The lone bright spot in Georgia Tech’s offensive performance at Clemson on Saturday night came from sophomore B-back KirVonte Benson … though it didn’t appear it would be that way after the opening series.
After gaining a first down on a quick three carries, Benson fumbled on his next carry, leading to a Clemson touchdown.
He came out on the next series and exploded on his first run for 65 yards up the middle to set up the Yellow Jackets inside the Clemson 10-yard line. Benson is thought by many to be the fastest player on the Tech roster, so ball security might’ve been a reason a few Tigers defenders were able to catch him from behind.
“I think a lot of it was I talked to him a lot about the ball security,” coach Paul Johnson said. “So when he got in the secondary, I think he was so concerned about hanging on to that thing, that maybe he didn’t get to open up like he normally would.”
Benson said he would’ve liked to score -- as he always would -- but the main disappointment was not being able to punch it in once the offense got in the red zone.
“No excuses on why I didn’t score, but we’ve got to finish in the red zone,” Benson said. “That’s where we’re at right now as an offense. I wish I would’ve scored. … It would’ve been good momentum. When we’re in the red zone, we’ve got to score.”
Benson finished with 129 yards on 16 carries as Clemson broke away for a comfortable 24-10 win. At halftime, Benson had 120 yards rushing, while the team had 110 total yards.
“KirVonte ran hard,” Johnson said. “He ran hard. … You know, there wasn’t a whole lot of room. We had a hard time cutting them off.”
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