Clemson Defense Proves It Is No. 1, 30-0 : Hall of Fame: Tigers yield only 247 yards to Illinois. Cameron throws two touchdown passes.

Coaches Ken Hatfield and John Mackovic expected a defensive struggle in the Hall of Fame Bowl, and they were half right.

Clemson’s defense scored one touchdown and set up another Tuesday as the 14th-ranked Tigers overpowered No. 16 Illinois, 30-0.

“I couldn’t be prouder of this team, and especially the senior leadership that we received,” said Hatfield, the Tigers’ first-year coach. “It was Clemson’s first bowl shutout and these seniors have won 40 games, which is an ACC record.”

Illinois (8-4) averaged 26.6 points during the season, but was no match for the nation’s top-ranked defense. The Illini finished with 247 yards of total offense and couldn’t score on three possessions that ended inside the Clemson 35-yard line in the second half.

DeChane Cameron passed for 141 yards and two touchdowns and also rushed for 76 yards in 17 attempts for Clemson (10-2), which equaled its

record for the previous three seasons.

Chris Gardocki kicked field goals of 18, 26 and 43 yards for Clemson, and Cameron threw for touchdowns of 14 yards to Doug Thomas and 17 yards to Howard Hall.

John Johnson recovered Howard Griffith’s fumble on the Illinois 14 to set up Clemson’s first touchdown. Arlington Nunn intercepted Jason Verduzco’s pass and returned it 34 yards for a second-quarter touchdown that gave the Tigers a 24-0 halftime lead.

“Your defense has to be able to control the tempo of the game, and theirs was able to do a much better job than ours,” said Mackovic, who is 1-2 in bowl games at Illinois. “Our biggest problem was that we had little or no pressure on their quarterback. When he sprinted out, we had nobody in his face.”

Cameron completed 14 of 20 passes and was voted the game’s most valuable player. His 217 yards in total offense was a career high and the 14 completions were a season high for the redshirt junior.

“We didn’t expect the number of passes they threw. They hit a lot of those drop-off passes and got a lot of mileage out of them,” said Illinois linebacker Darrick Brownlow, who was ejected after a third-quarter scuffle that ended with Clemson’s James Trapp also being thrown out of the game.

“I tried to grab him and stop him from hitting me,” Brownlow added. “It was one of those things where I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. It’s a bad call, but you have to live with it.”

Cameron sat out the fourth quarter, but Clemson’s defense never took a rest.

The Tigers stopped Illinois on downs at the Clemson 20 with six minutes remaining, then survived Steve Feagin’s 21-yard run to the 29 to preserve the shutout in the closing seconds.

Verduzco, who led the Big Ten in passing yardage and efficiency, completed 13 of 25 passes for 121 yards. He threw two interceptions, one in Clemson territory, and was sacked four times.

Backup Jeff Kinney directed the two fourth-quarter drives that failed to produce points. He finished five of 11 for 64 yards and was sacked once.

Clemson led the nation in total defense this season, allowing 216.9 yards per game. No ballcarrier gained more than 70 yards on the Tigers during the season, and the unit held Griffith--a 1,000-yard runner who broke some of Red Grange’s school records at Illinois--to 59 yards in 15 carries.

“It’s pretty shocking, but it wasn’t a matter of us not being up for the game,” Griffith said. “It was Clemson being on another level. We just weren’t good enough to beat them.”

The final statistics were deceivingly close. Clemson had 305 yards of total offense, but held a decisive 211-84 advantage in the first half, when the game was decided.