I think Dabo would kiss the AP if he could

Oct 20, 2019, 5:31 PM

You wanna motivate a team? Talk smack about them.

Clemson keeps on winning. And the sportswriters keep on dumping. I personally love it; the biggest problem Clemson's got going right now is boredom, and having people tell you how great you are, paradoxically, is the last thing any coach wants...what Nick Saban calls "rat poison".

You will not hear Dabo complain. The sportswriters and talking heads are doing his job for him!

They keep feeding the Tide the rat poison, though, which has got to be giving Saban indigestion. Even though it was hard to not notice that they weren't much better than goshawful Tennessee without Tua. And Tennessee is flat-out wretched right now. But Bama's got a mediocre run game and a mediocre defense...hidden by a passing attack (with Tua) that can break scoreboards.

Which begs the question - when on Earth did Alabama morph into a Big 12 team? But they have company - LSU has joined the Big 12 right along with the Tide. The AP wants to rank those squads ahead of us, fine and dandy...but neither runs the ball well, and neither has anything resembling a championship defense this year.

Neither does Oklahoma...for all the talk their defense is "improved" - and it is - they still do not have a Top-25 offense; their D ranks 28th in the country, well below Clemson's, and their early schedule was leavened with some of the nation's worst offenses, like West Virginia (120th overall), Kansas (85th overall), Houston (79th overall), UCLA (70th overall), along with D1-FCS South Dakota.

Plus, is Jalen Hurts really an elite QB? There's no doubt he's a good QB and an even better competitor and athlete, but I can't help suspecting that Lincoln Reilly is scheming him better than he actually is.

Ohio State is the only team that stands with Clemson as having both an elite offense (5th overall) and elite defense (2nd)...the Bucknuts have certainly looked formidable, but for all the talk about Clemson's weak schedule the Hurtin' Buckaroos have also played far worse competition and they have the same problem endemic to most offenses that run that Urban Meyer spread - it's run-heavy, features a running QB, and it's questionable if they can beat you through the air if they can't run - their passing game is just 66th nationally and Justin Fields, while he fits that system perfectly, still reminds me a whole lot more of JT Barrett than Deshaun Watson.

Urban Meyer's offenses were very much like Rich Rod's offenses - they absolutely steamrolled people when they could run on them. When they couldn't, they usually looked like a sparrow hitting a screen door. Ryan Day still very much runs that system. And I am...distinctly curious to see how Justin Fields, who often showed a mercurial disposition and questionable decision-making at Georgia, will fare in the face of Venables' exotic blitzes. I think we may well find out. Something tells me - not well. They've kept things very sweet for Fields there thus far because Day and his staff are perfectly well aware there are more than a few things Fields cannot do.

FWIW. But the only thing the sportswriters and talking heads are doing right now is helping us.

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I think Dabo would kiss the AP if he could

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