Clemson vs. The Citadel Prediction: Military Appreciation Day, Senior Day in Death Valley |
David Hood
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- Friday, November 22 2024
Brilliant sunshine, purple uniforms, Senior Day and Military Appreciation Day all rolled into one, with the idea of earning a win and keeping everybody healthy.
Clemson football and Military Appreciation Day go hand-in-hand. Add in The Citadel as an opponent, and the day sets up to be a good one. Clemson’s military history is well known. The Tigers play in Memorial Stadium, and they run down the hill a little over a hundred feet from the school’s Scroll of Honor. The Tigers will wear all purple in honor of the occasion. NO. 17/16/17 CLEMSON (8-2, 7-1 ACC) vs. THE CITADEL (5-6, 3-5 SOCON) WHEN: SATURDAY, NOV. 23, 3:30 P.M. ET CLEMSON/THE CITADEL SERIES HISTORY - OVERALL: Clemson leads series, 33-5-1 NOTABLE *A ninth win of the season this Saturday would extend Clemson's streak of consecutive seasons, with the Florida State Seminoles, for the third-longest streak of nine-win seasons in major college football history. *Head Coach Dabo Swinney is attempting to join Tom Osborne (25 straight from 1973-97), Nick Saban (16 straight from 2008-23) and Bobby Bowden (14 straight from 1987-2000) as the only coaches in major college football history to record at least 14 consecutive seasons with nine or more wins with one program. *Clemson looks to improve to 39-0 against FCS teams since the NCAA split Division I in 1978. *Clemson attempts to improve to 70-4 at Death Valley in the College Football Playoff era. Clemson's current 69-4 home record is second-best in the country in that span. *Clemson is attempting to improve to 5-1 at home this season. It would be Clemson's 19th consecutive season with at least five home wins and would be Clemson's 23rd such season since 2000. *Running back Phil Mafah (998) needs two rushing yards to post the 24th 1,000-yard rushing season in Clemson history. He would become the 18th player in Clemson annals to record at least one 1,000-yard rushing season, joining Travis Etienne, Wayne Gallman, Raymond Priester, James Davis, Andre Ellington, Woodrow Dantzler, Terrence Flagler, C.J. Spiller, Kenny Flowers, Terry Allen, Will Shipley, Deshaun Watson, Cliff Austin, Buddy Gore, Travis Zachery, Roderick McDowell and Lester Brown. ABOUT THE CITADEL The Bulldogs came from behind to defeat Wofford 30-17 last week, and at 5-6 aren’t going to make the FCS Playoffs. That makes Saturday the last game of the season, and they’ll do what they can to leave it all on the field. The Bulldogs are led by quarterback Johnathan Bennett, who leads the team in rushing with 503 yards. He completes just over 50 percent of his passes (119-for-229) for 1604 yards with seven touchdowns and interceptions apiece. No runner with more than ten rushing attempts breaks 4.6 yards per carry. In fact, the Bulldogs are 99th in total offense in the FCS at just over 313 yards per game. Defensively, they allow 22.2 points per game and the leading tackler is linebacker Thomas Wyatt, who has recorded 76 with two pass deflections. ABOUT CLEMSON For the Tigers, this game is about earning the win, keeping players healthy and resting players that need to be rested. Yes, Mafah is a few yards shy of a thousand. Suit him up, give him a carry to break the mark, and then hide his helmet. Quarterback Cade Klubnik has several records within reach, but his day also needs to be a short one. Klubnik (17-7) is attempting to tie Harvey White (18-7 from 1957-59) for the 13th-most wins as a starting quarterback for Clemson since World War II. He needs two passing touchdowns to tie or three passing touchdowns to surpass Charlie Whitehurst (49 from 2002-05) for fourth on Clemson's all-time leaderboard for career passing touchdowns. Klubnik needs three passing touchdowns to join Tajh Boyd (107), Trevor Lawrence (90) and Deshaun Watson (90) as the only players in school history to throw 50 career touchdown passes. WHAT WILL HAPPEN Clemson’s defense has given up tons of yards and big plays at times this season, but this isn’t a Bulldog team that can take advantage of that. I think a lot of shorter Bulldog drives – and Swinney says we will see a lot of option principles – means more scoring chances for the Tigers. Get the starters a few series or three, work out some of the kinks, and let’s see the kids. Even then, it might still be a mismatch. The Tigers win on a beautiful day in the Valley. FINAL SCORE: CLEMSON 52, THE CITADEL 6 TigerNet picks * Points: 3 pts for best correct prediction of the week (tiebreaker is Clemson score), 2 pts for picking score exactly, 1 pt for picking the correct winner
WHERE: MEMORIAL STADIUM (81,500),CLEMSON, S.C.
TELEVISION: The CW (Thom Brennaman, Max Browne, Treavor Scales)
RADIO: Clemson Athletic Network (Don Munson, Tim Bourret, Reggie Merriweather)
SATELLITE RADIO: SiriusXM 137 or 193
- HOME: Clemson leads series, 15-1
- ROAD: Clemson leads series, 13-1
- NEUTRAL: Clemson leads series, 5-3-1
- LAST MEETING: Sept. 19, 2020 (49-0, W)
- STREAK: Clemson, Won 18
David Hood - TigerNet senior writer - 52-6 Clemson
Mickey Plyler - The Roar 105.5 morning show host - 44-14 Clemson
Nikki Hood - Staff writer - 55-7 Clemson
Brandon Rink - Associate editor - 44-7 Clemson
Tony Crumpton - Associate editor - 56-7 Clemson
Ryan Kantor - Contributing Writer - 46-14 Clemson
Ariana Pensy - Intern - 45-10 Clemson
Merrell Mann - Photographer - 42-17 Clemson
Brooks Thomason - Intern - 52-17 Clemson
Grayson Mann - Staff writer - 56-17 Clemson
Game
Actual
David Hood
Plyler
Nikki Hood
Rink
Crumpton
Kantor
Pensy
M. Mann
Thomason
G. Mann
Georgia
34-3 UGA
27-24 CU
23-21 CU
24-17 CU
29-20 UGA
27-20 UGA
28-21 UGA
24-17 UGA
17-14 CU
27-21 UGA
27-23 UGA
App State
66-20 CU
34-14 CU
30-16 CU CU
38-17 CU
34-17 CU
31-17 CU
35-10 CU
30-10 CU
31-10 CU
31-13 CU
28-10 CU
NC State
59-35 CU
34-13 CU
38-16 CU
42-20 CU
30-13 CU
28-10 CU
35-14 CU
34-17 CU
38-17 CU
31-10 CU
31-10 CU
Stanford
40-14 CU
44-20 CU
48-17 CU
38-10 CU
44-16 CU
42-14 CU
41-17 CU
45-17 CU
48-21 CU
40-20 CU
41-17 CU
FSU
29-13 CU
41-13 CU
42-10 CU
42-17 CU
38-16 CU
35-14 CU
40-14 CU
55-7 CU
44-20 CU
31-16 CU
45-14 CU
Wake Forest
49-14 CU
47-20 CU
44-20 CU
52-14 CU
45-20 CU
48-13 CU
48-14 CU
35-14 CU
42-13 CU
38-17 CU
45-10 CU
Virginia
48-31 CU
38-16 CU
42-17 CU
38-17 CU
44-20 CU
45-14 CU
47-14 CU
45-17 CU
45-13 CU
42-20 CU
41-17 CU
Louisville
33-21 UL
44-28 CU
40-25 CU
45-24 CU
40-21 CU
34-21 CU
49-31 CU
37-27 CU
42-27 CU
41-28 CU
38-21 CU
Va Tech
24-14 CU
30-23 CU
30-20 CU
28-17 CU
26-22 CU
24-17 CU
41-28 CU
28-24 CU
30-24 CU
31-20 CU
23-21 CU
Pitt
24-20 CU
27-16 CU
31-17 CU
28-12 CU
31-16 CU
31-21 CU
35-17 CU
27-20 CU
34-24 CU
24-21 CU
31-17 CU
Points
-
8
8
14
15
15
12
9
8
15
9
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