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Sunday AM Thoughts....
Sep 23, 2018, 8:08 AM
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Just some thoughts I had in no particular order....
1) I wonder: do we try to redshirt Kelly Bryant now? Keep in mind he still has that redshirt year available to him...and given his talent - which is substantial - his big-game experience (which now includes 18 starts and 16 wins), and his obvious class and character (he served as a mentor, not a competitor, to Trevor Lawrence, and never once showed any Attitude about it)...everybody is going to want him. He'd start tomorrow at Arkansas and Chad Morris. He'd start next year for Auburn if Jarrett Stidham moves along. He'd start for anybody who has a spread HUNH and needs a winning QB. Something to think about. It'd be undeniably nice to have Bryant available as a backup all year but...is it time to be fair to Kelly Bryant for all he has done, and preserve that last year of eligibility for him?
He plays even one snap more, in one more game...and that redshirt year is gone. Forever. Something to think about.
2) Clemson's offense is absolutely lethal when the deep component is there. So much for the notion there was something wrong with Clemson's OL...Lawrence backed GT's safeties out of the box, and voila, like magic, Etienne (11 carries, 122 yards, 11.1ypc) and Feaster (8 carries, 75 yards, 9.4ypc) ran wild. The team ran for 248 yards yesterday...and the QB's running accounted for just 16 yards of that. Crazy, huh? It definitely confirms the notion that Etienne and Feaster are big-hitting backs with big-play potential who just needed some space. Keep in mind Georgia Tech came into that game ranked #23 in total defense; that wasn't the Sisters of the Poor they were lighting up.
3) Justyn Ross! Tee Higgins! Wanna hear some crazy? They've only caught 15 passes all year between them...but Higgins is averaging 22.1 yards per grab and has two scores already, and Ross is averaging 28.7 yard per catch and has three. Those numbers aren't sustainable, obviously, but it does tell you those two can take the top off a defense...anytime, from anywhere on the field. I definitely smiled a big smile when at one point in the third I saw both guys on the field at the same time; the only problem was they were unfortunately fighting for the same ball, which they need to work out. But that is frightening for a defense. The Big Play is back at Clemson.
I don't know if this has fully settled in, yet, by the way: but we clearly have two first-round WR's on the field, with a guy who is clearly a first-round QB now throwing to them. Oh, we also still have The Always Open Hunter Renfrow. Also, Amari Rodgers is quietly doing what 2-receivers do at Clemson which is hoover up short passes and turn them into extra yards. Rodgers has 17 grabs for 191 (11.2 ypc) already, which is a full yard per grab better than Ray-Ray McCloud (who went in the 6th round to the NFL) was getting last year. (He's also on track to grab 70+ balls on the season if we last into the postseason as expected; McCloud got 49 catches last year.)
4) Speaking of defense, Clemson allowed just 203 total yards to GT yesterday...most of it in garbage time with PJ the Doucherocket keeping the bulk of his 1's in the game to try to make the score more respectable. Stay classy, Pawwwwl. That takes Clemson down to 251.8 yards per game given up...which would put Clemson's D at second nationally, I think, behind only Utah...who has only played three games. (I'm not 100% on this, the NCAA stat site hasn't updated yet, so don't hold my feet to the fire on this.) Considering we've emptied the bench against, well, everybody, and I think I saw a tuba player from the band stuffing an option pitch late in the fourth against GT yesterday, that ain't bad at all.
5) Speaking of which, how cool is it that Clemson somehow managed to play all 72 players on the travel squad in that road win against GT yesterday...and not a one of them is a bad player?
There is depth. And then there is just stupid, unreasonable, insane depth.
Anyhow, for all those worrying about Clemson's lack style points the first couple weeks...well, there was your answer. Have you not been watching Clemson the last few years? This is what Clemson does. They play everybody, which makes the Tigers start off clunky the first third of the season. Those players get experience, get coached up, and get better. By year's end it starts looking like an All-Star tag-team in WWE, just waves of top-echelon players casually trotting in and out, while the Gamecocks and whoever is unfortunate enough to draw us in the ACC Championship game are usually trying to jury-rig their banged-up rosters together with duct tape and bailing wire.
Anyhow. Just my own thoughts.
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