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Annemarie Jacques

Clemson quarterback Kyle Parker (11) celebrates with teammate Mason Cloy during the Tigers' 38-3 win over Wake Forest on Saturday at Memorial Stadium in Clemson.

CLEMSON — After Clemson coach Dabo Swinney admittedly “chewed out” quarterback Kyle Parker during a bye-week practice, leading to a highly publicized dust-up between Swinney and offensive coordinator Billy Napier, it would have been easy for the redshirt freshman to pout or take the incident personally.

Instead, he took it out on Wake Forest.

Parker completed 10 of 17 passes for 132 yards, throwing for one score and running for another — leaping over a pile at the goal line — as he led the Tigers (3-3, 2-2 ACC) to a 38-3 rout of the Demon Deacons, who entered the game atop the Atlantic Division standings.

“I thought our quarterback played very well,” Swinney said during a Sunday teleconference. “He’s still got a lot of room for improvement … but he made some big, big plays for us. I thought he had a great demeanor throughout the whole game.”

While Parker looked more like a seasoned vet than a rookie on Saturday, Clemson’s defense harassed Wake’s Riley Skinner for the majority of the game — sacking the senior signal-caller five times and picking him off twice — en route to holding the Deacons to just 178 yards of total offense.

Wake Forest’s longest drive of the game was just 45 yards and it moved the ball more than 25 yards on just one other possession. The Tigers also ended Wake’s streak of scoring at least one touchdown in 14 straight games.

“Defensively, it was the best game we’ve had as far as tackling,” Swinney said. “We tackled well. One of the things we talked about going into the game was that we needed to affect the quarterback, and we did that. We didn’t allow any big plays. The pursuit by the defense was relentless.”

Parker and the offense, meanwhile, scored on five of their first eight possessions and finished with 195 rushing yards, including touchdown runs of 66 and 14 yards by senior C.J. Spiller.

“That’s the way we should’ve been playing all year,” Spiller said after the game.

And the performance couldn’t have come at a better time for the Tigers, who have a chance to establish themselves as serious contenders in the Atlantic this Saturday (3:30 p.m., ABC) when they go on the road to face No. 8 Miami.

“It’s a tough place to go and play. They haven’t lost many games down there,” Swinney said. “And it’s an opportunity for us to go play on national TV and hopefully just keep getting better as a football team and try to continue to build upon what we just did and see if we can get a little run going here.”

Clemson will enter the showdown with Miami tied with Wake for second place in the division, but even with first-place Boston College in the loss column and holding the head-to-head tiebreaker having beaten the Eagles 25-9 last month.

The ’Canes will enter the game off a 27-7 win over Central Florida that improved their record to 5-1 on the season, including wins over then-No. 8 Oklahoma and then-No. 14 Georgia Tech.

“It’ll be a tough task for us, for sure,” Swinney said. “They’re really, really talented, and they’ll be able to match our skill as good as anybody we’ve played.”

Miami sophomore quarterback Jacory Harris has merited some discussion about his place in the Heisman Trophy race and ranks second in the ACC in pass efficiency and fourth in passing yards per game.

“He’s a pretty cool customer,” Swinney said. “I don’t think we’ve played anybody more talented. … He’s very dangerous and just never seems to get rattled. He’s made some big, big throws and also made some good runs.”

This will be Clemson’s third game against a top-15 team through seven games this season. By Saturday night, Clemson, Miami and Washington will be the only three schools in the nation to have played three teams ranked in the top 15 at the time.

But while beating the Hurricanes is no doubt a tall order, it also seems much more realistic after the Tigers’ performance against Wake than it did, say, two weeks prior.

And that fact is certainly not lost on the Tigers themselves.

“You play well and you get the results, and that’s the biggest thing that you get out of it,” Swinney said. “Our team will be confident and hopefully be able to carry over the attention to detail and the focus. … This is one of those games where you’ve just got to make sure you harness their energy in the right direction. But it certainly helps when you’re coming off a win. It’s a lot more fun when you win, and you’ll have their attention right out of the gate.”

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McDaniel honored by ACC. Clemson junior safety DeAndre McDaniel was named ACC Defensive Back of the Week on Monday, after he recorded five tackles and returned his ACC-leading fifth interception of the season 26 yards in the win over Wake.

Brown, Cooper return to practice. Kantrell Brown, who suffered a neck injury on special teams against Wake Forest, returned to practice on Monday in a yellow jersey. Brown was down on the field for several minutes during the second quarter of the game and was eventually carted off before being taken to Oconee Medical Center in Seneca. He will be held out of at least the next two games due to the injury.

SAM linebacker Scotty Cooper, who missed Saturday’s game due to a concussion suffered against Maryland, was also back at practice in a limited capacity. He hopes to play against Miami.

Chancellor to honor former teammate. Swinney announced to the team after practice that cornerback Chris Chancellor will wear No. 6 against Miami instead of his regular No. 38 in honor of Jasper Howard, the Connecticut player who was killed over the weekend.

“I thought it would be a good way to honor Jasper,” said Chancellor, who played with Howard at Miami Edison Senior High School in 2003 and 2004. “I talked with a lot of former teammates and our high school coach last night. It was a very sad situation.”