By Will Vandervort.
It did not take Garry Peters too long following last Thursday’s interview session with the media to send his team a message – it’s been 24 years since a Clemson defense has posted multiple shutouts in the same season.
“I didn’t know that,” the senior cornerback said. “I’m going to tell the guys that as soon as we get to the locker room. We are trying to get another one for sure. We are trying to catch all those records.”
The Tigers (6-2, 5-1 ACC) will have a good opportunity to record a second shutout this season when they travel to Winston-Salem, N.C. on Thursday. Wake Forest’s offense is one of the worst in the country through eight games this season.
The Demon Deacons (2-6, 0-4 ACC) rank 122nd out of 125 FBS teams in scoring at 14.8 points per game. Four times this season they have been held to 10 points or less, including just three points to Florida State and seven against Syracuse.
The most points Wake Forest has scored all season is 24 points, which it did twice against Utah State an Army.
Clemson on the other hand has held its last four opponents to a total of 36 points, has one shutout already this season—a 41-0 win against NC State—and held another to seven points, which incidentally scored when the offense fumbled the ball and allowed it to be returned for a touchdown in a 73-7 victory over S.C. State.
“We don’t count it (as a shutout) because in the end it is a team game,” Peters said. “The offense has to hold on to that ball like we as a defense have to get the ball back for the offense. If they score, no matter how it happens, it is all one.
“We are a team so we (the defense) don’t count that as a shutout.”
If the offense did hold on to the football late in the game against S.C. State, the Clemson defense could have had a chance to tie the 1990 squad’s record of three shutouts in the same season. But they still have that opportunity.
“We have to go get it,” Peters said.
If the Tigers can get a shutout at Wake Forest on Thursday night, it will mark just the sixth time since the NCAA allowed teams to form specialized offensive and defensive units that a Clemson defense has posted multiple shutouts in the same year.
That rule went into effect in 1965 and since then only the 1972, ’77, ’79, ’89 and ’90 defenses have posted multiple shutouts in the same season.
“We love shutouts. Our goal, every game, is to pitch a shutout,” Peters said. “We hate seeing opponents get in the red zone. We hate seeing them get points at all whether it is three points or a touchdown. We dislike it.”
If the Tigers can keep Wake—which ranks 125th in total, 125th rushing and 106th in passing offense—off the scoreboard then they will have an opportunity to tie the 1990s record of three shutouts in one year when they host Georgia State on Nov. 22. Of course, the Tigers play at Georgia Tech (Nov. 15) and host South Carolina (Nov. 29) but it is less likely for them to post shutouts against those offenses which are averaging nearly 37 and 36 points a game respectively.
Georgia State ranks 93rd in the country in scoring offense at 24.4 points per game through nine weeks, which includes a 44-0 loss to Appalachian State this past Saturday.
“What makes us happy is a shutout. We are aiming to get another shutout and hopefully it comes this week and next week or whenever it comes, but we want another one. That’s our goal,” Peters said.