All of a sudden, Clemson’s season is on the line in the home matchup against Syracuse on Saturday.
After dropping two of its first three games, the Tigers’ postseason hopes have quickly faded, and one more loss in ACC play would pretty much seal their fate.
Clemson has rarely lost two straight under Dabo Swinney. The Tigers are 38-10 following a loss during his tenure as coach. The program has also won six straight over the Orange and has never lost to them at home (5-0).
5 Things to Watch For
1. Getting More from Cade Klubnik: Through three games, Clemson’s senior quarterback has not even come close to being what most thought he’d be. Klubnik was touted as a Heisman favorite coming into the season, and he’s looked like anything but.
Klubnik has more turnovers than games played, and he just hasn’t seen the field well. Without Antonio Williams, Klubnik tends to look for Bryant Wesco far more than any other receiver, and this team has enough weapons out wide that he should be trying to spread the ball around more. Only Wesco is averaging more than 35 receiving yards per game. With a roster that also includes T.J. Moore and Tyler Brown, that just shouldn’t be the case.
Klubnik has looked more like the sophomore version of himself than the guy who threw for more than 3,600 yards last season and only had six interceptions. If the Tigers have any hope of getting this thing turned around, it all starts with the quarterback.
2. Run the Dang Ball: Adam Randall has been one of the lone bright spots on the offensive side of the ball, and he’s averaging well under 15 carries per game. This team needs to be feeding him more. In the loss to Georgia Tech, in a game that came down to the very last play, Randall had only 15 carries, while Klubnik had 17. The quarterback absolutely needs to be involved in the running game, but giving him more carries than Randall probably isn’t the best path towards offensive success.
Randall is averaging more than five yards per carry, and getting him going earlier and sustaining that over four quarters would certainly take some of the pressure off a struggling quarterback.
3. Getting Off Field: So far, Clemson’s new look defense has been a mixed bag. Last week’s performance against the Yellow Jackets was the most disappointing yet. Tech converted one third down after another and was 4-of-5 in the decisive fourth quarter. That just won’t cut it.
Opponents are converting 43.7% of their third-down opportunities against this defense, with the Tigers ranking No. 107 nationally. That is the opposite of winning football.
4. Better on Backend: One of Tom Allen’s biggest talking points when he took over the defense was shoring up the tackling. Through the first two games, a lot of that had been cleaned up. However, against Georgia Tech, the issues once again reared their ugly head, particularly in the secondary.
This Syracuse offense is much different than the one the Tigers just faced in Atlanta last weekend. The Orange are going to throw it around. Quarterback Steve Angeli has only 19 rushing attempts all season and is averaging more than 357 passing yards per game.
Avieon Terrell, Ashton Hampton and Jeadyn Lukus will be tested on Saturday, as will the safeties, which haven’t always fared that well in the absence of Khalil Barnes.
5. Did Swinney Push Right Buttons: Swinney was in rare fashion on Tuesday, as the head coach had one of his viral press conferences in an attempt to help rally the troops. The last time we saw that Swinney was back in 2023 during that team’s sluggish start. The Tigers wound up winning five straight to close out that campaign. Will this team have a similar response? Or has the head coach lost that magic touch?
Photo by Bart Boatwright