After the disastrous season opener behind them, the Clemson football team is now solely focused on getting its season back on the rails.

Next up is a matchup against Georgia Southern at Memorial Stadium, which kicks off the Tigers’ home slate.

After watching the LSU debacle, Eagles’ fifth-year DB Aaron Sears sounded confident in his team’s chances against Clemson, but Georgia Southern head coach Clay Helton was a little more reserved with his comments heading into the contest.

“One of the things that I think Coach (Dabo) Swinney does a magnificent job of in his career is he has his teams ready to face adversity, and after adversity, you see what they can do,” Helton said. “They always propel forward. He’s still one of only two coaches in college football right now in FBS that has two national championships — him and Coach (Kirby) Smart. So, he knows what he’s doing. He’ll have that team prepared.”

Despite Tom Allen’s defense giving up more than 600 yards of offense to LSU, which included more than 300 yards on the ground, Helton believes the Tigers have some talent on that side of the ball.

“Defensively, I know that they gave up some yards, but you see their personnel, and it’s extremely impressive,” Helton said. “I mean, you start with the linebacker core and Sammy Brown. The guy’s all over the field. I mean, he produced 10 tackles within that game. Just an absolutely terrific athlete that runs the alleys extremely well.”

“Ashton Hampton is another one, No. 2, the corner, that you didn’t see very many balls go to his side. He’s not only one of the best corners in the ACC, he’s one of the best corners in the country, and you could see that in that game. The two edge players, I think, are talented pass rushers. I think both are NFL kids that’ll play on Sunday. So they have the personnel to be extremely effective defensively.”

Georgia Southern pitched a shutout in Week 1, blanking Charleston Southern 31-0. The Eagles defense allowed just 117 yards of total offense and only eight yards on the ground. With Clemson having struggled to run the ball themselves last weekend, that’s a matchup worth watching.

Helton’s defense knows it also has to prepare for two quarterbacks, with Chris Vizzina and Tait Reynolds both expected to play again on Saturday. However, if Chad Morris’ offense plans on getting on track, the players around the quarterbacks are going to be have to be better, and that starts with the offensive line, which struggled mightily in Baton Rouge.

“Offensively, you know, I look at it as I see the skill around,” Helton added. “I think Coach Morris’s biggest growth probably from game one to game two is the quarterbacks just being able to get in flow because the weapons around them, I think, are really special, especially with Wesco and Moore on the outside. You can see what they can do. They have several runners inside that can do the job and an offensive line that can be effective.”

“But I think getting the quarterbacks in flow will be their main topic of discussion this week — just watching the tape. They used two of them. We’ll see which one comes out. Both are talented, just didn’t get in rhythm last game. I thought a lot of it had to do, like I said earlier, with the third-down efficiency.”