CLEMSON — Prior to last week’s game against Notre Dame, Dabo Swinney put his entire Clemson team on notice. Though the Tigers came out and beat the then 12th-ranked Irish at Memorial Stadium it does not mean things are back to status quo.
“We do not have any mulligans. Nobody has any. We have to fight our tails off to try and find a way to win a play,” Swinney said following Wednesday’s practice, as Clemson continues its preparations for this week’s home game against Georgia Tech. “If we can stack enough plays, hopefully, we can win the game.”
Last week, Swinney made it clear to both players and coaches that he was evaluating everyone and those who did not give it their all, there were going to be consequences. He challenged his players and staff to show him what they could do.
Practices on Tuesday and Wednesday were as physical as they have been in quite some time, and the Tigers responded with a 31-23 victory over Notre Dame. Clemson’s head coach has the same mentality again this week.
“Everybody is on a day-to-day basis around here,” Swinney said. “Play-to-play and day-to-day. We just have to compete our butts off and if somebody is not getting the job done, then we have to put somebody else in there, so everybody has to show up and fight, every single play.
“I don’t think we are settled. I just think we are coming off a good game and that is great, but that does not have anything to do with this game.”
The Tigers (5-4, 2-4 ACC) hope they can continue to run the football like they did last week. They ran for 176 yards and averaged 4.1 yards per carry against a Notre Dame defense that ranked in the top 10 nationally in rushing yards allowed per carry.
Besides Phil Mafah’s 186 yards and two touchdowns, the offensive line had perhaps its best week. They gave up just one sack and physically controlled the line of scrimmage most of the afternoon.
The O-Line’s success was particularly surprising after the news came out that left guard Marucs Tate injured his knee in practice and left tackle Collin Sadler was going to be held out as well. Offensive line coach Thomas Austin moved Tristan Leigh back to left tackle and then started Trent Howard at left guard and true freshman Harris Sewall at right guard.
Austin, along with offensive coordinator Garrett Riley, also simplified what they were doing in their blocking schemes and went exclusively to zone blocking. The end result was a rushing attack no one, including Notre Dame, saw coming.
Though Tate will be out, Sadler is expected to be back this week, but Swinney would not say if that meant Clemson would move Leigh back to right guard and let Sadler take left tackle like they did at NC State.
“We got a couple of guys (back) that will add a little more depth to us this week, so guys got to go play,” Swinney said. “If somebody is not getting it done, we have to put someone else in there. It is a week-to-week thing right now.”
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