FINAL: No. 1 Clemson 41, Virginia 23

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Posted on Saturday, Oct. 3, 2020, 11:32 pm

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By Scott Ratcliffe

Billy Kemp (Photos: UVA Athletics)

Virginia put up a valiant fight, but ultimately fell on the road at top-ranked Clemson Saturday night, 41-23. Trevor Lawrence threw for 329 yards and 3 touchdowns, Travis Etienne racked up 187 all-purpose yards and scored twice, while Amari Rodgers caught a pair of touchdown passes to extend Clemson’s ACC record regular-season win streak to 32 games.

The Cavaliers (1-1, 1-1 ACC) had a hard time stopping Clemson (3-0, 2-0) on third downs, as the Tigers finished the contest 8 for 15, with several of those being converted with double-digit yards to go.

In just his second career start, UVA redshirt sophomore Brennan Armstrong finished the game 24 for 43 for 270 yards and 3 touchdowns, and led the Wahoos in rushing with 22 carries for 89 yards in the losing effort (all of those numbers, minus the passing attempts, were career highs).

Billy Kemp IV led the Cavaliers with 10 receptions for 96 yards (both career highs), while Terrell Jana, Tony Poljan and Keytaon Thompson caught the touchdown passes for the Hoos. 

The Tigers struck first after a 55-yard Lyn-J Dixon return on the game’s opening kickoff resulted in B.T. Potter’s 47-yard field goal to give Clemson a 3-0 lead less than three minutes in.

A 16-yard touchdown run by Etienne extended the lead to 10-0 with 22 seconds left in the opening quarter.

UVA answered with a 13-play, 66-yard drive that spanned 5:44 and ended with a 27-yard field goal by Brian Delaney, who extended his nation-long streak of consecutive makes to 16.

With an Armstrong interception sandwiched in between, Lawrence found Rodgers in the end zone on the next two Clemson drives — one from 27 yards out, one from 9 — to push the Clemson lead to 24-3 with 3:25 left in the first half.

Terrell Jana

UVA got a late spark at the end of the second quarter, as Armstrong found Jana from 23 yards out to make it a 24-10 deficit at the break.

The Hoos used the momentum out of the locker room, as Armstrong found reigning ACC Rookie of the Week Lavel Davis Jr. for 31 yards down inside the red zone. On the following play, Armstrong looked for Davis again in the end zone, but Clemson’s Andrew Booth made a one-handed interception.

Potter added a 42-yard field goal to make it 27-10 before Armstrong came up with a huge 28-yard run on a crucial fourth-and-one, and three plays later he found Thompson for an easy 3-yard touchdown toss to cut the Tigers’ lead to 27-17 with 6:05 left in the third quarter.

Lawrence had an answer, completing three straight passes for 57 yards on the ensuing drive before finding Etienne for a 4-yard score to make it 34-17 late in the third.

On the next possession, Virginia marched down to the Clemson 25 and went for it on a fourth-and-seven to Poljan, but safety Lannden Zanders was able to get a hand on the ball and knock it away to turn the ball over with 8:34 to play.

The Tigers tacked on another seven points with 5:27 remaining on a Chez Mellusi 2-yard run to put the icing on the cake, but the Hoos refused to throw in the towel. Armstrong connected with Poljan in the corner of the end zone with 1:11 left.

Clemson out-gained the Hoos, but not by much (466-417), as the Cavaliers put up 147 rushing yards to Clemson’s 137. Nick Jackson led the Hoos with 12 tackles. Joey Blount added 9 stops and a sack.

Virginia will try to rebound on Saturday at noon against NC State at Scott Stadium.

Team Notes

Courtesy UVA Media Relations

  • Virginia played at Clemson for the first time since 2009. 
  • Saturday marks the fifth time the Cavaliers have played against the Associated Press’ No. 1 team (0-5).
  • UVA is 8-40-1 all-time against Clemson.
  • On UVA’s first touchdown-scoring drive that came at the end of the second quarter, the Cavaliers had three pass plays of 20+ yards after having only two such plays in game one of the season vs. Duke. 
  • WR Lavel Davis Jr. made his first collegiate start.
  • DL Nusi Malani** made his collegiate debut

**-denotes true freshman

Player Notes

Courtesy UVA Media Relations

  • QB Brennan Armstrong finished with a career-high 270 yards passing. He joins Matt Blundin as the only UVA quarterbacks to throw for 200+ yards in each of their first two career starts. Blundin did so over the 1989 and 1990 seasons. 
  • Armstrong also rushed for a career-high 89 yards and threw a career-high three touchdowns. 
  • With five receptions, WR Terrell Jana extends his active streak with at least one reception to 18 games.
  • With three receptions, TE Tony Poljan extends his active streak with at least one reception to 15 games, which includes 13 games at Central Michigan. 
  • Both Jana and Poljan collected their first touchdowns of the season.
  • On UVA’s first touchdown-scoring drive, which came at the end of the second quarter, QB Brennan Armstrong completed passes of 22, 27 and 23 yards after being sacked on first down. The 23-yard pass went for a touchdown to WR Terrell Jana. It was Jana’s first touchdown of 2020 and fifth of his career. 
  • DE Richard Burney had a career-high 2.0 tackles for loss, including picking up his second sack of the season.
  • QB Keytaon Thompson caught a touchdown pass on a  three-yard pass from Brennan Armstrong. It was the first receiving touchdown of Thompson’s college career. He now has caught a touchdown, rushed for a touchdown and thrown for a touchdown in his college career. He had previously rushed and thrown for multiple touchdowns at Mississippi State. 
  • WR Billy Kemp IV finished with 10 receptions for 96 yards, both career highs.
  • In two career games against Clemson, Kemp IV has 19 career receptions for 162 yards against the Tigers.

Scoring Summary

UVA Player Stats