Clemson Dominates Last 8 Minutes to Beat UNC
By: Will Vandervort September 19, 2026

CLEMSON – Following a two-hour-and-twenty-five-minute lightning delay, the Clemson football team looked like a totally different team.

The Tigers dominated North Carolina in the final 8:11 to rally for a 28-20 victory over the Tar Heels at Memorial Stadium.  

HOW IT HAPPENED

  • Trailing 17-15 when time resumed with 8:11 to go in the fourth quarter, Clemson held UNC to a field goal after the Tar Heels had the ball at the Clemson seven on second down. The Tigers scored 13 unanswered points after that, including a 34-yard Tyler Brown run with 1:00 to play for a 28-20 lead. Brown’s run came on third down-and-10 yards to go.
  • Elliott Washington II ended the game with an interception that he returned seven yards to the UNC 45 with 32 seconds remaining.
  • Clemson finished with 401 yards of total offense. The Tigers had 215 yards passing and 186 rushing yards.
  • With the come-from-behind win, the Tigers avoided having back-to-back 1-2 starts to a season since the 1998 and 1999 teams did it.
  • Clemson kicker Nolan Hauser was 3-for-3, including a 49-yard field goal on the Tigers’ second possession of the game. Hauser is a perfect 9-for-9 on the season.
  • Gideon Davidson gave the Tigers a 21-20 lead with 5:01 to play with an 8-yard TD. The sophomore set up his own TD with a 45-yard jaunt to the UNC 9.
  • The Clemson defense got a fourth down stop after the two-minute timeout, when UNC quarterback Billy Edwards overthrew Trech Kekahuna. Jerome Carter had perfect coverage on the play, which was a fourth-and-one play from the UNC 1:44.
  • It was a bad day for Edwards. The senior transfer was 13-for-30 for 135 yards, with 1 TD and 1 interception. Clemson sacked him three times.
  • Reynolds threw his first TD pass of his career, a 27-yard pass to Christian Bentancur with 4:21 to play in the third quarter. The play worked because Reynolds faked the screen pass to the sideline, which they used all day, and Bentancur went streaking down the seam when he barreled over a would-be-tackler and rolled into the end zone.
  • After being dominated in the first half and trailing 17-3, Clemson had a 155 to 61 edge in total offense in the third quarter. Reynolds was 6-for-8 for 107 yards in the third quarter.
  • The Tar Heels (2-1, 0-1 ACC) scored touchdowns on its first two possessions to take a 14-3 lead.
  • UNC averaged 5.5 yards per carry in the game. Benjamin Hall, who caught a 15-yard TD pass in the first quarter, ran for 130 yards on 18 carries.
  • Davidson ran for 105 yards on 16 carries to lead the Clemson rushing attack.
  • Reynolds finished the day 20-for-29 for 215 yards, 1 TD and 1 interception. He also rushed for 26 yards.
  • Saturday’s two-hour-and 25-minute delay was the third one of the season for the Tigers. In the 130 previous years of Clemson football, there were just seven total.
  • Clemson has now defeated UNC eight consecutive times, a new record in the series.
  • Reynolds is the earliest freshman quarterback in Clemson history to start and win a game. Since 1975, when Willie Jordan became the first freshman to start in Week 3 at Georgia Tech, no freshman quarterback has won a game as early as Reynolds did on Saturday.

UP NEXT

Clemson hits the road on a short week, as the Tigers travel to Berkley, Calif., to play Cal for the second time in school history on Friday night. Kick off is set for 10:30 p.m., ET.

Clemson and Cal have not met on the gridiron since the Bears beat the Tigers in the 1992 Citrus Bowl.