Virginia provided plenty of entertainment for Clemson's bus ride to Columbia

Scott Keepfer | The Greenville News

There was no shortage of entertainment during the Clemson football team’s bus ride to Columbia on Friday afternoon.

The players learned their ACC Championship Game opponent by watching the Virginia vs. Virginia Tech game.

Virginia prevailed, 39-30, in a riveting showdown for the Coastal Division title that the Tigers described as "must watch TV."

“It was a great game,” Clemson senior safety Denzel Johnson said. “Fun to watch.”

Virginia became the seventh different Coastal Division champion in as many years thanks in large part to versatile quarterback Bryce Perkins, who accounted for 475 of the Cavaliers’ 492 yards in the win against the Hokies.

“They’re talented, you can tell they have chemistry,” Johnson said. “They play hard, they play with passion, they’re selfless. Looking forward to playing them.”

Virginia has undergone a rapid transformation under fourth-year coach Bronco Mendenhall. The Cavaliers won only two games in his first season, but in 2017 earned the program’s first bowl bid in six years.

Virginia blanked South Carolina 28-0 in the Belk Bowl to cap an 8-5 season in 2018. Now the Cavaliers (9-3) have won nine games in the regular season for the first time since 2007.

Swinney says Tigers honored to play Virginia for ACC title Swinney says Tigers honored to play Virginia for ACC title

“We don’t intend just to take a trip to see what it looks like,” Mendenhall said. “We’re going to go try to win the game. That’s what our players want and that’s what we’re going to work to do.”

Kickoff for the ACC Championship Game is set for 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Charlotte’s Bank of America Stadium.

Clemson, which capped a second consecutive 12-0 regular season with a 38-3 win against South Carolina on Saturday, will be making its fifth consecutive appearance in the ACC Championship Game.

It will mark the first time Clemson and Virginia have played since the ninth game of the 2013 season, when the Tigers won in Charlottesville, Virginia, 59-10.

“We’ve been battling all year for this opportunity and now here we are with a chance to get back to Charlotte and play a really talented Virginia team – a team that’s impressive,” Clemson coach Dabo Swinney said. “I can’t say enough great things about Bronco and the job he’s done at Virginia. I’ve seen it coming. That was a heck of a game. We’re honored to play Virginia in Charlotte for our league. We’re not entitled to win, we’ve got to earn it every single week.

“So we’re excited about getting back to work. We’ll enjoy this one tonight, then get back to work Monday. We’re thankful that we get another week of football. Everybody else is going to be done, but there’s a few teams that get a chance to play for their league and we don’t ever take that for granted. We’re super excited about the opportunity.”