Clemson, SC
It’s homecoming in Tiger town… and as you look around the leaves are beginning to fall off the trees, the weather has turned the corner on summer and fall is in full effect. Alumni and fans will arrive to a Clemson that is blooming with the color of fall and homecoming with floats on Bowman and the Habitat House being built. Clemson homecoming 2023 is here… As the Tigers welcome ACC foe Wake Forest to the “Valley of Death” for a 3:30Pm kickoff with the hungry home team.
Wake walks into Tigertown with a 3-1 mark for the season but coming off a loss at home to Georgia Tech. The Tigers are fresh off a resounding and much needed ACC victory over Syracuse and look to continue the winning ways versus the Deacons on Homecoming Saturday at 3:30pm.
Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney is expecting his team to take up where they left off last, and bring that same game plan back home to Clemson.
A Tiger defense firing off on all cylinders stopping the run, collapsing the pocket, and playing sound in the secondary and most of all forcing turnovers. Pair that with an Offense that needs to stay “balanced” with good decision making by quarterback Cade Klubnik. Running Back’s Will Shipley and Phil Mafah will have to continue their weekly grinding out of the yards via the ground game.. And the wide receiver corps needs to keep the recent trend and stay on an upward climb. With the emergence of Tyler Brown and Troy Stellato the Tigers wide outs are starting to find space in defenses and getting much needed yards after the catch (YAC).
This Wake team is not the same one with Sam Hartman that will stand toe to toe and send this into an overtime scoring fest. No this reminds me of many Dave Clawson teams of the past, and after watching them this season they are not the “threat” offensively they have been in the past and quarterback Mitch Griffiths has the habit of tossing interceptions as often as he does touchdowns (9TDS 6 INT 59%) . Defensively Linebacker Jacob Roberts leads the Deacs with 5 sacks and defensive back Deshawn Jones has 3 interceptions. Last time out at home this unit gave up 30 points to the Jackets of Georgia tech while the offense turned the ball over no less than 5 times. The week prior to that the Deacons had to come on strong in the 4th quarter to overtake Old Dominion by 3 points.
The Tigers will just have to keep building on the season as they have so far. Since that loss at Duke the Tigers have managed to improve week to week even with the injury bug affecting several key starters over this period. The continued development and improvement of young Cade Klubnik has been refreshing and rewarding for the Tigers. The Clemson quarterback has thrown now for 11 touchdowns against 2 interceptions for well over 1,200 yards so far. The Orange clad signal caller has started to settle down and trust his offensive line… and seems he’s found his “comfort zone” inside this offense. Klubnik’s ability to think and complete passes on the run outside the pocket as he escapes pressure, the ability to “create” is quickly becoming as asset to this Garrett Riley led offense.
How it goes down:
Defensively: Clemson has to return to the game plan that has worked against this offense in years past, and that is simply crash the A Gaps and control the interior of the Deacons offensive line, creating one less “option” in the Wake “slow mesh” offense. That will allow Clemson Defensive Ends to crash with out worry, if Barrett Carter and Jeremiah Trotter continue their solid play and awareness… this will allow the run defense to stay “gap sound” .. meaning as the interior is kept busy don’t allow any leakage out of the backfield.. the secondary needs to stay sound and play mistake free and don’t get caught in the play action that killed the Tigers in Winston-Salem last year. This wide receiver corps is not the same bunch that found themselves wide open all day in last years contest. Nor is the quarterback delivering the ball. And at the same time this Tiger secondary is much more experienced and has built quality depth behind some very good players in Jones, Wiggins, Mukuba, and Phillips.
Offensively: Clemson has to continue its week to week development. The Tigers have exercised the early season demons that were game changing turn overs. Now with the emergence of Tyler Brown and Troy Stellatto to go along with Klubnik’s continued improvement, look for the offense to continue to challenge opponents down the seams of the defense. With Cade’s confidence growing more and more each week, you can see the Tiger quarterback’s vision on the field open up in front of him . Resulting in his becoming more decisive with his intentions when looking downfield.
Garrett Riley’s offense is averaging 40 points a game and 273 yards through the air while gaining 184 yards per contest on the ground. If the Tigers can play mistake free and keep the Deacons on their heels with a balanced attack.. will result in Clemson overwhelming the Deacons by middle third quarter with their depth on the offensive front. Allowing the Clemson run game to find a lot of daylight setting up deep shots in the passing game.
Simple…. Play Clemson defense and then continue to progress offensively and the Tigers will have a happy homecoming .
Clemson 38 Wake Forest 13
