Tiger Spirit [9963]
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FYI from the WA PO
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Sep 9, 2023, 11:33 AM
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Week 2 college football preview: Has the sport passed Clemson by?
Analysis by Patrick Stevens
Contributing college sports reporter
September 8, 2023 at 12:00 p.m. EDT
Clemson was bottled up against Duke in a 28-7 loss, and its downward trajectory continues. (Ben McKeown/AP)
Clemson’s 28-7 loss at Duke on Monday may well be remembered as a line of demarcation, an acknowledged end to the Tigers’ long romp at the top of the ACC and as an annual national power (at least for now).
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Others might quibble. It could be the Sugar Bowl rout against Ohio State after the 2020 season. Maybe the overtime loss at N.C. State in 2021 that rendered Clemson more vulnerable to the rest of the ACC. A better choice is last year’s three-touchdown loss at Notre Dame, which was followed a few weeks later when the Tigers squandered a 14-point lead and lost at home to South Carolina.
Whatever the trigger point is, Clemson’s offensive ineptitude and self-inflicted problems against a Blue Devils bunch that clearly expected to win marked arguably the lowest point for the program in more than a decade. And it left plenty for Coach Dabo Swinney to fix between now and Sept. 23, when Florida State comes to Death Valley.
The popular prevailing theory for why Clemson is no longer towering over the rest of the ACC (not to mention the non-Athens and non-Tuscaloosa precincts of the entire sport) is tied to Swinney’s reticence (reluctance? stubbornness? refusal?) to embrace transfers as a way to augment a roster.
College football’s biggest winners are those who can navigate the transfer portal
It’s an easy explanation, but not necessarily a thorough one. With fifth- and sixth-year seniors occupying a larger percentage of rosters thanks to the NCAA’s blanket coronavirus waiver for the 2021 season, there is a sound case for supplementing rosters with physically mature 22- and 23-year-olds rather than relying on freshmen and sophomores.
So, for example, when Keon Coleman torches LSU for three touchdown catches in his first game at Florida State after transferring from Michigan State, it offers a contrast.
(Swinney also wouldn’t be the first coach to find a formula for winning big and then not deviate from it under the reasoning it has worked before. After all, succeeding at the level Clemson has over the past dozen years is hard).
But there’s another piece to this puzzle: While Clemson’s defense has dipped from elite (fourth, fifth and sixth nationally in total defense from 2017 to 2019) to merely excellent (15th, eighth and 27th from 2020 to 2022), its offense (38th, third and fifth in total offense from 2017 to 2019) has taken a more striking turn (10th, 100th and 47th from 2020 to 2022).
Those struggles were waved away after last season as an illustration of the shortcomings of former quarterback DJ Uiagalelei. Monday’s result and new starter Cade Klubnik’s struggles against Duke suggest the problem runs deeper than just the quarterback position.
Perhaps neither Uiagalelei nor Klubnik are at the level of Deshaun Watson and Trevor Lawrence, former Clemson stars and the engines for much of the Tigers’ six playoff berths in a row. But a notable difference the past two seasons and Monday night wasn’t who was throwing the ball; it was who was receiving it.
Clemson consistently churned out 1,000-yard wideouts for a decade once Swinney got things rolling: Sammy Watkins (2011 and 2013), DeAndre Hopkins (2012), Mike Williams (2014 and 2016), Justyn Ross (2018), Tee Higgins (2019) and Amari Rodgers (2020).
The Tigers’ top wideout in 2021 was Ross, who had 514 yards a year after undergoing spinal surgery. Last year, freshman Antonio Williams had a team-high 604 yards receiving. And Monday, Williams led Clemson with 56 yards (a 728-yard pace over 13 games and 784 yards over 14 games).
The trend line suggests there may be some slippage in recruiting evaluations, player development or both, not to mention opponents managing to field older, more experienced defenses. It probably isn’t just one thing, or just one position group.
In short, there are a lot of variables, and while the portal could provide a panacea for some of Clemson’s shortcomings, it probably wouldn’t solve all of them. The Tigers still have considerable advantages, and a ferocious response is possible. But a program that has won a league title seven of the past eight years has an unusual amount of self-reflection to do after its Labor Day letdown.
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