CLEMSON — Clemson football praised its fans, who were affected by Hurricane Helene and still were able to attend Saturday's game vs. Stanford.

The storm caused devastation in South Carolina, including 25 deaths as of Sunday afternoon, according to the South Carolina Department of Public Safety. Hundreds of thousands are still without power after the hurricane passed through on Friday.

Despite this, Tigers fans filled Memorial Stadium to watch Clemson's 40-14 win against the Cardinal.

"Our crowd was awesome," Clemson coach Dabo Swinney said. "It's been a tough few days, a lot going on, everybody impacted by the hurricane. Thoughts and prayers with them. We have a lot of people on our staff impacted, myself included."

The Tigers (3-1, 2-0 ACC) look to win their fourth straight in their first road ACC game against Florida State (1-4, 1-3) on Saturday (7 p.m. ET, ESPN) at Doak Campbell Stadium.

Swinney said defensive tackles coach Nick Eason had "family challenges" this week and was away from the team since Wednesday before returning for Saturday's game. He added that he and his staff had trees down in their neighborhoods and near their houses, and many of his players who are from Florida, Georgia and South Carolina have been affected.

Swinney also said the storm altered Clemson's preparation leading up to the game, thanking the logistics staff for attempting to create normalcy amid the circumstances.

Clemson's game was not canceled despite the storm's damage and Stanford arriving a day late. Still, Tigers quarterback Cade Klubnik said he was shocked to see the support on Saturday.

"In the midst of all of that, we step on the field, and it's dang near soldout," Klubnik said. "That's incredible."

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Tigers fans watched Clemson win its 801st game, tying Auburn for the 13th most in FBS history. Swinney earned his 173rd victory to tie Bobby Bowden for the most coaching wins leading an ACC program.

Klubnik threw four touchdowns and rushed for another to propel them to their third straight win. Defensively, they contained Stanford, recording three turnovers, three turnovers on downs and four sacks.

"I don't think really anybody expected the storm to hit us as bad as it did, and it threw off our routine a little bit, in terms of our Friday night and Saturday schedule," Klubnik said. "But in the midst of all the chaos, we just wanted to put some smiles on some people (Saturday), and I hoped that we did that."

Derrian Carter covers Clemson athletics for The Greenville News and the USA TODAY Network. Email him at dcarter@gannett.com and follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @DerrianCarter00

This article originally appeared on Greenville News: Clemson football: Why Tigers win meant more after Helene's devastation