Even though the game was well in hand, Isaiah Simmons admitted that he and other members of Clemson’s defense were a bit worried when Wofford scored on a 79-yard touchdown pass late in the third quarter.

That is because the Terriers had 229 total yards of offense at the time, and the Tigers’ historic streak of consecutive games holding opponents to under 300 yards was in jeopardy.

“We were a little nervous,” Simmons said.

So, Simmons – who was out of the game by that point, with the Tigers ahead by 42 points – went into the defensive huddle and did what he could to help the reserves get in the right frame of mind.

“Just calling it up in the huddle, we just wanted to make sure everybody just relaxed and just breathed and played,” the redshirt junior linebacker said.

The backups buckled down and kept the streak alive, allowing just 27 yards the rest of the game in third-ranked Clemson’s 59-14 win.

The Tigers (9-0) limited Wofford to 256 yards, joining the 2006 LSU Tigers and 2011 Alabama Crimson Tide as the only teams since 2000 to hold opponents below 300 yards in nine straight games to open a season.

“I didn’t even know until Coach (Dabo) Swinney had brought it up,” Simmons said of the streak. “I don’t really pay attention to things like that. I just kind of look more at how well we’re executing. But I think that’s really cool. Today I was really paying attention to it, making sure they didn’t get there. But I think it’s cool that we’re one of the few teams that have been able to do that.”

To put it into perspective, the 1979 Clemson team is the only other team in school history to open a season with nine straight games holding opponents to less than 300 yards of offense.

As impressive as the streak is, Clemson defensive coordinator Brent Venables says it is not something the Tigers focus on.

“I think the yardage total is really more of a byproduct of just doing a great job in your preparation and playing well for four quarters,” he said. “We don’t really put a lot of emphasis on that mark because it might be one of those games that you play really, really well and it’s over the 300 mark.

“So, you’ve got to try to keep it all into context. But there’s history and a lot of data that says man, that’s pretty special, and so you want to recognize our guys for their hard work, without question, because they deserve it.”

Venables’ defense continued a couple of other streaks during Saturday’s game as well.

Clemson held Wofford to 117 passing yards and has now held seven consecutive opponents below 200 passing yards for the first time since a nine-game stretch in games 3-11 of the 2008 season.

Also, the Tigers limited the Terriers to a completion percentage of 40.0 and have now held four consecutive opponents to a completion percentage under 50.0 percent — Clemson’s first such streak since a five-game run in October and November of 2014.

In the first two quarters, Wofford recorded just 75 total yards of offense and four first downs while being shut out.

“The first half, I thought our guys came ready to play,” Venables said. “We were completely, totally dominant and squeezed the life out of them. That’s as good of a performance as we’ve had in a first half that I’ve seen. So, really proud of our guys having the right mindset, the preparation, the fundamentals, the discipline that they displayed really for the most part of four quarters tonight – one, two, three, four deep, all of them. So, again, our guys really did a great job in their preparation.”

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