Good day Sunshine

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ATLANTA, Ga. -- The fact that Kelly Bryant held on to his starting job into the fourth game of the season made this competition sound complicated.

Fact is, it's not and it never was.

Dabo Swinney and his staff needed to see something definitive to elevate Trevor Lawrence to the starting role.

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Lawrence showed them exactly that Saturday at Georgia Tech.

From this corner, anyway.

The dude they call "Sunshine" was in on six possessions. Clemson scored touchdowns on five of them, including a late exclamation-point 30-yard strike to Tee Higgins that put the finishing touches on a 49-21 spanking.

The offense mustered one first down and no points on Bryant's two first-half possessions, and Bryant came on in mop-up duty to lead the offense on a touchdown drive.

The play on the field made the resounding case that was needed for Lawrence to grab the starting job, and so did the stats:

Lawrence: 13-of-18 passing for 176 yards, four touchdowns and an interception;

Bryant: 6-of-10 passing for 56 yards with no touchdowns and no interceptions.

After the game, Swinney wasn't ready to make a definitive statement about the starter moving forward.

"We're going to enjoy tonight, that's what we're going to do," he said. "We're not going to set depth charts here in the post-game press conference."

Combine the 480-yard offensive burst (248 rushing) with Georgia Tech's fumbling wreck of an offense, and it was a breezy, easy day for the Clemson fans who splashed a lot of orange inside Bobby Dodd Stadium. All 72 players who made the trip saw action.

Swinney became the first coach in school history to defeat the Yellow Jackets four years in a row. Clemson had only done it twice before in its history -- 1996 and 1903.

Having lost four of his first five against Paul Johnson, Swinney has now won six of the last seven in the series -- all by double digits, and by an average of 20 points per game.

Johnson's team dropped to 1-3. The Jackets are 14-22 in their last 36 games against FBS teams.

"I thought this was our best game for sure in our first four games," Swinney said.

For so long in these meetings between Swinney and Johnson, Tech's flexbone offense has been the major storyline -- as in, what Clemson had to do to figure the dang thing out.

That topic now seems like sooooo 2012. After Tech took its opening possession inside Clemson's 20, the Tigers slammed the door shut. Tech had 203 yards total and 146 on the ground while converting just four of 15 third downs and producing 15 first downs to Clemson's 25.

The Jackets had a whopping eight fumbles, and it could've been much worse had Clemson recovered more than just one of them.

Travis Etienne bulled and thrashed for 122 rushing yards on just 11 carries, and Tavien Feaster added 75 yards on eight totes.

Bryant, now 16-2 as a starter, trotted out first Saturday after missing the second half against Georgia Southern with what was termed a chest bruise.

He couldn't get anything going on Clemson's two possessions of the second quarter. A dropped pass by Etienne was the culprit on the first drive, but on the second possession Bryant threw high for Garrett Williams underneath.

In came Lawrence with 11:55 left in the second quarter. And he proceeded to make an irrefutable case for staying in.

Etienne pushed the offense down the field after the Tigers started at their 26, but Lawrence capped it with a beautiful 17-yard touchdown throw to Hunter Renfrow while rolling left.

It wasn't just the laser throw that spun over the grasp of a Tech defender and into Renfrow's hands to give Clemson its first offensive touchdown.

It was also Lawrence's presence of mind to scan the defense before the snap and change the play.

This is the type of stuff the kid did 43 miles up I-75 at Cartersville High School. And it's the type of stuff Clemson fans will see more of this season and beyond as this rare talent continues to develop.

"He's got en elite arm talent, no question about that," Swinney said. "Pretty easy to see."

On the next drive, Lawrence and Justyn Ross perfectly manipulated Tech's zone coverage with hard play-action that froze the safety and corner.

Ross found a wide open space on the right side, and Lawrence hit him in stride for a 53-yard catch-and-run.

Lawrence's only real blemish came on the next drive, and that wasn't even his fault. An intended screen to Etienne was fouled up when Etienne didn't make contact with the defensive end and center Gage Cervenka was in the path of the ball, which hit his helmet and landed in the hands of Desmond Branch at the Clemson 25.

Tech cashed in by reaching the end zone to make it 21-7, but Swinney and Brandon Streeter weren't done with Lawrence.

The Tech score came with 2:08 left in the half. This was the perfect time to see what Lawrence could do in the hurry-up, and he put on a clinic with the 12-play, 64-yard touchdown march that was sealed with a nifty little option shovel to Etienne for a 3-yard score.

That play was preceded by a third-and-15 conversion when Lawrence rolled right and found Amari Rodgers sitting in an open space against the zone.

Which was preceded by a third-and-7 conversion when Renfrow leaped high to snag a Lawrence ball.

Which was preceded by a gorgeous opposite-hash throw from Lawrence to Rodgers.

Which was preceded by a first-down run by Lawrence after he was flushed.

Which was preceded by another gorgeous opposite-hash throw to Rodgers.

After Lawrence presided over a run-heavy drive that shoved it right down Tech's throat into the end zone on the first drive of the second half, a distinct feeling persisted:

Lawrence should be preceded by no one.

Not anymore.

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