Jaydon Blue rushed for 146 yards and two touchdowns, including a 77-yard score in the fourth quarter, as No. 5 seed Texas ran to a 38-24 win over 12th-seeded Clemson on Saturday afternoon in a College Football Playoff first-round game in Austin, Texas.
The Longhorns (12-2) advance to the CFP quarterfinals, where they’ll square off against fourth-seeded Arizona State, the Big 12 champion, on Jan. 1 in the Peach Bowl in Atlanta.
Quinn Ewers passed for 202 yards and a score and Quintrevion Wisner added 110 yards and two TDs 15 yards on 15 carries for Texas, which outgained Clemson 292-76 on the ground.
The Longhorns’ defense stopped Clemson on fourth-and-goal from the 1-yard line with 7:24 left. Texas then produced a final march that chewed up almost six minutes of the clock.
Cade Klubnik, who played his prep football in Austin, passed for 336 yards and three TDs to keep the Tigers in the game. Nine of Klubnik’s 26 completions on 43 throws went to T.J. Moore, who had 116 receiving yards and a touchdown catch.
Everything went right for the Tigers on the game’s opening possession, on which they used 12 snaps and nearly seven minutes to drive 75 yards to a 22-yard TD pass from Klubnik to Antonio Williams.
Texas responded with its own 75-yard, 12-play march that culminated in a 3-yard scoring run up the middle by Wisner with 2:04 to play in the first quarter.
The Longhorns got a 38-yard touchdown sprint by Blue with 12:49 to play in the second quarter and then a 16-yard TD run by Wisner 5 1/2 minutes later to push their lead to 21-7.
Clemson’s Nolan Hauser hit a 32-yard field goal with 1:33 left in the second quarter. Texas answered with a 19-yard TD pass from Ewers to Gunnar Helm that extended the Longhorns’ lead to 28-10 at the break.
Bert Auburn added a 22-yard field goal on the Longhorns’ opening drive of the third quarter.
Klubnik found Jarvis Green out of the backfield for a nifty 25-yard TD pass to pull the Tigers to within 31-17 with 3:29 to play in the third. He then connected with Moore on a 7-yard scoring pass on fourth down with 11:43 remaining to bring Clemson to within seven points.
On the second play of Texas’s ensuing drive, Blue broke free and streaked down the left sideline to lift the Longhorns back up by two scores.
–Field Level Media