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Wake Forest was missing their #1 and #3 receivers...
Nov 17, 2019, 11:06 AM
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...and the announcers could not shut up about it. If there were fewer than 25 different mentions of Wake's missing receivers - and the massive impact it was having on the game - then I would be shocked. The camera kept panning to the injured dudes on the sideline and speculating on when and if they'd be back. The announcers kept breaking down where their replacements were trying but ultimately falling short. And the result spoke for itself: Wake netted 3 total points, and 105 - repeat, 105! - total yards of offense. The entire game. Clemson had that halfway through the first quarter.
There was not one mention - not one! - that the same was true of Clemson. Ross and Rogers both left the game early, and Ross was #1 on Clemson's team in receptions (43), Rogers was third (25), and their replacements were so seamless that the announcers never once commented that either player was even missing.
What happened? Well, Diondre Overton slid over to his (natural) boundary receiver spot and caught 4 balls for 52 yards, Higgins slid over to the slot - where he played extensively as a freshman because he was skinny then and couldn't get off the press - and caught 4 balls for 64 yards and 3 TD's abusing safeties (put a pin in that, because Clemson will come back to it at some point), and the true froshes Clemson's been incubating all year - Ladson and Ngata - came in and played extensively, netting another 4 balls for 72 yards and 2 TD's between them as well.
This is where all those fancy maffs stats like S&P+ and ESPN's Power Index all fall short: they're missing a critical data field, and that's the number of players that have played in critical snaps over the course of a year where the game was in doubt. We've seen Overton, Ladson, and Ngata flash stuff all year, mixing good plays with bad plays...but Dabo kept playing them, kept developing them, and in a must-have November game with key starters missing, the backups delivered - huge, to the tune of 8 catches for 124 yards and 2 TD's, and again, they performed so well barely anyone even noticed Clemson was missing two elite starters.
Going into the playoffs, Clemson's going to have no less than 6 impactful receivers that Clemson can deal the ball to with confidence.
Pan later into the game, I also saw plenty of other stuff - true frosh TE Davis Allen getting extensive snaps, Darien Rencher flashing a developed skillset - he picked up blocks, caught the ball effectively out of the backfield, and repeatedly showed a nose for the first-down marker and an ability to run behind his blocks, pick his hole, and stick his foot in the ground...and then in came the true froshes, Melusi and Dukes, picking up valuable reps of their own...running behind a second set of offensive linemen. And I think Venables played 40 guys on defense. I'm pretty sure I saw the tuba player from the band in on a sack late in the fourth.
People point to the players Clemson has recruited, but they miss the point. Talent is pointless if you don't play it...and Dabo's not just extracting value from high-end guys like Ladson and Ngata, he's also extracting value from former walk-ons like Darien Rencher and former and current developmental guys (like Overton, who came in very raw!) and Michael Dukes and Ruke Orhorhoro...no, critics, those guys were not 5-star all-World guys with 50 offers apiece. But they belong, talentwise, and given love and snaps, they'll develop. If you are willing to play them and coach them up.
And that's Clemson's biggest edge, and why Clemson always starts slow in September...and looks like this in November and December. Player development...and, closely related to that - attrition.
Clemson could replace its wounded starters. Wake Forest could not.
We saw the same thing, incidentally, with Notre Dame last year, when they lost CB Bryce Love and couldn't replace him, and the cameras kept pointing to the injured Love peddling wanly on his warmup bike and Brian Kelly flailing on the sidelines afterward and pontificating about what a different game it would have been had that injury not occurred. Whereas nobody even noticed Dexter Lawrence was missing for Clemson because Huggy Bear stepped in and dominated in his stead, and Dabo Swinney said not a word.
We see it and we see it and we see it some more. And it always comes back to the simple question: are you willing to put in the hard work to develop your guys, and live with their mistakes in September in order to be truly great when it matters: November, December, and hopefully...January?
Because Dabo is.
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