No one is talking about Clemson now. The “media” can only make snide comments about Clemson “nowhere to be found” in the Top 25 much less the Top 10. This is probably just how Dabo Swinney wants it.
Through 5 games, it looks like the Tigers offense struggled to find an identity. They may have found it against Boston College. May have. This Clemson season started the season off with a tight 10-3 loss to the now #1 team in the Nation, the Georgia Bulldogs. The offense was shutdown by the bulldog defense and gave teams on Clemson’s schedule a “blueprint” on how to defend this Clemson team. Georgia Tech and NC State followed suit and was successful against DJ and the offense, for the most part.
Clemson adjusted and had to make changes. Losing Will Shipley to injury, and senior RB Lyn-J Dixon to transfer forced Dabo to change his redshirt plans for freshman Phil Mafah. The move paid off, and Mafah and Kobe Pace brought the run back to the Clemson offense.
The “media” and opposing fan bases love to say how bad the ACC is as a conference. Nothing will change this rhetoric. So, as a fan base, we just have to tune it out. Syracuse is currently 3-3 with two 3-point losses the last two weeks to Florida State and Wake Forest. The Orangemen scored 67 points in those games, but gave up 73.
Syracuse is going to be a handful inside the Dome on a Friday night. Clemson has won 7 of the last 8 games against the Orangemen with the lone loss being at the Dome on a Friday night four years ago Teams are seeing this Clemson team struggling on offense and see their game this year as a winnable game, opposed to the Trevor Lawrence-Deshaun Watson years. Don’t sleep on DJ Uiagalelei.
DJ is out of the Heisman hype conversation that was prominent pre-season. Tiger fans are waiting on this big QB to have a breakout game. The thing is, all he cares about is winning games. He doesn’t care about individual goals, much like the previous starting quarterback in a Clemson uniform. Since all the “media hype” has died down, expect DJ to rebound and focus on what he does, win games. OC Tony Elliott adjusted the offense to include using this big quarterback in the run game. Look for more of the same against Syracuse.
This might be the first season that Clemson actually needs help to get to the ACC Championship game in December. The Tigers will need to win out along the way, and in doing so, it means they would hold the head to head matchup with Wake Forest, but needs NC State to lose two games. The Wolfpack does not have an easy schedule to finish out the season. The Pack has away games at Miami, Florida State and Wake Forest, with home games against Louisville, Syracuse and North Carolina.
This bye week will work wonders for the Tigers along the injury front. There have been several season-ending injuries that have tested this team along the defensive front, but depth has stepped up. The WR position has been hampered by injuries recently, and hopefully, this time off will get a few back on the field. Frank Ladson, Justyn Ross, and EJ Williams were all on the bench in the 2nd half against BC. TE’s Davis Allen and Braden Galloway were also unavailable in the 2nd half. Getting these five targets back on the field can only help this offense.
Of course, the media outlets only care about results and not what’s behind the results. A hurt Tiger is a dangerous animal. A hurt, quiet Tiger is more dangerous. This Clemson team is going into the Carrier Dome on Friday, and Syracuse is setting an ambush because…..they think they can. These wounded Tigers are going to take a line from Lee Corso….”Not so fast”.
