By Will Vandervort.

Clemson was four minutes and five seconds from doing something that is hard for anyone to do in this day and age of college football – post a shutout.

But after playing nearly perfect defense all day, South Carolina State prevented the shutout when defensive back Dominique Mitchell stripped Clemson running back Kurt Fleming from the ball and rumbling 35 yards for a touchdown.

“You know how hard it is to get a shutout? It is really hard,” Clemson defensive coordinator Brent Venable said. “But their offense did not score and I’m proud of our guys for that. That’s a good accomplishment.”

S.C. State’s offense did not even come close to scoring on Venables’ defense. The Bulldogs crossed midfield just twice all day and did not penetrate past the Tigers’ 44-yard line.

Clemson held the Bulldogs to 44 total yards, including seven yards rushing. The 44 yards were the fewest yards allowed by a Clemson defense since 1963 when those Tigers held Virginia to 41 yards of offense.

It was a great bounce back performance for a unit that was humiliated in the fourth quarter at Georgia last week when they gave up 211 rushing yards and three rushing touchdowns.

“We finished the game,” defensive end Corey Crawford said. “We had a shutout from the ones, twos and threes. There was no let up from anyone that played. Everyone dominated and in our minds, we still got that shutout.

“I felt like everyone did well.”

S.C. State (1-1) finished the game 2 of 15 on third down conversions, had just five first downs and averaged 0.8 yards per play. The Tigers total four sacks and safety Jadar Johnson took an interception 60 yards for a score.

“We were coming off that bad fourth quarter against Georgia and that’s all we were talking about. We wanted to show everybody what we could do,” Johnson said. “We had all the tools and stuff, but we just weren’t mentally there in the fourth quarter.

“Coming into this game, we just wanted to show that the defense was here.”

Boy where they. The Tigers forced 11 three-and-outs on Saturday. In other words, they finished the game.

“This season is going to be full of different kinds of challenges,” Venables said. “Great players and great defenses respond to those challenges. A week ago we failed and this week we had a different kind of challenge.

“We played not to lose focus and we played more guys and fortunately they responded to that challenge so hopefully we can do that in a couple of weeks. We will face many more challenges going on the road down in Tallahassee.”

But today, the Tigers came out mad and they made sure S.C. State’s offense knew about it.

“I think they played with great purpose and energy and focus,” Venables said. “I have seen them play like that and I have seen them play like that after a win. I think they were hungry and they were looking for a strong performance.

“And trust me no one is going to be sitting here beating their chest. It was a strong performance, regardless of the execution on the other side of the ball, our guys played with effort, we put pressure on the quarterback, we forced turnovers and we tackled pretty well.”

And they got the shutout – a defensive shutout that is.