Friday PM Notes: Clemson's youthful front has answered the challenge
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-- Clemson’s defensive line answered the challenge.
When Dabo Swinney brought up the matchup with Boston College a week ago, he was gleaming about the fact it would be a different kind of football his Tigers had to prepare for.
Every year, the Eagles bring a type of physicality and offensive set that is much different than the other ACC foes Clemson has had its way with. It presented a unique challenge, and Swinney said that Boston College’s nose-blooded style fit with the old days of college football. A time where games were won 10-7 or 13-10.
However, in this new era, Clemson’s offensive juggernaut looked like it was beginning to hit its stride in the 59-7 victory. The past two years, Clemson struggled to pull away from Boston College, but the one constant was Brent Venables’ defense being so dominant that it did not really need much of an output from the offense.
This year, we were anxious to see how Clemson’s youth on the frontlines would handle itself against a team that was going to pound the ball in the trenches until one side budged.
Well, that question was answered early. Clemson’s front got some major push and held its own while the back seven would come in and clean up on run support. The Tigers held Boston College to 97 rushing yards and a measly 2.2 yards per carry.
But it wasn’t just Boston College that this front had its way with. The week before on the road at Louisville, Clemson held the Cards to 156 yards rushing (3.6 yards per carry), and a lot of which came in garbage time.
Some context: going into week ten, Boston College and Louisville are just behind Clemson in terms of rushing offense in the ACC ranks. The Eagles are second averaging 5.1 yards per rush attempt and 255 yards per game. The Cardinals check-in third with 218 yards per game with a 4.9 average per attempt.
That says a lot about how much Clemson’s defensive line has grown since, say, maybe August. By the way, these two latest performances from the defensive line have been without stud end Xavier Thomas, who continues to be going through the concussion protocol.
“Xavier’s an unbelievable player, and those guys have really stepped up and filled the void and did a great job,” Swinney said after the game on Saturday. “Those guys are getting better and better, and our confidence has grown and eight games in, I think we’ve developed the type of depth that we’re going to need for this next phase of our season, so it’s exciting. Get (Thomas) back healthy and all that’s going to do is help us.”
According to safety Tanner Muse, the defensive line probably wasn’t too pleased with being in a three-man front at the beginning of the season to add another defender to what has been the ultimate strength of this year’s unit, the backend. That motivated the boys up front, and you can notice a distinct salty attitude when they have taken the field these past two games.
“They’ve done a really good job. We were in a three-man front most of the year, and it kind of got them all tore up a bit so, just having them grow into and having that four-man front they’re really starting to enjoy and have their fun now,” Muse said Monday. “It was a young group and Nyles (Pinckney) and Jordan (Williams) in the interior, they did a great job of getting those guys ready. Tyler Davis is looking incredible right now and our defensive ends are doing a great job, especially with Xavier Thomas down. A lot of production was lost from him not being there the last couple of weeks so, just seeing those guys rise to the occasion has been awesome. It’s made it a lot easier on the backend.”
When all is said and done this season, the backend of Clemson’s defense will get a bulk of the credit for what it has been able to accomplish, and rightfully so. But lest we not forget the maturation of this front that continues to grow up every week.
Because they’ve answered the challenge.
-- Man, Clemson’s blocking from the receivers and tight ends was superb against Boston College.
We keep on harping about how Boston College wanted to play a physical game, but it was the Tigers who overmatched the Eagles’ physicality from the opening kickoff, not just on defense, but on the offensive perimeter when Clemson was able to get the ball to playmakers on the outside.
If you go back and watch the scoring plays from Clemson, especially in the first half, a block by a receiver or tight end usually broke open the play.
Freshman Frank Ladson had a beautiful downfield block on Diondre Overton’s first touchdown of the night. JC Chalk sealed off a defender on Travis Etienne’s second touchdown. And to top it off was TJ Chase, who sent his opposing defensive back to the turf on Amari Rodgers’ 19-yard touchdown on a screen.
After the play, Chase was fired up and flexed his muscles.
We asked both co-offensive coordinators Jeff Scott and Tony Elliott their perspective on the blocking from his guys on the perimeter.
Elliott: “That’s the key to our success, running the football. Big runs come when guys on the perimeter block. They don’t have devastating blocks, but they just cover guys up and we can get Travis and Lyn-J to that second and third level, that’s when they’re able to spit. I was impressed with the blocking all the way around. There were running lanes inside. We were able to get the ball on the perimeter. We had some screens out there. I thought our guys did a great job with their technique.”
Scott: “There were definitely some key blocks and that was one of our challenges going into the game because they play with some bigger guys out there. Their nickel/SAM is more like a MIKE linebacker, 225 pounds and so, we knew one of the keys to the game was going to be our guys fitting up some of those perimeter runs and felt like we did a pretty good job of that from what I could see from the sidelines.”
-- From Wednesday night, Xavier Thomas was back in pads and did well. Swinney said they are encouraged with where he is right now, and the plan is for Thomas to be ready to go but try to hold him out of this weekend’s game against Wofford.
Swinney hopes to get him back in the swing of things and go through pregame, but not play him until Clemson hits the road to North Carolina State next week.
-- Xavier Kelly hurt his shoulder and had an AC sprain against Louisville and as held out of the Boston College game. He was ready to play and could’ve played against the Eagles, but with the way the game trended, they held Kelly out.
No word on if Kelly will play against Wofford. They are trying to be cautious.
-- Denzel Johnson is not going to play against Wofford. Swinney said Johnson is dealing with a sore shoulder and doesn’t want to have any setbacks. Want to get him up and running full speed on Monday.
-- With Breast Cancer Awareness month coming to a close, we thought we would add a fun story from this past weekend.
Swinney wore a pink jacket for last Saturday’s game to the stadium and during postgame interviews. Swinney was surprised with the jacket from his wife, Kathleen, which he wore to the Ladies’ Clinic over the summer.
The head coach told the media that the jacket was $49 from Belk, and the clip was all over the internet, joking that he loved Belk but didn’t want to go to the Belk Bowl.
Belk then sent Swinney’s All In Foundation a donation of $25,000 for the shoutout and the jacket. That’s quite the markup and quite the end to a heck of a month of donations to a great cause.