Tigers seek 'Playoff-ready' level in Georgia opener

Barrett Carter says the focus is showing a team ready for Playoff action right out of the gates with Georgia. (Photo: Jim Dedmon / USATODAY)

Grayson Mann - Staff Writer - Saturday, July 27 2024

History has a way of repeating itself.

For Clemson’s season opener against Georgia, they don’t want specific characteristics to resurface again.

Clemson’s 2023 opener against Duke was labeled a game in which the Tigers could show they were back on track. Their new quarterback showed flashes of promise in relief of DJ Uiagaelelei, and now he was paired with college football’s prized coordinator from TCU.

What could go wrong?

Well, a lot. Clemson led 7-6 at halftime, only for Duke to rattle off 22 unanswered points, leaving the Tigers in the dust for an embarrassing opening loss.

The offense turned over the ball three times, with two coming at the goal line that easily could’ve been points for Garrett Riley’s new offense. On the defensive side, Riley Leonard’s 44-yard touchdown run, where he broke several tackles, set the tone for a will-imposing performance.

It was shell-shocking enough for Dabo Swinney.

“Honestly, in all of my years of football, I’ve never been a part of a game like that,” Swinney said. “We had so many opportunities, and it was really disappointing.”

Fast forward to 2024. The Tigers are coming off one of the more tumultuous seasons in recent memory.

With fall camp rapidly approaching, the Atlanta opener against the Georgia Bulldogs is closer than ever. If there’s ever been a more resonant theme between the players and coaches, the level of readiness needs to be that of a team prepping for the playoff.

If you ask wide receivers coach Tyler Grisham, the coaching staff’s intensity has been amplified to meet this goal.

“We want to be playoff ready, play one right this season,” Grisham said. “There is going to be a phenomenal push from our staff to have our guys ready, and that's going to take a ton of coaching and a ton of intensity from our staff to have our guys ready.”

The message is being echoed within the roster as well. Several representatives, which included Cade Klubnik, RJ Mickens, Barrett Carter, and Phil Mafah, attended Thursday’s ACC Kickoff. Their message to the media was simple: Playoff focus is our only option.

Nobody understands that focus more than Carter, who admitted to the media last year that he wasn’t entirely in game shape for the Duke opener.

The memory indeed flipped a switch with the senior linebacker, who has done everything he can this offseason to prevent lightning from striking twice.

“I would say game one, play one. We have to be Playoff-ready,” Carter said. “We can't get warmed up as the games go by. As the season goes by from the first snap, we must be Playoff-ready from the jump. So that's probably what I would say, and that's been the emphasis this year. We're not going to sit around and warm up throughout the season. We are going from the first snap. We're going to be Playoff-ready. So that's what I've been trying to preach to the guys just that.”

Soon, time for preaching will turn into time for action. In just days, Clemson will be weeks away from playing a likely preseason No. 1, where a win may show last year’s mistakes were a thing of the past.

History can often repeat itself, but the Tigers want to make sure this chapter in their story has a different ending.