Preview and Prediction: Clemson vs. Virginia

Clemson holds a commanding 39-8-1 lead in the series with Virginia, including a 10-8-1 advantage since 1990 after Clemson won the first 29 games of the series.

Clemson holds a commanding 39-8-1 lead in the series with Virginia, including a 10-8-1 advantage since 1990 after Clemson won the first 29 games of the series. 

Virginia’s last win in the series took place in 2004 in Charlottesville by a 30-10 score on a Thursday night. Saturday's game will represent only the fifth meeting between the two teams in Dabo Swinney’s tenure. Swinney first faced Virginia as a head coach in his fourth game as Clemson’s interim head coach, earning a 13-3 victory in 2008. 

Clemson won, 34-21, the next year in a home finale that gave Clemson its first ACC Atlantic Division title. Clemson secured a 59-10 win in the teams' most recent regular-season meeting in 2013 before the Tigers put up an ACC Championship Game record 62 points in a 62-17 win to secure Clemson's fifth straight ACC title last year. 

Clemson won the first 29 games of the series before Virginia cracked the win column with a 20-7 victory in Charlottesville in 1990. Ironically, Clemson’s first win in the history of the series (in 1955) was also by a 20-7 score. 

Who to Watch on Offense:

- Running back Travis Etienne (at least one rushing or receiving touchdown in 37 of his 45 career games) needing a touchdown of any kind to tie the FBS record for most career games with a touchdown, presently held by Florida's Tim Tebow (38 games from 2006-09) and Louisiana Tech's Kenneth Dixon (38 from 2012-15). 

- Etienne attempting to record his 19th career 100- yard rushing game to tie Virginia's Tiki Barber for ninth-most in ACC history. Etienne's 18 100-yard rushing games are already a Clemson record. 

- Etienne (4,208) needing 121 rushing yards to move past Boston College's AJ Dillon (4,328 from 2017-19) for the fourth-most career rushing yards in ACC history. 

- Etienne (57) needing three more rushing touchdowns to become only the 12th player in official FBS records to score 60 career rushing touchdowns, a mark reached only by Navy's Keenan Reynolds (88), Wisconsin's Montee Ball (77), Miami (Ohio)'s Travis Prentice (73), Texas' Ricky Williams (72), Louisiana Tech's Kenneth Dixon (72), Florida Atlantic's Devin Singletary (66), Indiana's Anthony Thompson (64), Texas' Cedric Benson (64), Wisconsin's Ron Dayne (63), San Diego State's Donnel Pumphrey (62) and Oregon's Royce Freeman (60).

- Receiver Amari Rodgers (nine) reaching 10 career receiving touchdowns with his next touchdown catch. 

- Rodgers attempting to record a touchdown reception in consecutive games for the third time in his career (vs. Florida State and Louisville in 2018; vs. Boston College and Wofford in 2019).

- Quarterback Trevor Lawrence (70) entering the game tied with Jacory Harris (70) for sixth on the ACC's all-time career passing touchdowns leaderboard. Russell Wilson is fifth with 76 passing touchdowns at NC State. 

- Lawrence (eight) attempting to post a ninth career 300-yard passing game to take sole possession of the third-most 300-yard games in school history. It would pull him within one 300-yard game of joining Tajh Boyd (18) and Deshaun Watson (13) as the only players in school history to record double-digit career 300-yard passing games. 

- Lawrence entering the game having thrown 276 consecutive passes without an interception, the third-longest streak in ACC history. He needs 24 more pass attempts without an interception to record only the third 300-pass streak without an interception in conference history.

Who to Watch on Defense:

- Linebacker James Skalski appearing in his 50th career game. Chad Smith (58 from 2016-19) holds Clemson's career record for games played by a linebacker.

- Had eight tackles, as well as a quarterback pressure, in 64 snaps as a starter, along with two special teams tackles, in 2019. 

- Baylon Spector, LB: Had career-high nine tackles, including a two-yard tackle for loss, in 13 snaps in 2019

Predictions:

Zach Lentz: Clemson: 41, Virginia 17

The Tigers come off their first of two bye weeks and pick up where they left off. Lawrence continues his streak of games without an interception and Etienne starts a new streak of games with a touchdown. The game is salted away in the fourth quarter, in which Lawrence is still playing.

Brad Senkiw: Clemson 41, Virginia 20

If the Tigers suffer a bye week lull or get off to a slow start, Virginia is good enough and fundamentally sound to stick around for a while. That said, there's no way the Cavs have the athletes to pull this off. Trevor Lawrence still gets his numbers and plays longer than the previous two weeks.

Jason Priester: Clemson 38 UVA 13

Virginia will hit some plays and is able to keep it competitive for a little while. However, the Clemson talent advantage starts to take over as Etienne and the running game wears them down as the Tigers slowly pull away.

Christopher Hall: Clemson 49 Virginia 17

Clemson’s well-rested defense gets after UVA quarterback Brennan Armstrong early and coerces him into some poor decisions. Lawrence and Etienne have another efficient evening as the Tigers cruise into a top ten showdown with Miami next weekend.

Travis Boland: Clemson 35 Virginia 21

I'm sure UVA coach Bronco Mendenhall still sees Tee Higgins in his nightmares, but Higgins is gone and the 'Hoos have some receivers that will test the Clemson secondary. The Tigers offensive line paves the way for several Clemson ballcarriers to have big nights.