All eyes on Clemson's up and down rush defense heading into rivalry week

Clemson looks control the ground game better next week against the Gamecocks.

Grayson Mann - Staff Writer - Sunday, November 24 2024

One of the Tigers’ central flaws this season has been the rush defense, which has seen its share of bumps and bruises.

Four times this season, Wes Goodwin’s defense has been carved up on the ground, giving up more than 150 yards against opposing rushing attacks.

The most troubling outings have come against Stanford and Louisville, where Clemson gave up over 200 yards on the ground in both instances.

The Citadel ended up being no different.

The Bulldogs rushed for a season-high 288 yards on the ground, gashing the Tiger defense on multiple occasions, exposing a weakness that has been on display all year.

Dabo Swinney addressed this concern on Saturday night, stating how the Bulldogs’ different looks posed trouble for Clemson.

“We didn't do a good job early,” Swinney said. “It's dive-pitch-quarterback, dive-pitch-quarterback, dive-pitch-quarterback. And we had too many times we had ten guys doing their job. I don't know that (Sammy Brown's) seen much of it. It was a bit of a, not having Wade (Woodaz) hurt us a little bit, too. But I mean, we tried to keep it simple with a couple of calls, but we didn't do a very good job of executing. We missed some tackles, too. And when you miss tackles against triple option stuff, and they ran a lot of triple option, as I told y'all coming into the week, we'll probably see a little bit more against us than maybe what I've seen on tape in some of these other games.”

Swinney also added that this look isn’t something they repped often, and combining that with substituting the regular rotation, the Bulldogs were going to get several chunk plays.

“We ended up eventually getting the dive stopped, and then they got outside on us a few times and didn't take the quarterback, so they let the pitch go one time,” Swinney said. “But yeah, it's not something we've worked on a ton, so that's part of it. But yeah, and then you sub a ton of people, the game gets out of hand pretty quick, and so you get a bunch of guys in there that hadn't had quite as many reps, so hey, you give them credit, but hey, we got it done.”

With all of that laid out, the Gamecocks now stand in Clemson’s way of a potential playoff berth. As the top 25 saw quite the shuffle, the path for an at-large bid may come down to a victory in the Palmetto Bowl.

This isn’t the same South Carolina team that’s faced a challenging decade rebuilding.

The Gamecocks have a solid rushing attack, with multiple games with over 200 yards on the ground. Rocket Sanders and LaNorris Sellers are a dynamic duo in the backfield.

Looking at Saturday’s result and Clemson’s numbers, this defense certainly has its work cut out for it.

The Palmetto Bowl will provide a plethora of storylines, and this aspect of the matchup is hard not to put at the top of the list.