By Will Vandervort.

He just stood there smiling from ear-to-ear while holding the same football he scored with in Clemson’s 41-0 victory over NC State on Saturday in Death Valley.

“I only have two of these in my career so I cherish these moments,” defensive end Vic Beasley said.

But the football was not special to Beasley because he scored. No, it has more value than that.

On the same play in which he stripped NC State quarterback Jacoby Brissett and then plucked the ball out of the air to rumble 16 yards for a touchdown, he also tied a mark that 10 months ago seemed impossible to get.

After his 13-sack performance last year, the 6-foot-3, 240-pound defensive end contemplated an early career in the NFL. But when Beasley decided he still needed another year of college football to get better, he placed his sights on Clemson’s all-time sack record, which before Saturday was shared by Michael Dean Perry and the late Gains Adams at 28.

“It’s a blessing that I really can’t explain in words,” the senior said. “I really cherish the moment in tying the record and I could not have picked a better way of doing it then by scoring a touchdown.”

It appeared Beasley had tied the record in the second quarter as he came up the middle and slammed Brissett to the turf. But, he grabbed hold of the quarterbacks’ head gear in the process and was flagged for a 15-yard penalty.

The sack was taken away. The record was taken away, but just for a moment.

With 9:31 remaining in the third quarter, and with the Tigers already in front 34-0, the Wolfpack had the ball with a first-and-10 at their own 24-yard line. As Brissett dropped back to pass, he looked to his right just as Beasley was coming off the line after blowing by left tackle Rob Crisp.

Brissett never saw Beasley as he reached out and stripped him of the football. The ball perfectly flipped into Beasley’s arms as he caught in stride while running into the end zone.

“That was pretty special, really,” Clemson defensive coordinator Brent Venables said. “In a place like Clemson, with the defensive linemen this place has had, that would have watched that performance and watched that particular play kind of in slow motion, yes!

“Surely, you are looking for the ball to hit the ground and he just takes it off his hand. That was crazy. That’s kind of Vic. He has a unique skill set. He has been playing well and had two really good back-to-back weeks.

“Then he comes back this week – I’m really, really happy for him. A couple of years ago, if we would have pulled our head out, this would have happened here before today. But anyway, I’m really happy for him and all those guys.”

Beasley loves the fact he shares the all-time sack record with Perry and Adams, but he also loves the fact he did it with the group of guys he shares the field with on defense. One of those guys is Corey Crawford, who says Beasley was born to sack the quarterback.

“I know if I do my job, he is going to get his job done,” the senior defensive end said. “I feel like Vic was born to do that. I feel like there was nothing I really did or anything anybody else has done, it is Vic Beasley.

“He put in his mind that he was going to make a big play and he did it.”

And he did it with seven games to spare.