Clemson freshman quarterback Tait Reynolds haunted Florida State during Saturday night’s Halloween matchup in Tallahassee — with both his arm and his legs.

Reynolds shined while playing his best game in a Clemson uniform, leading the Tigers (5-3, 3-2 ACC) to a 36-24 victory over the Seminoles at Doak Campbell Stadium.

Reynolds entered the game having thrown one touchdown pass all season through the first seven games of his college career, including five starts. Coming into Saturday, he hadn’t thrown a single touchdown pass over the previous four games.

That changed against Florida State (3-5, 1-4), as Reynolds put a swift end to the TD pass drought. He threw for one early in the first quarter, and by halftime, Reynolds had thrown for two touchdowns, while completing 12-of-19 passes for 118 yards as he helped the Tigers build a 23-10 lead.

Then, down the stretch, Reynolds went to work with his legs. Just when FSU had crept back into the game, scoring 14 straight points to cut Clemson’s lead to 29-24, Reynolds answered with what was certainly one of the biggest plays of the game, to put things away.

With the Tigers facing a third-and-12 with around four minutes left, and facing the possibility of punting the ball back to the Seminoles after they had gained all the momentum, Reynolds came through with a huge 79-yard touchdown run that sealed the victory.

“If you can’t see 2 getting better, then you just ain’t looking,” Swinney said postgame of Reynolds. “I mean, the kid’s just a competitor. He’s getting better every week.”

Not only did that 79-yard touchdown run mark Clemson’s longest run of the season, but it’s also the longest by a quarterback in program history. The previous record was 75 yards, shared by Steve Fuller (vs. Virginia Tech in 1978) and Woodrow Dantzler (at Virginia in 2000).

“You saw his legs tonight,” Swinney said. “They’ve been playing football here — this is 131 years of Clemson Football. And Coach [Frank] Howard, I think they ran a little option back in the day. I mean, they ran option, and that is a quarterback rushing record, 79 yards. 131 years, and you’re talking about a team that used to run the option back in the day. I mean, it’s incredible to me.

“So, big-time play. Just a great job right there by him to put the game away.”

Reynolds finished the game 18-of-32 passing for 189 yards and the two touchdown passes with no turnovers, while rushing for a game-high and career-high 85 yards and that massive touchdown run on 14 carries.

Early in the first quarter, Reynolds fake-pitched to his right, rolled left on a bootleg, and hit tight end Christian Bentancur for an 18-yard touchdown pass to put Clemson up 7-0.

In the second quarter, Reynolds guided the Tigers on an 11-play, 51-yard drive, capping it off with a 4-yard touchdown pass to tight end Olsen Patt-Henry that pushed Clemson’s lead to 20-10 at the time.

Reynolds’ first-quarter touchdown pass to Bentancur was just his second of the season, and only the team’s third. It was the first touchdown pass for the Tigers since Reynolds connected with Bentancur on a 27-yarder in the win over North Carolina in Week 3. 42 days, four hours and 59 minutes had passed since then.

Reynolds seemed to be seeing the field better in the FSU game, especially downfield, and he put better touch on some of his deeper throws and appeared more comfortable going through his progressions downfield.

There were times when Reynolds’ receivers didn’t help him out and dropped passes. One example was a late first-quarter deeper pass to Bryant Wesco, where the junior wideout could not come down with the ball. T.J. Moore then later dropped one in the end zone on a ball that could not have been placed much better. Wesco would drop another one late in the first half on a second-down play inside the red zone.

Reynolds himself wasn’t perfect and still made some mistakes, including holding onto the ball too long on a number of occasions and subsequently taking some sacks. But despite that, Saturday night was a significant step forward and a sign of growth for the young signal-caller.

Overall, he played with plenty of poise, comfort and confidence in a road environment, bouncing back strongly from last week’s tough home loss to Virginia Tech while being supported by his defense and kicker Nolan Hauser. It was an encouraging developmental leap.

“He only had a couple of bad plays tonight,” Swinney said. “Nothing worse than the sack that he took on a sprint-out in the red zone. Like, that should never happen again in the history of his quarterback play. … So, outside of that, he really settled in. He’s tough, he’s gritty.”

Reynolds and the Tigers return to action next Saturday when they play on the road at Syracuse. Kickoff is set for noon on ESPN2.