To put it nicely, Clemson football made a point on Saturday with a 63-3 thrashing of Wake Forest on the road. Who earned Blitz stickers?
The Tigers ran for nearly 500 yards in the game, as three different players went over the 100-yard mark. Trevor Lawrence returned from his injury suffered last week to look like the quarterback Tiger fans saw before he replaced Kelly Bryant atop the depth chart.
And that vaunted Clemson defense, the same one that had some troubles with Texas A&M and Syracuse earlier this year, played as well as they have all season in limiting the Demon Deacons to a single field goal.
All in all, entering a bye week and with a critical showdown against NC State on the horizon, it was a perfect Week 6 for the “Fighting Dabos” of Clemson.
Here are five players that stood out for the Tigers in the victory and garnered Blitz Stickers for their performances:
5. Travis Etienne, Running Back
It’s very, very likely that over the next several weeks, Travis Etienne lands on this list more often than not. The sophomore running back will be a focal point for the Tigers moving forward with a true freshman at quarterback in Trevor Lawrence.
A week after posting a career-high 203 yards on 27 carries and scoring three touchdowns vs. Syracuse, Etienne went off once more, averaging almost 17 yards per attempt in racking up 167 yards and another three scores.
He broke free on a 59-yard touchdown run for the first points of the game, and sealed the deal in the third when he got free on a 70-yard scamper to make it 35-0.
Etienne now has four consecutive games with at least 162 yards rushing and has scored at least one touchdown in all six games for Clemson this year. He is also just five yards away from surpassing his rushing total of a season ago, sitting at 766 yards on 83 attempts with 11 touchdowns, including a 9.2 yard per carry average.
Over the past season-plus now, Etienne has already scored4 24 rushing touchdowns.