The script from last season continued to flip for Clemson’s offense over the weekend.
The Tigers posted season-highs in yards and points in their double-overtime win at Wake Forest, making it back-to-back 500-yard games for the unit for the first time since 2020. Clemson also eclipsed the 50-point mark for the first time since that season.
When put in historical perspective, the start to the season for quarterback D.J. Uiagalelei and his supporting cast is even more impressive.
With those 51 points Saturday, Clemson has scored 175 points through the season’s first month. According to Clemson sports information, it’s tied for the second-most points the Tigers have ever scored through the first four games of a season.
The point total, which matches the four-game start to Clemson’s 1900 season, is one not even offenses led by Tajh Boyd (2011-13), Deshaun Watson (215-16) and Trevor Lawrence (2019-20) could reach. The only team in program history to rack up more points through four games than this one? The 2000 Tigers, who scored 186 in the first month of Tommy Bowden’s second season at the helm.
“It’s the most points since I’ve been the head coach after four games,” Clemson coach Dabo Swinney said. “I’m really proud of the offensive guys for getting better because last year it was hard to score.”
— Ross Taylor (@ClemsonFBRoss) September 25, 2022
To that point, Clemson scored just 87 points with much of the same personnel through four games last season, some of those games coming against the same opposition the Tigers have already faced this season (Georgia Tech and an FCS opponent). But under the direction of first-year coordinator Brandon Streeter, this year’s offense has looked nothing like the one that spent most of last season struggling to find any consistent footing.
The Tigers are rushing for 183.5 yards per game (up from 167.9 last season) but have seen most of the improvement come through the air. Clemson is throwing for 275 yards on average, up from 191.2 last season. Uiagalelei, fresh off a 371-yard, five-touchdown day passing, is completing 64.3% of his passes – nearly 10 full percentage points better than his completion rate a season ago – with 10 touchdown passes and just one interception.
Clemson, which has yet to score fewer than 35 points, will take the nation’s No. 13 scoring offense into another ACC Atlantic Division tussle Saturday with N.C. State at Memorial Stadium.
“We’ve got a lot of confidence, and we’re getting better,” Swinney said. “Hopefully that’s something that will continue.”