CLEMSON — Clemson coach Tommy Bowden can now sleep. At least for the next eight hours anyway.

His Clemson Tigers showed a little more pride and aggressiveness Saturday with a 45-17 victory against The Citadel inside Death Valley. It was a win the Clemson coach said his team desperately needed after last week’s embarrassing defeat to Alabama.

“You need to have a win where you can feel a little bit better about yourself,” Bowden said. “We didn’t play a perfect game. It was a long week because it was an embarrassing loss. You don’t sleep much when that happens, but at least now you can get a good night sleep.”

No one said it better than Clemson offensive coordinator Rob Spence. Spence told the media the victory wasn’t anything to get too excited about it, but it was a “small beginning.”

It was a beginning the Clemson offense definitely needed after last week’s embarrassing display against Alabama. The Tigers rebounded with a 525-yard outing, which saw them rush for 252 yards and throw for another 273.

“It feels real good to get that taste out of our mouth,” Clemson quarterback Cullen Harper said. “It seemed like last week was a long week for us. All we heard is people talk about Alabama this and Alabama that so it feels good to come out and get a win under our belts and get our confidence back.”

The game plan was to slowly give that confidence to the offensive line.

“They got their hats on the right bodies,” Bowden said. “I’m sure there were some physical mismatches, but the biggest thing was to see if they learn to be a lot more aggressive than they were last week.”

Clemson’s offensive line looked aggressive. The Tigers came out, like most expected, and pounded the ball straight at The Citadel. Clemson running back James Davis had 93 of his game-high 107 yards in the first quarter, including a 38-yard scamper for the game’s first score.

“We had two freshmen guards and we wanted to get those guys some quality reps and establish what we wanted to do,” center Thomas Austin said. “That first drive we drove all the way to the three yard line and we only had one pass so that’s definitely what we wanted to do. We wanted to go in there and establish the run early and get that going.”

Clemson’s offensive line showed some improvement from last week’s Alabama game, rushing for 176 yards in the first half. Davis had 97 of those yards, while C.J. Spiller had 58. But there were still some negatives, including a fourth down-and-two play from the Bulldogs’ 26 in which Davis was tackled after gaining just 1-yard on a power play up the middle.

“The biggest thing was that they learned to work together,” Bowden said. “We established a running game this week. We turned it over there on that short yardage situation, but we rebounded and hopefully we will learn from it.”

The Tigers (1-1) continued to keep it on the ground after that. Spiller made the score 14-0, while showing off his running skills with a run up the middle, while breaking one would-be tackler before cutting outside for a 37-yard touchdown with 11:30 to go in the second quarter.

He later added a one-yard run with 4:25 to play which gave the Tigers a 21-0 lead at one point. After combining for just 20 yards against Alabama, Clemson’s “Thunder and Lightning” at least showed some flashes that the storm is still rumbling in the backfield.

“I don’t think we played our best game, but we did okay,” Davis said.

Spiller complemented Davis’ 107-yard effort with a 75-yard three touchdown afternoon. He scored on a 17-yard run in the third quarter that put the Tigers up 28-7.

Safety Michael Hamlin and the defense finally helped put the Bulldogs (1-1) away. The senior safety tied a school-record with three interceptions, including his final one which setup Harper’s 26-yard touchdown pass to tight end Michael Palmer that gave Clemson a 35-7 lead with 4:09 to play in the third quarter.

“Every win feels good. This is just a start for us,” Hamlin said. “This just lets us know we can play ball. We gave up some big plays, but we dominated like we were supposed to. This kind of puts the chip back on our shoulders.”

CLEMSON 45, THE CITADEL 17

The Citadel 0 7 0 10—17

Clemson 7 14 14 10—45

First Quarter

Clem_Davis 38 run (Buchholz kick), :10.

Second Quarter

Clem_Spiller 37 run (Buchholz kick), 11:30.

Clem_Spiller 1 run (Buchholz kick), 4:25.

Cit_Roberts 41 pass from Blanchard (Keeler kick), 1:42.

Third Quarter

Clem_Spiller 17 run (Buchholz kick), 6:57.

Clem_Palmer 26 pass from C.Harper (Buchholz kick), 4:09.

Fourth Quarter

Clem_J.Harper 13 run (Buchholz kick), 13:44.

Cit_FG Keeler 27, 8:07.

Clem_FG Buchholz 21, 3:57.

Cit_Caldwell 50 pass from C.Turner (Keeler kick), 1:17.

A_76,000.

___

Cit Clem

First downs 19 26

Rushes-yards 26-89 34-252

Passing 338 273

Comp-Att-Int 25-40-3 21-29-0

Return Yards 33 111

Punts-Avg. 4-36.5 1-41.0

Fumbles-Lost 1-0 3-2

Penalties-Yards 6-45 6-55

Time of Possession 33:13 26:47

___

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING_The Citadel, Blanchard 9-27, C.Turner 3-17, A.Jordan 4-16,

Wilson 6-15, Anderson 3-11, Williams 1-3. Clemson, Davis 13-107,

Spiller 6-75, J.Harper 6-38, Macko 3-18, C.Harper 3-14, J.Ford 2-1,

Korn 1-(minus 1).

PASSING_The Citadel, Blanchard 22-35-3-279, C.Turner 3-5-0-59.

Clemson, C.Harper 14-18-0-192, Korn 7-11-0-81.

RECEIVING_The Citadel, Roberts 9-153, T.Cornett 6-51,

Caldwell 2-52, Haney 2-41, A.Jordan 2-19, Anderson 2-12, Wilson 2-10.

Clemson, J.Ford 5-60, Jones 3-24, Palmer 2-41, Grisham 2-37,

Spiller 2-32, Dye 2-19, Kelly 2-15, Barry 1-36, Diehl 1-6, Faerber 1-3.