ESPN's College GameDay breaks down Clemson 'identity crisis,' offensive and defensive woes |
ESPN’s College GameDay spent a segment of its Saturday college football preview show breaking down what’s gone wrong with Clemson’s Tigers this season.
ESPN insider Pete Thamel started the segment talking about Clemson’s internal coordinator hires this offseason with a lower-third graphic that hinted to offseason introspection needed in the coming months. “It’s easy to say with Clemson not in the top-3 of the ACC in offense or defense that the sum of the talent there is not greater than the parts,” said Thamel, “and a fair question to ask as this season closes is whether Dabo Swinney needs to go back outside to begin another streak of Playoff appearances?” Analyst Pat MacAfee said the landscape of college football could easily see the Tigers drop from the top to out of the mix if trends continue. “Whatever you think about that team, and it’s easy to talk about the quarterback situation, because DJ Uiagalelei hasn’t performed up to the level we’re used to seeing Clemson quarterbacks performing," said MacAfee. "Cade Klubnik has been put in some very difficult situations. Last week, it was late in the third quarter, backed up and they’re down – he throws a pick and automatically he gets pulled out and DJ gets put back in there. “But if you focus on the defense, and I don’t know if Pete is talking about utilizing the transfer portal or NIL (Name/Image/Likeness deals), Notre Dame punked them. 263 yards rushing. That’s manhandling of a once dominant defensive line. Two games before that against Florida State, 206 yards they gave up rushing. “I think it’s a potential identity crisis for this Clemson team, and if you don’t figure it out, you could be penthouse to outhouse real quick in this college football world. I don’t know how Dabo fixes that, but hopefully he does because I love those people down there.” Lead ESPN college football analyst Kirk Herbstreit pointed to the offense and what he sees as a lack of playmakers. “I went back and I looked, when Chad Morris came to Clemson – the offense changed, for the better. It was 2011. If you go back and look at these last two years, last year and this year, it’s their lowest two years of passing yards per game they’ve had since going back to before Chad Morris came there,” Herbstreit said, who has a son on the team still. “Why? You can look at DJ and blame it all on him. I don’t see – when Clemson used to take the field, they struck fear in your heart because of the playmaking ability they had on the perimeter and what they had in the backfield, Now when you watch them, they have good players, but they don’t have guys that make you go, ‘You better look out for Mike Williams. You better look out for Hunter Renfrow. You better look out for Travis Etienne.’ “You have good players, but they don’t have players right now developed where they will make plays on any given moment.” David Pollack pointed to the difference in not having the generational QB in place like a Trevor Lawrence or Deshaun Watson recently. “That’s enough to make any coordinator look good or any program look good when you have that kind of run. You have to find your trigger man,” Pollack said, who also called on Swinney to use the transfer portal as well. GameDay regular Desmond Howard again cast an eye at the coordinator hires. “You lose some excellent coordinators and you just replace them with some guys within – you may not have the right guys calling the plays. That may be the issue,” Howard said. “Now they don’t have the elite talent like we’ve talked about. Sammy Watkins, (DeAndre) Hopkins – all those guys, but you still have enough talent (to find a rhythm). And that falls on the coordinator to me.” Herbstreit had one of the final words in the segment comparing the QB situation to 2014 when Cole Stoudt started the season and a talented freshman in Deshaun Watson eventually took over. What’s next at Clemson? The Tigers are headed toward a two-year absence from the CFP after six-straight appearances. From @collegegameday today. pic.twitter.com/kPB7vAAmLu No mention in the segment that Clemson was not in the National championship picture until Chad Morris left and Dabo promoted from within (Tony Elliott and Jeff Scott) to run offense. Only offensive coordinator combo to take a team to five straight CFPs.
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