The Good, the Bad and the Ugly – Wofford Terriers
The Clemson-Wofford game turned out exactly like everyone thought. It was a total domination from beginning to end. There were no surprises. This was basically an in-season scrimmage between one of the best teams in college football and a pretty good FCS school. Clemson dominated on both sides of the ball, the trenches wasn’t fair and the team speed difference was obvious. There was a whole lot of good, very little bad and not a lot of ugly.
It would take all day to list the “good” where the Tigers were concerned. Travis Etienne had a day. Point of interest, after four carries, Etienne had a whopping 16 yards. The next five carries resulted in 196 yards and two touchdowns. After nine games, he has cracked the 1000 yard mark and is averaging a nation leading NINE yards a carry. Trevor Lawrence didn’t throw an interception!!!!! Wait, isn’t this the most popular item of interest of the college football media? All he did was go 12-16, 231 yards and 3 TDs. As a matter of fact, since his bad start against Louisville, in which he went 3 for 7, 9 yards and two INTs in the first quarter, all Trevor has done is complete 45 of 57 passes for 717 yards and 9 touchdowns in 11 quarters. I think this qualifies as “good”. Clemson played a ton of players, as usual, and continues to build the depth needed for a strong end of season run. Needless to say, this is the championship stretch, and Clemson is making statements. Coach Dabo Swinney said it was predetermined that the first units would play at least the entire first half. Mass substitution began early in the 3rd quarter.
Trying to find “bad” in a 59-14 blowout of an FCS school is difficult. Coach Brent Venables could not be happy with the two touchdowns given up by the backups in the 3rd quarter. He was probably more upset about the 7 play drive than the long touchdown pass. Having said that, Coach Venables coaches hard every play, and will accept the blame for not putting these guys in the right position to make the plays. He will use this as “teaching moments”. Every game produces “teaching moments” for this coaching staff, even in blowouts.
Wow, it is simply hard to find any “ugly” in a game like Saturday. The offense was like a machine, the defense held the opposing offense to under 300 yards for the 9th straight game. The weather was perfect. Military Appreciation Day is always a fan favorite. The ugly actually happened at Florida State where private donations paid the buyout to fire Coach Willie Taggart. FSU was his dream job and after a 9-12 record, the decision was made to let him go. Running a Power 5 football program that has the history FSU has and attempting to bring them back to prominence is not an easy job. Coach Taggart found that out. No question he gave it his all and feels bad about not bringing the program back up to the level FSU fans expect. $20million will soften the blow.
Next up is NC State. Clemson is currently a 32 point favorite against the Wolfpack in Raleigh. State will be without 13 starters that were listed on the depth charts at the beginning of the season. Clemson NC State prediction coming up.Brought to you by :
