COLLEGE FOOTBALL ZACH LENTZ

Clemson (9-0, 6-0 ACC) will once again face their toughest defense of the season Saturday when it faces North Carolina State (4-4, 1-3), ranked 4th in the ACC.

For Tigers’ co-offensive coordinator Jeff Scott, the hope is they will continue an upward trend that began 4 weeks ago against Florida State.

“We feel like we’ve got all the pieces,” Scott said. “it’s just everything matching up. We had some of those plays early in the year and just didn’t connect. Then Saturday night we did. I think that’s something we’ve seen coming through the way the guys have worked and practiced, and hopefully that will continue.”

Clemson has scored a school-record 45 points in 4 consecutive games. The streak includes 2 straight games of 59 or more points for only the 2nd time in school history, joining a 2-game stretch last season.

They have also gained 702 yards and recorded 700 yards of offense for the 6th time in school history and 5th under head coach Dabo Swinney. It was Clemson’s first 700-yard performance since Nov. 24, 2018, against South Carolina (744).

Clemson recorded 600 yards of offense for a 4th time this season to surpass the 2012, 2017 and 2018 squads (3 each) for sole possession of the most 600-yard games in a single season in school history.

“Looking back, that’s what this offense has really been known for — is explosive plays,” Scott said. “That’s what we want to do. You don’t want to always have to drive 10 plays and go 85 yards to score … It’s nice to get those (big plays).”

The 1 “problem” with the Tigers becoming a quick-strike team is the stress that it can put on the defense. In fact, only 1 of the Tigers’ 7 scoring drives Saturday took more than 7 plays — with 1 of those drives lasting only 2 plays.

Scott and the rest of the Tigers they will gladly take the points, even at the expense of a tired defense.

“It’s hurting our plays per game, but we’ll definitely take the 1-play scores over a certain number of plays whenever it goes that way,” Scott said.

Saturday’s game is set for 7:30 pm on ABC. It can also be heard on WCOS (1400 AM) and on the TuneIn Radio phone app.