No. 10 Clemson owns third quarter in 48-31 win over Virginia

By Scott Ratcliffe

Virginia hung around for a half against 10th-ranked Clemson Saturday, but the Tigers dominated the third quarter en route to a 48-31 win in Death Valley.

The Cavaliers (4-3, 2-2 ACC) held a 10-3 advantage early in the second quarter and trailed by a touchdown at halftime, but first-place Clemson (6-1, 5-0) flexed its muscles, scoring three unanswered touchdowns coming out of the locker room, and never looked back.

UVA fought back to make the final outcome a little more respectable in garbage time, and despite the loss, head coach Tony Elliott was proud of his team’s overall effort against his powerhouse alma mater.

The Tigers put up 539 yards of total offense, with 345 of those coming through the air, and made good on 9 of their 15 third-down conversions. Conversely, Virginia garnered 346 total yards, and just simply couldn’t establish a running game, producing only 68 yards on 29 attempts (2.9 yards per carry).

“For me, the objective was to come down here and try to find a way to win a football game, and unfortunately we weren’t able to get that done,” Elliott said following his first trip back home.

Clemson quarterback Cade Klubnik completed 23 of his 35 attempts for 308 yards and 3 touchdowns, while four different Tigers posted 70-plus all-purpose yards on the afternoon.

Phil Mafah rushed for 78 yards and a pair of short touchdowns in the latter portion of the second quarter to give Clemson a 17-10 lead at the break, and then tight end Olsen Patt-Henry hauled in two TD passes from Klubnik as part of the third-quarter onslaught, in which the Cavaliers simply couldn’t move the football, nor stop the Tigers’ offense.

The Wahoo defense came away with some big plays in the first half to keep the team in striking distance. With Clemson knocking on the door in the red zone on its opening possession of the contest, the Hoos held the Tigers to a Nolan Hauser 29-yard field goal for a 3-0 score midway through the first quarter. On the final play of the period, UVA linebacker Kam Robinson picked off a Klubnik pass, giving the Cavaliers the ball at the Tigers’ 40-yard line. That led to an Anthony Colandrea touchdown toss to Dakota Twitty on an 8-yard out route, and Virginia led by a 10-3 margin with 12:26 to go in the half.

Mafah’s two scores gave the Tigers the lead and momentum going into the third quarter, and they stomped on the accelerator. Klubnik engineered an 11-play, 90-yard march to make it a two-score affair.

After a quick UVA three-and-out, wideout Antonio Williams — who also completed a 34-yard reverse pass earlier in the game — scored on a 36-yard end-around on the ensuing possession to push the lead to 31-10 with 4:31 on the third-quarter clock.

When the Hoos got it back, Colandrea was sacked and coughed up the ball, with big 315-pound senior defensive tackle Tre Williams pouncing on it right around midfield.

Four plays later, Klubnik found Patt-Henry for a 40-yard strike, and the Tigers held a 28-point lead going into the final 15 minutes.

Virginia finally got back on the scoreboard on the first snap of the fourth quarter, as Colandrea hooked up with Malachi Fields over the top for 44 yards to cut it to 38-17. After another Hauser field goal, Tony Muskett came in and threw his first two touchdown passes of the season — an 8-yarder to Sackett Wood Jr. with 2:11 left and a 65-yard bomb to Ethan Davies with 1:39 remaining, after the Tigers had poured it on with a 34-yard Klubnik touchdown pass after the two-minute timeout.

Colandrea was 15 for 26 on the day for 159 yards and the two scores, and lost a net of 7 yards on his 11 carries (he was sacked four times for a total of 44 yards). Muskett went 6 for 7 for 119 yards and two TDs.

Kobe Pace led the way in the rushing category, but managed just 35 yards on 10 carries, while Xavier Brown added 32 yards on 5 totes. Trey McDonald led the team in tackles with 11 (7 solo).

UVA Offensive Stats

Team Notes

Courtesy UVA Media Relations

• Virginia scored 31 points in the contest, its second-most ever against Clemson in 50 all-time meetings. UVA scored 35 in a 40-35 loss in Clemson in 1966.
• UVA outscored Clemson 21-10 in the fourth quarter and is outscoring opponents 66-37 in fourth quarters this season.
• Virginia’s 10-3 advantage in the second quarter marked its first lead over Clemson since the 2004 meeting, a span of five games in the series.
• Virginia’s interception at the end of the first quarter was the first Clemson turnover since Sept. 28 against Stanford. Clemson entered Saturday’s contest with three turnovers in 2024 (2 INT, 1 fumble).
  • In four ACC games this season, Virginia has forced seven turnovers (5 INT, 2 fumbles).
• With its lost fumble in the third quarter, UVA committed its first turnover in its previous three games. It snapped a streak of 14-consecutive quarters without a turnover.
• A season-high 12 different UVA receivers caught a pass in the contest, including four different for a touchdown.
• Clemson recorded its sixth-straight win over Virginia and improved to 41-8-1 in the all-time series with Virginia.
• Clemson is 22-3-1 all-time against UVA at Memorial Stadium.

Player Notes

• With 65 receiving yards, Malachi Fields cracked UVA’s top-15 career receiving yards list … In his 31st career game, Fields surpassed Tim Smith’s 1,591 career-receiving-yards mark.
• Fields finished with three receptions, including a 44-yard touchdown, and has now hauled in at least one pass in 22-straight games played.
• Fields caught his fourth touchdown pass of the season, a 44-yard completion from Anthony Colandrea to open the fourth quarter. It marked his third touchdown in his last four games and 10th of his career. The 44-yard catch is the longest touchdown reception of his career.
• Dakota Twitty caught his first career touchdown, an eight-yard reception to give UVA a 10-3 lead in the second quarter. The reception is the sixth of his career and fifth of the season. On the previous play, Twitty caught a five-yard pass over the middle for a first down at the Clemson 8-yard line.
• Kam Robinson intercepted his first pass of the season and third of his career. The interception setup UVA’s first touchdown of the day.
• Ethan Davies caught a 65-yard touchdown pass from Tony Muskett with 1:39 to play. It marked UVA’s second-longest play overall of the season and longest through the air.
• Sackett Wood recorded his first career touchdown, an eight-yard reception from Muskett with 2:11 left to play in the fourth quarter. It was Wood’s second catch of the season and 23rd of his career.
• Muskett’s pair of touchdowns marked his first multiple-passing-touchdown effort since UVA’s home game against William & Mary on Oct. 7, 2023, when Muskett also had two.
• Linebacker Trey McDonald recorded a game-high 11 tackles, also his career best. In McDonald’s second career start, he also tied for a game-high seven solo tackles along with teammates Jonas Sanker and Kam Robinson.

UP NEXT

The Cavaliers return to Scott Stadium next Saturday to renew The Oldest Rivalry in the South against North Carolina at noon (The CW Network).