For the first time in more than two decades, Clemson has dropped three of its first four games.
Coming into the season, the Tigers were expected to be a College Football Playoff team, with some even predicting a team capable of competing for a national title.
However, Dabo Swinney’s team has looked more like one of the baseball teams from the Bad News Bears movies than a football team capable of playing with the nation’s best. The offense has sputtered, and the defense just hasn’t been able to get off the field.
“I mean it stinks, there ain’t no other way to say it,” Swinney said. “We are what we are.”
The Tigers are averaging just 19.8 points per game, which ranks 114th nationally and next to last in the ACC. The last time a Clemson team averaged so few points was way back in 1998, Tommy West’s final season as head coach. The team finished 3-8 that season.
For comparison’s sake, Clemson averaged 34.8 points per game last season, ranking inside the Top 20 nationally for scoring offense. And they did it with much of the same players. That’s what has made the putrid start hard to fathom.
What we’ve witnessed on defense has been just as unexplainable. The group is loaded with blue-chip talent, but is still giving up 362 yards per game to opposing offenses. The pass rush has been mostly nonexistent, and teams are converting 38% of their third downs against Tom Allen’s unit.
“This is as big a disappointment as I’ve had in a long time professionally as a coach,” Swinney said. “But again, I know a lot of good will come from it and make us better. It’ll sharpen us. We’ll keep battling.”
Fortunately, there is no game this weekend. The Tigers will have their first bye of the season before heading off to Chapel Hill to face off with North Carolina on October 4. That gives this team an opportunity to do some soul-searching and have a total reset. Players and coaches alike. At least as much as you can have a rest in the middle of the season.
“This is a reset for all of us this week,” Swinney said. “Kind of looking at it as a new season with a new opener.”
Photo by Bart Boatwright