This time last year, Clemson football was pretty much in shambles, having problems with injuries and offensive woes. 2022 is turning out to be a little different.
After six games in the 2021 season, the Tigers were 4-2 with losses to NCState and Georgia, and three close wins against Georgia Tech, Syracuse and Boston College, all three less than 7 points difference. The point differential in the 3 common opponents was 54-49. 2022 results are a little bit different, Clemson outscoring the opponent 102-33. Why the 180 turnaround? Several reasons.
Injuries played a big part on the offensive side of the ball, both on the offensive line and the wide receiver corp. In 2021, when the dust settled, and OC Tony Elliott finally figured it out, he realized Clemson’s run game could carry it through, and it did. In 2022, new OC Brandon Streeter has been lucky for the most part regarding injuries, and the OL has now played all six games as a complete unit.
Still, the Tigers have scored 30+ points in every game this year, although I was recently told “garbage time touchdowns” don’t really count, referring to the last Clemson TD in the BC game. Hate to break it to you, yes, they do. The Tigers struggled offensively in the first half, finally putting a TD on the board late in the half. Like it or not, Coach Dabo Swinney is the head coach and has his hand on the entire team. He wasn’t happy with the flow of the game and said so after the game when asked about the late TD. “We didn’t feel like we played well. We wanted to finish with a little bit of rhythm. We finished well.”
Knock on wood, the offensive side of the ball hasn’t dealt with a lot of injuries while the secondary has been with multiple injuries. CB Sheridan Jones went down with an injury in the Louisiana Tech game and hasn’t seen the field since. CB Malcolm Greene hasn’t played since the LT game, S Andrew Mukuba missed two games and actually came back against NC State, only to be hit for targeting (no, it really wasn’t BUT). S RJ Mickens missed the BC game due to injury, and to top all this off, S Tyler Venables
was put in concussion protocol after a moped accident. Did the secondary pick up where the WR room left off? Not exactly but close.
The front seven on defense has been lights out since the Wake Forest game. DE Xavier Thomas FINALLY got back into action after missing the first five games of the season, getting only six reps, but registered two BIG TIME sacks, causing a fumble on one of them. DT Bryan Bresee has missed the last two games with a non-football illness but is expected to return against Florida State.
All in all, the 2022 version of the Clemson Tigers are looking to get back into the College Football Playoff conversation. Regardless of what social media fans and media experts keep spewing, the ACC is not a cake walk. Dabo is famous for saying “the most important game of the year is the next one.” That next game would be a road game to Tallahassee to take on a tough Florida State team, fresh off a loss to NC State. Following that up with a home game with #18 Syracuse, and a road trip to Notre Dame, the Tigers have their work cut out for them. One thing’s for sure. This time last year, Clemson was 4-2 going into a road game against Pittsburgh, which they lost and basically took them out of the Top 25. This year, Dabo Swinney and his two new coordinators have them back on track and currently sit at #4, jumping Michigan.
