Mid Way Point: Clemson Progress Report
Clemson enters the bye week ranked 4th in the nation with a record of 6-0 overall and 3-0 in the ACC. The Tigers look to spend the first part of the week practicing and preparing a game plan for NC State. This upcoming weekend Coach Dabo Swinney has decided to give the team some rare time off from Friday- Sunday. Clemson’s football team is coming off two tumultuous weeks with the transfer of Kelly Bryant, and the untimely death of former teammate CJ Fuller at the age of 22. Spending a lot of time and energy in the past weeks overcoming adversity from outside the program. . . The Tigers look to find time and solace during this downtime and heal mind and body.
Clemson started off the 2018 campaign in midst of a heated Quarterback battle that played out in the media and on the playing field since early in 2018.
Trevor Lawrence, who initially enrolled and started participating in practices back in January, began pushing incumbent and now former Clemson quarterback Kelly Bryant. This battle went on for the entire spring and summer and culminated with Bryant being named the starter with Lawrence having a scripted set of series designed for each game. Eventually, after the Georgia Tech victory in Atlanta where it was obvious the offense just ran “smoother” and was more “efficient” under Lawrence’s guidance. The coaching staff made the decision to name Lawrence the starter, which led to the eventual transfer of Bryant from the Clemson program.
In all this time spent talking “quarterbacks,’ the surprise of the 2018 season so far has been the emergence of the Clemson run game. Tigers run game has now hit another proverbial “gear” as the Tigers behind sophomore Travis Etienne have upgraded the Clemson rushing attack. The Tigers who averaged in 2017 194.0 YPG. This season after six games into the 2018 schedule are now averaging 280.83/YPG. This after an impressive 471-yard game performance against Wake Forest that saw no less than three Clemson running backs go for over 125 yards in a single game.
The Running backs success can’t be attributed to just Etienne alone. Regardless at the halfway point the Louisiana native is fourth nationally with 761 yards on 83 attempts for a 9.2 yards per carrying and now averaging 126.8 per game… Earlier in preseason camp after a scrimmage in August, Coach Dabo Swinney mentioned to the gathered media that this group of backs could be “special”. So far in the 2018 campaign, Swinney has been proven right, as this group has upgraded their output on the field. Adam Choice, Tavien Feaster, and newcomer Lyn J Dixon have taken advantage of playing time and opportunities when given the chance.
You cant talk Clemson offense without mentioning “WRU” and that theme continues again as the 2018 version of Jeff Scott’s group just keeps rolling out NFL ready wide receivers each and every year. With the departure of Deon Cain and Ray Ray McCloud to the NFL, the Tigers looked to fill the slot and “nine-man” or Boundary wide receiver position with talent already on campus. Tee Higgins was custom made to play the boundary and Amari Rodgers is a bigger more versatile version of former Tiger Artavis Scott. Add to that Hunter Renfrow and the rest of this group along with freshman phenom Justyn Ross and you have arguably the best wide receiver corps in the nation. Ross came in and has competed for playing time behind starter Tee Higgins, making the most of his opportunities. Justyn already making a difference in the downfield vertical attack of this Clemson offense is averaging over 20.4 yards a reception on 14 grabs with 4 of those being touchdowns.
Not to be outdone, the Clemson defense has managed to rack up its own impressive numbers so far this season. Defensive end Clelin Ferrell is one of the national leaders with six sacks. Clemson’s defense in six games has only allowed an average 261 yards and 14.5 points per game.
The Tigers lead the nation in overall team “efficiency”… a combined metric that takes total defense and defense statistics and combines them. http://www.espn.com/college-football/statistics/teamratings/_/sort/defEfficiency/tab/efficiency
Clemson currently is the only team in the top ten in both total offensive and defensive statistics, currently, 8th in offense and 3rd in defense as the Tigers enter the bye week.
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