Clemson

"Welcome to Clemson, have y'all been treated well since you came?"...

Fellow Noles, this is simply the best road trip on the schedule. These are our people. Both schools are the bastard stepchildren in our State. Both schools flourish despite watching their rival grab all the big money donations, boast dwarfing alumni bases and a conference affiliation that somehow makes them sanctimoniously superior. We are football schools in a basketball conference and proud of it. The only two schools in the ACC that have any idea at all what the word tailgate means, and most importantly a fan base that considers winning with class as important as winning. Now, I know that it has not always been sweet tea and hushpuppies between our schools. The fact is, our 23 years of football dominance in what used to be their conference has chipped away at their rock of confidence to the point that Howard's Boulder is now only known as a rock. When someone else enters the schoolyard and bullies everyone for 10 straight years it leaves a mark. Since we entered the ACC, we have won the conference title 16 times and Clemson has won it...ummm...once. So, humility has been taught and the late 80's Tiger arrogance that resulted in 190 jack & coke cups landing in the end zone around Deion's praying celebration has faded.

We walked in the Esso Club on Friday night and immediately had 3 orange clad gentlemen buy our party a round of welcoming beverages. The free drinks kept coming and despite the fact that we were standing squarely in the path of their best National Championship hope since 1981 (raise your hand if you remember that season clearly), literally every person that came up to the only garnet & gold folks in the place thanked us for coming and shared a kind story of their trips to Tallahassee. The Tigers were not obnoxious this weekend, they were nervous. For a homer comparison, think about how you felt sitting down in the rainy Orange Bowl at the end of that 1993 season before kickoff. Outwardly calm and confident while your stomach is performing Olympic vaulting routines. Yes, we are better but will it really happen? Their twitchy demeanor probably did not improve when two plays in, ole #4 goes 75 yards to rest in the Sanders endzone. In fact, I am not sure that anyone wearing Orange really took a full breath this entire night until Travis fumbled with 2 minutes left. At that moment a breezeless evening became a hurricane of liquor infused exhaling. Thanks for a classy weekend Tigers, but if Saturday night was any indication, it may be a short run.

Before I get into the game itself, and this is in no way an excuse as the better (QB) team won on Saturday, but without the benefit of television - was this a home cooked meal for the ACC officiating crew? Again, with no replay at my disposal, three huge plays seemed to be blown calls and flipped the game. The first was the "late" hit on Jalen right in front of us. That dude was in bounds and if #8 wanted to hit him, he would have exploded Watson into the preacher; a collision which would have ended very badly for Clemson if you know the body type of our religious leader. Secondly, what looked for all the world like an obvious targeting call on Pig Harrison that would have extended a drive into the red zone was not called with 4 officials right on top of the play. Finally, a horse collar followed by an out of bounds do-si-do into the Tiger bench on Kermit's final kickoff return which would have given us a drive start at the 34 with an easy tying FG and a completely different playcall sheet. After the Duke debacle, I expected better at the marquee ACC game of the season.

Our offense was not good enough to win against this group. With every single starter back and three more OL with experience on the bench in 2016, the excuses are going to dry up soon, but on this day, it was just not enough. Our best big ugly - Rod Johnson - missed two huge blocks. One would have been an easy score inside the five and the other would have given Dalvin a first down on the fourth down conversion. He did not get beat, he just flat whiffed. Given the circumstances - his first road game and a crowd as loud as a closet full of screaming babies - the QB showed some remarkable poise at times. We had some shots, and he missed him. Often, his failure was not reading one more branch on his receiving tree. He deferred to the deepest ball when his guy 15-25 yards downfield was wide open. Clemson almost always sent their safety to help on the post, and the underneath route was vacated. Ermon Lane must have felt like he was wearing all green, he was so invisible.  Izzo, when not staying in to help our overmatched RT,  was similarly open and only got one target and made a circus catch on that one. Given all that, with Sean in the game, the box was clear, and Dalvin's yardage reflects that downfield threat. Eberle could be a special player in the middle, and when we finally settle on 5 dudes who play consistently together, watch out. Clemson has terrific cover corners and I was a little surprised we did not tunnel screen to the wideouts and almost no back screens to Dalvin or Jacques. This was an area I thought we could exploit with their overaggressive upfield rush ends, and average speed at LB.

On the flip side, as General Neyland used to say... A running game and a defense always travels well. This defense - on the field for an incredible 85 plays - traveled well again. I think we can say with impunity after four years of watching Jimbo's team play the spread, that our defense (Duck disaster aside) can play this offense. When you have two absolute beasts in the middle in Nnadi and Nile, the running game is tough sledding. With Terrence Smith and Derwin James cleaning up on aisle 5 whenever someone gets loose, it was fun to watch. Josh Sweat is so fast that he is held on almost every passing down, and in 2016 when his reputation as a All American DE is solidified, he will get many of those calls. We were waiting to see if Clemson, with all this WR talent, could challenge Jalen and Marquez downfield and the answer was an unequivocal No. So, the second half Dabo dippsy do adjustment was to abandon the base run, and throw behind the LOS to their wideouts and hope that none of the redonk holding calls on the edge get noticed. Mission accomplished. The difference in the game was Watson's ability to create yards when there was nothing there, and that was a bunch. It takes a special player to float around the backfield consistently and make plays - and he did. Deondre Francois made the trip, and I hope he took notes.

Cason was absolute money again this game, and Roberto was also on point. His kickoffs were crucial to making them go 85 yards instead of 75 on two occasions. I was only disappointed in the first kick when he was at the 50 and we had a chance to really punch them deep. He overcooked the wedge and they got a cheap touchback. Our punt return game is just a mess. We are giving up 20-50 yards of offense a game by simply not grabbing the ball in the air. Someone on that bench needs to light a spark here, and the staff needs to recognize this as a weakness.

So, in 2016, when those orange folks from the Upstate come marching down to Tally with their undefeated record fresh off a playoff appearance - welcome them to town. Hug em up, invite them inside your tailgate tent, and talk nasty about the SEC for hours. Buy them a beer or three, then let's beat their ass.