Texas 38 Clemson 24
Texas gets a big win, headed for their first Peach Bowl
Texas defeated Clemson on Saturday to secure their place in the quarterfinals of the College Football Playoff, and also secured their 12th win, meaning they have back-to-back 12 win seasons for only the second time in program history.
They only played a 10-game regular season until 1974, but still.
The story of this one was a bit different than the 2024 blueprint, the Horns still got to a healthy lead (31-10 after a field goal to open the third quarter) and had to somewhat hold on at the end (Clemson never had the ball down one score), but this time the offense looked more than adequate, while the defense struggled for much of the contest (at least relatively speaking).
Clemson quarterback Cade Klubnik tried to hero ball the Tigers to victory but it did not materialize. That was fairly predictable coming into the matchup, but it came to fruition because the Tigers managed very little on the ground — Adam Randall got 41 of his 44 rushing yards on one play, while other backs for Clemson combined for 27 yards on 7 carries. Klubnik only managed 5 yards rushing, tied for his second-lowest output of the season.
Klubnik did just fine through the air (although it took him 46 attempts at a very pedestrian 7.8 YPA to get there), and even produced some “wow” moments late in the third quarter and early fourth quarter, which made Dabo Swinney and Garrett Riley’s decision to try to pound it in on short yardage late in the game even more perplexing.
We mentioned last week that the playoffs can produce higher scoring affairs, which means the Texas offense’s highest scoring affair in a month and a half was more than welcome. Football is a simple game when you can run the ball, and the Horns did to the tune of 292 rushing yards and included 100-yard efforts from both Quintrevion Wisner and Jaydon Blue — welcome to 2024, Mr. Blue, this is what we hoped to see all season.
Better late then never, and just fits with the theme of it doesn’t matter what you have done thus far this season, it only matters what happens from here on out — and if the Longhorns can get that masterpiece from their offensive line (even after losing two starters in the second half), their running backs and from Quinn Ewers, then the sky is the limit for this football team.
Now the Longhorns draw an Arizona State team that wouldn’t even be in the playoffs if Colorado wouldn’t have lost at Kansas late in the season — but yet somehow rode that good fortune to a four-seed.
Good job, committee.
But we will have more on that next week.
Nice win by the Longhorns, even with the sinking ‘here we go again’ feeling before Blue’s 77 yard touchdown scamper sealed the victory. My Christmas wish is to see Texas play four quarters of a game with the same intensity and success. I know that not many other CFB teams have managed to do that either, but it’s the playoffs, so now might be a good time to give it a shot.
What’s your thought on Quinn Ewers at this point in his career? I thought he played very well against Clemson and managed the game, made adjustments , etc in a way that contributed to the win in a big way, but I just don’t know at this point if he can transcend the ‘above-average game manager’ label and live up to the expectations that many of the fans set for him at the beginning of the season. Hopefully, we have a good enough OL and defense that he won’t have to play hero ball for the rest of the season.