Final Thoughts: Clemson's defense was nasty, offense still a work in progress

No. 4 Clemson defeated Georgia Tech 41-10 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium Monday in a game that resembled last season early but showed promise late.

by David Hood - Senior Writer - Tue Sep 06 12:01:27 GMT-04:00 2022

A win is in the books, and another game kicks off in just four short days, and there is plenty to talk about and dissect from Clemson’s win over Georgia Tech.

No. 4 Clemson defeated Georgia Tech 41-10 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium Monday in a game that resembled last season early but showed promise late. Let’s get started on what we saw.

*Defensive tackles coach Nick Eason led the big uglies on the defensive side of the ball out of the locker room during program, and that man was fired up. No wonder players like playing for him. And his group – the defensive tackles – were nasty all night long. Eason, I think, has found his niche here at Clemson and is a rising star.

*Special teams can’t be overlooked – Mike Reed’s group blocked two punts (the first time since blocking two against South Carolina in 2007), BT Potter hit both of his field goals, the coverage teams were outstanding (when needed), and punter Aidan Swanson was on point. Will Taylor didn’t get a chance to get free on punt return because of either high punts or blocks, but you have to figure he will get loose sooner rather than later.

*Defensive coordinator Wes Goodwin wanted to make Georgia Tech one-dimensional and that was accomplished. Tech ran the ball 30 times for just 73 yards, and quarterback Jeff Sims escaped the pocket enough to gain 41 of those yards on 13 attempts. The backs ran it 17 times for 32 yards and didn’t find any success in the middle or on the outside. In an effort to slow down the Clemson pass rush, the Jackets ran a lot of screens and quick hitters.

Sure, there were mistakes here and there and Goodwin told us he had three calls he would like to have back, but overall, it was a fantastic effort as the Jackets managed just 237 total yards.

*Speaking of the defense – the younger corners were able to get in the game and gain some experience. Nate Wiggins had an outstanding fall camp and had a ball thrown his way he would love to have back. It hit him right in the hands, and he had nothing but green turf and painted numbers in between him and the endzone, but he dropped what looked like a sure pick-six.

*How about that No. 0? Freshman wide receiver Antonio Williams showed his change-of-direction skills on a couple of occasions – something the Tigers missed last season – and he’s going to see the field more and more in the coming weeks. Head coach Dabo Swinney raved about Williams in his postgame press conference while adding that Will Taylor is still a work in progress.

“He is a great player, and he will play the slot, and he will play the outside spot too. He will play a couple of spots for us as we go through the year,” Swinney said of Williams. “He is a really good player, and we've seen that all camp. Will is coming. As I've said, Will -- they're very similar in their ability, to be honest with you. Antonio just is a more polished true receiver. That's all he has played, whereas Will Taylor is a quarterback. We never really got to transition him because he spent all year rehabbing an ACL and didn't get the fall, and he didn't get any work in the spring. He is literally like a true freshman and a new position. He just took the brace off.

“So they're very similar, but Antonio is just a more polished, savvy route runner and all that because he just has played, but Will is coming.”

Swinney then hinted that Adam Randall is close to a return.

“Listen, y'all wait until you see Adam Randall. Don't forget about him. He is pretty good. Honestly, he could have played tonight. Just kind of holding him back,” Swinney said. “He had a full week and a half of practice all scout team, and he is going to do scout team this week. We're going to get him back real soon, and that's going to be a nice -- that's a nice guy to add to the equation for sure. That little Antonio is off to a great start tonight.”

The wide receivers need more Williams and Randall to get on the field because there were a lot of times when they just weren’t very good. There are still too many dropped passes, and they don’t seem to win a lot of 1-on-1 battles. That has to change going forward.

*As for the other No. 0, linebacker Barrett Carter might have been the best player on the field Monday night. Carter and Trenton Simpson each registered six tackles to lead the Tigers (and Simpson was plenty good), but Carter was all over the place, affecting the quarterback, making plays in coverage, and being disruptive. There is a lot to like about that linebacker group.

*Ok, now for the elephant in the room, the offense. I will start out by saying quarterback DJ Uiagalelei was better last night than he was at any point last season. He made some beautiful throws and as we touched on, his receivers didn’t help him. There are still times when he locks on to a primary receiver and just stays there, and there are times when he doesn’t look comfortable in the run game (I thought early on he had a wide-open gap to run through up the middle and instead, he bounced it outside).

He also wasn’t helped by his offensive line. Freshman right tackle Blake Miller looked like a freshman at times, and there were some communication issues. The good news is that Miller now has some experience and a lot of those mistakes can be cleaned up (it was the first game, after all). We asked about the lack of success in the run game, and Swinney pointed to the fact that the Tigers had several short fields to work with because of great defense and special teams. I can buy that, but you also want to see some huge holes for guys to run through and the windows were really tight in the run game.

I asked offensive coordinator Brandon Streeter about the plodding play of the offense at times (I think I called it a slog in my question) and how he can promise the fans it will get better, and he said, “It will be different, there is no question. No. 1, we are healthy. We had a lot of guys that played and made plays, and we are going to gain confidence from that. Like you said, we had some hiccups in the first half and even into the third quarter. There were two plays in the first half where we just shot ourselves in the foot (the bad snap and fumble). A little bit of a sluggish start, like you said, but we just needed to settle in. We all watched football games this past weekend, and that first game, it’s tough to be hitting on all cylinders. The key now is to respond from what happened today and gain confidence from that second half and doing some really good things.”

As for freshman quarterback Cade Klubnik, he was electric. It was against some Tech backups, but as one fan tweeted out, “Klubnik just led the Daniel wide receiver room down the field for a touchdown.” The offense crackled when he was in there because he has so much energy. He’s only going to get better (even former Baylor standout and NFL player Robert Griffin III tweeted out that Klubnik will lead Clemson to a national title) as he gains more experience. It was just one drive, but that was fun to watch. (One media member opined in the elevator that the mistake the coaches made was letting Klubnik loose with a small sample size because now it will drive a controversy).

Is there a quarterback controversy brewing? Not yet. I want to see Klubnik work with the first team, and he might get that chance this Saturday against Furman. I want to see Uiagalelei get a little help and see if he can improve even more off of this last start. There are two weeks ahead when the coaches can evaluate that spot before the team heads up the interstate to take on Wake Forest in Winston-Salem, and my guess is that by then we will have a clearer picture of where things stand.