Clemson earned its 350th all-time win at Memorial Stadium since the facility opened in 1942. Clemson is now 350-110-7 all-time in the venue.
Clemson improved to 42-19-1 against North Carolina all-time. Clemson’s 42 wins against North Carolina now exceed its 41 wins against Virginia for sole possession of the Tigers’ fifth-most against a single opponent in school history.
Clemson earned its eighth consecutive victory against North Carolina, starting with a 59-38 victory in 2011. The eighth straight win breaks the longest winning streak in series history by either team (seven wins by Clemson from 1986-92).
North Carolina is now the sixth opponent against which the Tigers carry an active winning streak of eight or more games, joining Furman (33 since 1938), The Citadel (19 since 1932), Wake Forest (16 since 2009), Presbyterian (15 since 1944) and Boston College (13 since 2011).
Clemson earned its sixth consecutive home win against North Carolina to pull within one win of matching its longest home winning streak in series history (seven from 1982-95).
Clemson improved to 84-14 against ACC opponents since the start of the 2015 season.
Clemson improved to 46-27-1 in conference openers since joining the ACC. Clemson still has not lost consecutive conference openers since 2009-10.
Clemson improved to 23-12 in ACC openers played at Memorial Stadium.
Clemson improved to 75-9 at Death Valley in the College Football Playoff era.
Clemson improved to 112-21 in regular season play since the start of the 2015 season.
Head Coach Dabo Swinney earned his 189th career victory. At 189-54, Swinney trails only Tom Osborne (195), Nick Saban (191) and Bob Stoops (191) despite 2026 being only Swinney's 19th season (and 18th full season). Note: Stoops and Meyer are not included on the NCAA’s official list of most wins through 20 seasons because they did not coach for 20 years.
Swinney earned his 115th all-time victory in ACC regular season play, pulling within two victories of Bobby Bowden’s conference record for career head coaching wins in ACC regular season play (117). Swinney already holds the conference record for overall wins as an ACC head coach.
Clemson improved to 3-0 all-time against head coaches whose careers include a Super Bowl title as a head coach. In addition to defeating Belichick in 2025, Clemson ended the 1988 season with a 13-6 Citrus Bowl win against an Oklahoma squad led by Barry Switzer in his final game as head coach of the Sooners before he later won Super Bowl XXX as head coach of the Dallas Cowboys.
Swinney improved to 42-6 all-time against teams from North Carolina, including a 24-1 mark against North Carolina-based programs in games played in Death Valley.
Clemson is now 74-6 when having a 100-yard rusher since 2011.
Clemson is now 129-4 in its last 133 games when holding teams to fewer than 23 points, a span that dates to the middle of the 2010 season.
Clemson is now 42-15 in one-possession games since the start of the 2011 season, the highest winning percentage in the country in one-score games in that span.
Clemson overcame a 14-3 first-quarter deficit. It was the largest first-quarter deficit overcome by Clemson in a home victory since earning a 38-24 win against Auburn in 2011 in a game Clemson trailed 14-0 in the opening frame.
Clemson earned its 20th win under Dabo Swinney in games in which it trails at halftime. It was Clemson’s first such win in ACC play since coming back from a halftime deficit to beat Virginia Tech in 2024.
Clemson trailed at the end of the third quarter, 17-15. It was Clemson’s 16th victory under Dabo Swinney in which the Tigers trailed entering the fourth quarter.
GAME NOTES
Clemson hosted the game 84 years to the day after the opening of Memorial Stadium on Sept. 19, 1942, when Butch Butler gained 192 yards as the Tigers opened the new stadium in front of an announced crowd of 5,500 with a 32-13 win over Presbyterian.
The game was delayed a stadium-record two hours and 28 minutes in the fourth quarter. Each of Clemson’s first three games this season have been impacted by lightning delays, including roughly two-hour pregame delays in each of the previous two weeks.
The contest was Clemson’s seventh game at Death Valley on record to include an in-game weather delay:
Oct. 12, 1963 vs. Georgia: 20-minute halftime delay
Sept. 4, 1993 vs. UNLV: 17-minute fourth-quarter delay
Sept. 19, 2009 vs. Boston College: 55-minute third-quarter delay and a 48-minute fourth-quarter delay
Sept. 18, 2021 vs. Georgia Tech: One-hour-and-52-minute second-quarter delay (including an observed halftime)
Sept. 6, 2025 vs. Troy: One-hour-and-32-minute first-quarter delay.
Sept. 13, 2025 vs. Syracuse: One-hour-and-36-minute halftime delay (including four minutes of halftime).
Saturday vs. North Carolina: Two-hour-and-28-minute fourth-quarter delay.
Quarterback Tait Reynolds made his first career start and joined Steve Fuller (1975), Willie Jordan (1975), Patrick Sapp (1992), Nealon Greene (1994), Deshaun Watson (2014), Trevor Lawrence (2018), DJ Uiagalelei (2020) and Cade Klubnik (2022) as the only true freshmen to start at quarterback for Clemson since the NCAA instituted permanent freshman eligibility in 1972.
Reynolds earned the earliest start in a season by a Clemson true freshman quarterback since true freshmen Steve Fuller (Game 2 at Alabama) and Willie Jordan (Game 3 at Georgia Tech) each earned starts in the first three games of the 1975 season.
Reynolds completed 20-of-29 passes for 215 yards with one touchdown and one interception. He also added 26 rushing yards on 11 carries.
Reynolds improved Clemson to 28-20-1 in starting quarterback debuts since the Tigers abandoned the single wing in 1953.
Reynolds made Clemson 21-15 in games started by true freshman quarterbacks since the NCAA instituted permanent freshman eligibility in 1972.
Reynolds joined Deshaun Watson, Trevor Lawrence and DJ Uiagalelei as the only Clemson true freshman quarterbacks to win their starting debuts in that span.
With the fourth-quarter comeback engineered by Reynolds, Clemson has won three of its last four starting debuts by true freshman quarterbacks via fourth-quarter comebacks (2018 vs. Syracuse in Trevor Lawrence’s first start, 2020 vs. Boston College in DJ Uiagalelei’s first start, Saturday in Reynolds’ first start).
Reynolds threw his first career touchdown pass, a 27-yard third-quarter pass to tight end Christian Bentancur.
The touchdown reception was Bentancur’s fourth career touchdown reception and his first of the season.
Including a two-touchdown performance at North Carolina last season, three of Bentancur’s four career touchdown receptions have come against the Tar Heels.
Running back Gideon Davidson recorded his first career touchdown on an eight-yard run in the fourth quarter to give Clemson its first lead of the game with 5:01 to play.
Davidson’s touchdown run was set up by his career-long 45-yard run earlier in the drive.
Davidson finished the contest with a career-high 105 yards on 16 carries.
Davidson posted the first 100-yard rushing game by a Clemson player this season and the first since Adam Randall’s 102 yards at South Carolina last season.
Wide receiver Tyler Brown recorded his second career rushing touchdown on a 34-yard score in the final minute.
Wide receiver T.J. Moore extended his streak of consecutive games with a reception to 30. He became the 12th player in school history to record a 30-game reception streak.
Clemson finished with a season-high 401 yards of offense, including season highs in both passing yards (215) and rushing yards (186).
Linebacker Sammy Brown recorded his first sack of the season, the 11th of his career, in the first quarter. The sack was credited by rule for a hurry that forced an intentional grounding penalty.
Defensive end Will Heldt recorded 2.0 sacks for a second straight game.
Heldt has now recorded 2.0 sacks in back-to-back games for the first time in his career.
Heldt became the first Clemson player to reach 2.0 sacks in consecutive games since Jeremiah Trotter Jr. against South Carolina and North Carolina in 2022.
Cornerback Elliot Washington II sealed the victory with his first interception of the season. It was the third interception of his career but his first as a member of the Tigers.
Linebacker Fletcher Cothran and defensive tackle Vic Burley combined on a third-quarter takeaway, forcing and recovering a fumble deep in North Carolina territory.
It was the second forced fumble of Cothran’s career, joining one forced against Appalachian State in the second game of the 2024 season.
The fumble recovery was the first of Burley’s career.
Kicker Nolan Hauser went 3-for-3 on field goals and 2-for-2 on PATs.
Hauser is now 9-for-9 on field goals to open the season.
Hauser’s nine consecutive field goals to start the season are tied with B.T. Potter’s 2022 mark for the second-most consecutive field goals to start a season without a miss by a Clemson kicker in the last 20 years, trailing only Chandler Catanzaro’s 12 in 2012.
Hauser scored Clemson’s first points of the game on a 49-yard field goal in the first quarter.
The kick was Hauser’s 12th consecutive made field goal of 40 or more yards, dating to last season. His last miss of 40 or more yards was a 52-yard attempt at Georgia Tech on Sept. 13, 2025.
Hauser added a 21-yard field goal on the final play of the first half. It was the culmination of an 18-play, 88-yard drive, Clemson’s longest drive by number of plays since an 18-play touchdown drive against Georgia Tech in 2023.
Hauser converted a 22-yard field goal in the third quarter, giving him his fourth career game with three or more made field goals.
On the 22-yard Hauser field goal held by Clay Swinney, the Swinney family pushed past 1,000 kicking points with a Swinney serving as the holder. Will, Drew and Clay Swinney have combined to hold every Clemson placekick since the start of the 2017 season (1,002 points on 156 field goals and 534 extra points). Clemson’s most recent placekick held by someone outside the Swinney family was held by Seth Ryan on the PAT following Deshaun Watson’s game-winning touchdown pass to Hunter Renfrow to defeat Alabama in the National Championship Game to end the 2016 season.
On the extra point following Davidson’s fourth-quarter touchdown, Hauser (100) became the sixth player in Clemson history to kick 100 extra points. He joined B.T. Potter (234), Greg Huegel (217), Chandler Catanzaro (203), Aaron Hunt (164) and Bob Paulling (107).
Head Coach Dabo Swinney coached against Bill Belichick in the third matchup in college football history between one coach with multiple FBS national championships (Swinney) as a head coach and another with multiple Super Bowl titles (Belichick) as a head coach. Prior to Swinney’s defeat of Belichick in 2025, the only other such matchup came at the end of the 1992 season, when three-time Super Bowl head coach Bill Walsh led Stanford against two-time national championship head coach Joe Paterno’s Penn State squad.
According to ESPN, Clemson snapped a streak of 67 consecutive games Bill Belichick-coached teams had won when leading by 14 or more points across the NFL and NCAA levels.
Clemson opened conference play at home for only the fifth time in the last 16 seasons (2011 vs. Florida State, 2019 vs. Georgia Tech, 2021 vs. Georgia Tech, 2024 vs. NC State).
Clemson opened ACC play against North Carolina for only the fourth time all-time (1957, 1959 and 1996). All three of those previous matchups were played in Chapel Hill.
Clemson’s captains for the contest were linebacker Sammy Brown, kicker Nolan Hauser, wide receiver T.J. Moore and wide receiver Bryant Wesco Jr.
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