Clemson hits the road this Saturday, traveling to Atlanta, Georgia, to face Georgia Tech in its first ACC matchup of the season.
The Tigers, currently 1-1, dropped to No. 12 in the college football rankings on Monday after a shaky win against Troy, slipping down four spots from their previous No. 8 ranking. As the ACC preseason favorites, Clemson hasn’t quite lived up to expectations to start the season, but has the chance to turn it around this weekend.
The Yellow Jackets, undefeated at 2-0, will be coming off a dominant 59-12 victory over Gardner-Webb. Quarterback Aaron Philo, in place of the injured Haynes King, completed 21 of 28 passes for 373 yards, including an interception in the first quarter.
King was a full participant in practice during the week, but it is still unknown whether he will be able to play this weekend or not.
Georgia Tech’s running backs, Jamal Haynes and Malachi Hosley, each recorded 100-yard games with two touchdowns each, highlighting the Yellow Jackets’ high-powered offense.
Clemson enters the game fresh off a second-half comeback win against Troy. The Tigers went into halftime down 16-3 and scored 24 unanswered points to secure what felt like a must-win game before conference play began.
Quarterback Cade Klubnik is searching for his first standout performance of the season during his first time at Bobby Dodd Stadium. Against Troy, he completed 18 of 24 passes for 196 yards, but threw a costly pick-six at Clemson’s 8-yard line.
Klubnik also posted a subpar 50% completion rate in the narrow 17-10 loss to LSU.
Despite the early struggles, Klubnik has shown resilience, leading a 27-0 scoring drive immediately after the pick-six. He connected with wide receiver Bryant Wesco Jr. for two second-half touchdowns of 26 and 34 yards, respectively.
Running back Adam Randall led the ground attack with 135 yards and a touchdown, hoping to kickstart the Clemson run game for the rest of the season.
Klubnik still has plenty to prove if he wants to preserve the Heisman momentum from the preseason, and a strong start in Saturday’s game could provide that.
“Start off how we left the last game,” Klubnik said in Wednesday’s press conference. “When it comes to football, the only thing we’re in control of is what we can control. We can’t control the refs, we can’t control what the defense is going to do — we can control what we do. That’s doing our job and executing really well.”
“Everybody focuses on the job and the task at hand,” Klubnik added. “And when we do that, it’s really fun.”
The last meeting between the two teams came in 2023, with Clemson dominating 42-21 behind a four-touchdown game from Klubnik.
Despite Georgia Tech’s perfect 2-0 record and statement win last week, the team enters the weekend as the underdog. Clemson aims to jumpstart its offense early and sustain the second-half defense it showed against Troy to secure its first ACC victory of the season.
The Tigers kick off conference play Saturday at noon.
