By Ed McGranahan.
By Ed McGranahan
Do you really believe that Ball State was their first thought on Sunday?
Get real.
These guys can read. They saw that the No. 8 team in the nation was beaten Saturday night in Dallas while they were winning in the Georgia Dome. And they realized they could be Top 10 with a little help the next two weeks.
Can you handle the truth?
Clemson is looking ahead to Florida State.
Why not? It could be a heck of a game with Jimbo and Dabo, Corso and GameDay, tomahawk chops and Tiger Rag, those honey-glazed babes in the fringe halters behind the bench and Papa Bowden’s statue standing sentinel at the main gate.
Coaches try to sell “one play at a time, one game at a time” because there have been occasions when teams become arrogant and sloppy, and things happen like App State 34, Michigan 32.
That’s unlikely this week with Ball State and the first sprint down The Hill or next Saturday against Furman. These kids understand what’s at stake.
Wouldn’t it would be far better to go into Tallahassee undefeated than trying to explain what happened, to start dragging out the tired clichés about goals and the Chick-fil-A crumbs that remain on the table?
“I don’t really think we’ll know who we are for three or four weeks, maybe five weeks before we really have a good gauge on where we are with certain guys,” Dabo Swinney said Tuesday, echoing a point he made in preseason. “We’re going to have a lot of competition hopefully these next few weeks making improvements from experience.”
This is far from a finished product. If they didn’t realize it in the tumult Saturday, it was made crystal clear Sunday evening when they looked at the film. Swinney said it made him sick all the wasted opportunities.
The offensive line needs more work. These two games affords them the luxury of developing depth should Giff Timothy’s knee continues to be an issue. And while it was nice to see what a lighter Tajh Boyd can do on the fly, he didn’t have a lot of time to run through his progressions.
While there will be hell to pay for six drops, the bigger challenge is squeezing more from potential big-play candidates like Charone Peake and Martavis Bryant.
A win over Auburn to open the season whets the appetite, doesn’t satisfy it. Half the teams in college football are undefeated today. The percentage diminishes each week. By Thanksgiving there maybe only three or four survive, and they would like to be one of them.
Not sure there’s any relative value to this, but Ball State was picked to finish fourth in the Mid-American Conference Western Division, roughly where Auburn figures to land in the SEC West.
Clemson is favored by nearly four touchdowns – without Sammy Watkins. There may not be a line for next week’s game with Watkins back on the field.
Swinney said it shouldn’t be difficult to hold the team’s attention.
“If it is difficult then we’re not going to be a championship team,” he said. “I’d be very disappointed if that’s the case.”
So, if you can handle the truth, it’s OK for you to look ahead, too.