During a conference preview of the ACC on ESPN’s College GameDay Podcast, GameDay host Rece Davis gave his thoughts on the 2023 Clemson team entering its first year with offensive coordinator Garrett Riley, second year with defensive coordinator Wes Goodwin and first year with Cade Klubnik in the full-time starting quarterback role.

“Clemson has a new offensive coordinator in Garrett Riley who helped lead the TCU offense to the national championship game,” Davis said.
“Wes Goodwin returns as the defensive coordinator, and there’s so much hype and expectation around Cade Klubnik in this offense. He looked good at times late, looked a little overmatched at times against Tennessee. But he was young. He gets to improve and grow up, too, and he’s got a world of talent.”

Davis weighed in on the offensive personnel around Klubnik, including skill position players and an offensive line that returns four starters from a season ago.

“Got Will Shipley returning. They’ve got some capable guys on the outside including Antonio Williams. Jake Briningstool, a tight end, has been a weapon,” Davis said. “They’ve got guys back on the offensive line, which has been the criticism of Clemson in recent years, just how tough are they on the offensive line. And in all honesty, I think a good case can be made that they’ve done a brilliant job at times, even with their championship teams, of not letting maybe some level of deficiency in the offensive line hurt them. Not that all of their players were deficient, but maybe they had holes, they had weaknesses, and they masked them beautifully.”

As for the other side of the ball, Davis acknowledged that Clemson’s defense has plenty of talented playmakers who will make things difficult for opposing offenses, and Davis thinks the Tigers could be “a little more settled” defensively in their second year removed from former defensive coordinator Brent Venables.

“Now, as Clemson often does and does again this year, they’ve got dudes on the other side to try to stop you on defense with Jeremiah Trotter and Tyler Davis and Ruke Orhorhoro, Andrew Mukuba, who’s a terrific athlete. Xavier Thomas even returns. He’s been around forever. So, they’re going to be a handful on defense, and maybe a second year post-Venables has them a little more settled on defense, too.”

Davis also commented on Clemson’s current Over/Under win total.

“Over/under 9.5, which seems a little bit low,” Davis said. “I think it shows a little skepticism… That almost feels like they’re begging you to take the over.”

Clemson will look to notch its first win of the 2023 campaign in the opener at Duke on Monday, Sept. 4 (8 p.m., ESPN).

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