A botched kickoff wasn’t the only noteworthy news coming out of Clemson’s annihilation of an inferior foe.
Clemson took a 45-0 lead on South Carolina State into the halftime locker room. Included in that total was 31 first-quarter points, the highest-scoring quarter in school history.
After much discussion, the Tigers decided to show their overwhelmed guests some mercy as the two teams agreed to shorten the last two quarters from 15 minutes each to 12.BREAKING: This is not a joke... Third and fourth quarters at Clemson have been shortened to 12 minutes.
— Matt Connolly (@MattatTheState) September 17, 2016
Deshaun Watson completed 12 of his 15 passes for 152 yards and three touchdowns in under two quarters of work. Watson, who apologized this past week for his lackluster performance thus far this season, had thrown four touchdowns in the first two games of the year.
Ray-Ray McCloud, he of the touchdown boner in Week 2, grabbed two of those scoring passes.
For the woodshedding, which was 59-0 at the time of this posting, SC State was paid $300,000.