-for-4 with two sacks on third down.
Chase Brice threw three interceptions as the White’s other quarterback. However, he did hit a 43-yard pass to Hunter Renfrow. His third interception was returned 84 yards for a touchdown by cornerback Trayvon Mullen with 7:30 to play in the fourth quarter.
Brice, 12-of-19 for 231 yards, did redeem himself with a 50-yard touchdown pass to Diondre Overton with 4:18 to play in the game on the White’s ensuing drive.
The Orange took a 7-0 lead in the first quarter when Lawrence found Higgins for a 50-yard touchdown pass down the far sideline.
On the drives second play, Lawrence found a wide open Cannon Smith in the flats for a 23-yard gain, which moved the ball to midfield. On the next play, Lawrence dropped a perfect pass right into the arms of Higgins who was running down the sideline.
The scoring drive took three plays and lasted just 51 seconds. It gave the Orange a 7-0 lead with 11:39 to play in the first quarter.
The Orange team extended its lead to 14-0 later in the first quarter when Hunter Johnson found Higgins near the goal line for an 18-yard touchdown pass with 4:01 to go. The touchdown pass followed a White fumble on a previous punt attempt by Hall Morton.
On third down-and-eight from the 18, Johnson threw a dart to Higgins near the goal line and the sophomore fought off a defender and went into the end zone for the touchdown.
The White team finally got on the board on the first play of the second quarter when Alex Spence made a 37-yard field with 14:57 to play in the half. Brice led the 53-yard scoring drive which took 3:56 off the clock. The White team used 11 plays to set up the field goal.
Brice again led the White team down the field late in the second half. This time, he got them in the end zone thanks to a 43-yard pass to Hunter Renfrow. He also hit Renfrow with a 9-yard pass later in the drive to set up Travis Etienne’s one-yard touchdown run with 2:23 left in the half.
Etienne also had a 23-yard run on the scoring drive to make the score 14-10 in favor of the Orange at the break.