CLEMSON — Primetime in Death Valley. 81,295 fans in attendance. The Clemson Tigers’ atmosphere was in rare form for the first night game of the 2023 season, and the freshmen got to experience that electricity for the first time.

Freshman defensive back Khalil Barnes was lightning of his own with an interception capping off his stellar night and second-straight start. While his performance on the field was impressive, he was amazed by how the Clemson faithful showed out Saturday night.

“It was exciting,” Barnes said. “The crowd was jumping pregame. Coming down that hill, I jumped a little bit. I thought I was going to fall and it was going to be a bad night but nah, it was fun. Real fun game, glad we got the win and ready to go do it again.”

That excitement in the crowd apparently almost led to Barnes’ demise headed down the hill, which he was joking about. That atmosphere was something Barnes and Wes Goodwin’s defense feeds off.

No moment was more evident of this than the fourth play from scrimmage. Tigers cornerback Nate Wiggins returned an interception 46 yards for the first score of the game. When he made the grab, the Clemson crowd noise was like a pop for John Cena returning to the WWE.

Wiggins added onto the energy, leaping into the student section to celebrate the moment. Barnes couldn’t help but smile when talking about the moment.

“Y’all saw Nate go jump in the student section? We’re going to make that a tradition I guess,” Barnes said. “We feed off that crowd…turnovers like that are kind of momentum plays…momentum is a big thing in our game so yeah, that’s huge.”

We’ll have to see if the student section leap becomes tradition, but this energy in the crowd will be crucial next week when Florida State comes to town. The Tigers have turned the fans into a catalyst for success, and they can do it again versus the Seminoles.