By Will Vandervort
CLEMSON — Though the 11th-ranked Clemson Tigers showed a lot of maturity in beating a lesser opponent in Ball State last week, quarterback Tajh Boyd says there is still work to be done. With that, he says Clemson isn’t in any position to be overlooking anyone, no matter who the Tigers have to play in the coming weeks.
“One of the biggest things we wanted to see as a team was how would we respond after a game like Auburn,” he said. “We wanted to see in the Ball State game if we could play our game, play to our standard and execute.
“I think we answered a lot of questions, and again we will see if we can do the same thing on Saturday.”
On Saturday, the Tigers (2-0) will host Furman, a team that has lost two games that it very easily could have won. Though the Paladins are 0-2, Clemson is going to treat them like they are Auburn and make sure they get Clemson’s best shot despite the fact the Tigers have a potential top 10 matchup at Florida State on Sept. 22
“You can’t overlook anybody,” center Dalton Freeman said.
Clemson knows that first hand. Last year, the Tigers came out a little flat in their first two games against Troy and Wofford, and were nearly beat by the Terriers, a Southern Conference brethren of Furman.
“Nobody truly looks ahead as everyone makes it out to be, but for whatever the reason, Wofford had our number,” Freeman said. “I swear up and down that Wofford was one of the better teams we played all year as far as knowing what to do, knowing their job and being well coached.”
Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney says like Wofford, Furman is also very well coached and has more than enough talent to challenge the Tigers in the 3:09 p.m. kickoff.
“We have talked to them a lot about not looking ahead,” Swinney said. “If you do that, you falter. Great teams don’t do that. Great teams show up and they take care of their business. Great teams play to a standard and not their opponent.”
There were a lot of critics last week that thought the Tigers would come out and play flat against Ball State after such an emotional win against Auburn. Instead, Clemson came out and scored on seven of eight offensive possessions in route to a 45-10 halftime lead.
The defense forced two three-and-outs to the start the game and had two interceptions in the opening 30 minutes.
“That’s part of the leadership that is on this team,” Freeman said. “It is really important that we stress to these younger guys that it doesn’t matter who we are playing, and Coach Swinney stresses this all the time, but it is a nameless, faceless opponent. For us it does not matter who we are playing, if it is Furman or Florida State, we should go out there and play Clemson football.”
The thing Swinney wants to see is how his younger players will respond if they get an opportunity like last week to play a lot of plays.
“When those guys come in, we can’t say ‘We can’t do this and we can’t do this.’ No, we just play,” the Clemson coach said. “The expectation is the same and that is one of the things I’m challenging that group of younger players with. We lost the second half last Saturday. We got beat 17-7.
“Our other guys went out there and put those points on the board so they don’t want to see them play down to an opponent or not be ready to play. They are in the same meetings. They are in the same practice. They get the same reps. They need to be ready to go when their number is called, too.”