AUSTIN, Texas — Jaydon Blue had the biggest run in the biggest football game of the season so far for the University of Texas.
He had to fight through a nagging ankle injury and fumble problems to get there.
Blue ran for 146 yards, dashing 77 yards for a touchdown in the fourth quarter to help the Longhorns beat Clemson 38-24 on Saturday in the first round of the first 12-team edition of the College Football Playoff.
Blue was first thrust into the starting role when injuries ended the season for both C.J. Baxter and Christian Clark before it even began. Blue missed a game with the ankle injury, and then his carries were reduced for several games because of his struggles with ball security.
Texas (12-2), the No. 5 seed, is moving on to the Peach Bowl quarterfinal at Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium, where the Longhorns will take on fourth-seeded Arizona State (11-2) — the Big 12 champion and the recipient of a first-round bye — on New Year’s Day. The winner of that one will face either No. 8 Ohio State (11-2) or No. 1 Oregon (13-0) — who face off in the Rose Bowl quarterfinal on New Year’s Day — in the Cotton Bowl semifinal on Jan. 9.
The Longhorns aren’t trying to get ahead of themselves. They just want to stay in the race for the national championship.
“You can’t win it if you don’t win the first one. We did that,” said Texas coach Steve Sarkisian, whose team lost the Sugar Bowl semifinal to eventual runner-up Washington last season in the 10th and final four-team edition of the CFP.
Blue also had a 38-yard touchdown earlier in Saturday’s game. The second one came after 12th-seeded Clemson (10-4) had rallied from down 31-10 to within a touchdown on Cade Klubnik’s third scoring pass.
Blue scored on 38-yard cut-and-dash burst in the second quarter. On the second touchdown, he dove into the line, shook a tackler, and then outraced three more to the end zone with just 11 minutes left. He clutched the ball tightly to his chest when a defender tried to rip it away.
“It was a sigh of relief after everything I’ve been going through,” Blue said. “I stayed patient, I saw a crease, and it was everything (open) from there.”
Sarkisian said Blue never lost the trust of the team.
“Our staff, his teammates, believed in him,” the coach said. “I just gave him a big hug and told him how proud I was.”
Quintrevion Wisner added 110 yards and two first-half touchdowns on the ground for Texas. Quinn Ewers passed for 202 yards and a touchdown. Tight end Gunnar Helm caught six passes for 77 yards, including a 19-yard touchdown after reaching high but still getting his feet down in the end zone.
He has 55 catches this season, a program record for tight ends. The old mark of 54 was set just last season by J.T. Sanders.
Klubnik, who grew up in Austin, passed for 336 yards and rallied the Tigers (10-4) in the second half against a Texas defense that had given up just four passing touchdowns all season.
“We just got ourselves in too big a hole in the first half. Everything was uphill,” Clemson coach Dabo Swinney said. “We just put it in Cade’s hands and let it rip.”
Said Klubnik: “I’m hurting a lot. It was fun to come home, but it was not a vacation. It was time to come win a football game, and we didn’t do that.”
The runner-up in the Southeastern Conference, Texas is the only one of last season’s four playoff teams to make the new 12-team field. Clemson won the Atlantic Coast Conference championship to make the CFP for the seventh time overall but first time since the 2020 season.
“It’s not easy to get on this stage, and they earned it,” Sarkisian said of the Tigers. “I think college football got this one right. This idea of a home playoff game with a 12-team format was pretty special.”
The Tigers had three big fourth-down chances in the fourth quarter, and they turned the first one into a touchdown when Klubnik threw to T.J. Moore. They came up short on the next two. Keith Adams Jr. was stuffed at the Texas 1-yard line, and Klubnik’s pass at the Texas 26 was incomplete with just more than a minute left.
“We’ve got big people,” Sarkisian said. “And they know how to play a physical brand of football.”
The Longhorns had some injury scares that could be worrisome with more games ahead. Wisner, starting offensive tackle Cam Williams and center Jake Majors all left the field in two plays in the second quarter. Sarkisian said the coaching staff opted to keep Wisner and Majors out in the second half. Williams needed help to get off the field and was set to have tests on his knee.