If I said I wasn't looking forward to Clemson, I'd be lying. I don't look at Clemson how I look at other teams. — James Gayle
Gayle is right of course. Clemson spanked us at night in Lane, in Charlotte when it mattered most, and stripped us of our championship crown. The Tigers took more away from us than any team in a season in quite some time. I think we all circled this game when the schedule came out, and it means more now than we probably thought it would in August. A win keeps us in a strong position to win the Coastal and would boost our perception nationally. A loss leaves us 0-3 in a little over a year against a team we'll continue to recruit against for top regional talent, and the Coastal race becomes tighter.
It's only Tuesday afternoon and I'm antsy for Saturday. I'm sure a lot of you are too. So, let's talk about Clemson.
By the numbers, Clemson's defense isn't very good. Kevin Steele, defensive coordinator at Clemson since 2009, was fired following the Orange Bowl blowout and was replaced by former Oklahoma defensive coordinator Brent Venables. An overnight turnaround that some expected hasn't happened. Shakin the Southland explained the shortcomings of the defense in-depth after Clemson lost to Florida State, the bullet points from their thorough assessment follow.
- S&C problems, which feeds into
- Coaching, anytime you're this bad the coaches have to take some blame, and it starts with Dabo Swinney. You can't put this just on the Defensive Coordinator, or just the DB coach, etc.
- Players are not playing to the level they are capable of reaching or have proven they can reach.
- Fundamentals are awful: we don't use our hands well, we don't place our feet well, our pursuit angles are garbage, we don't keep our pads low, and didn't tackle well at all in the last game.
- Depth is poor, due to two things: poor recruiting results and strategies, and not playing the guys you knew you would have to run with last year.
- Intensity. Our defense plays passive at times, and doesn't bring the pain on every play. Guys put their heads down when they give up a big play, when they really have to forget about them.
- Personnel usage
Dabo Swinney believes his defense, particularly the front four, is improving, and much like Tech wants to limit the big play. With Andrew Miller done, Farris questionable, and Wang gimpy, Tech's patchwork offensive line will have to step it up in order to be successful against stiffer competition.
Clemson is on pace to break 12 different offensive records this season.
So, Chad Morris' offense has not slowed down, even if one of its playmakers has. Sammy Watkins had a breakout season last year as a true freshman. He had his way with Tech's defense in the ACC Championship Game (55 rushing yards, 80 receiving yards and a touchdown). However, Morris says because Watkins missed over 3 games (suspension and stomach bug) he's, "Not in game shape," and, "That's something we tried to focus on in the open week, to get him back into game shape."
Even if Watkins isn't a factor (he will be), Tech will need to account for DeAndre "Nuk" Hopkins who is having a stellar junior season (49 receptions, 777 yards, 8 TDs, 1st ACC, 3rd nationally).
According to Exum, he'll cover Watkins to the field side, Fuller will be on the boundary with Hopkins. Based on what Foster's done this season, I'm assuming this will be part of a man look across the board. Like last week, the defensive line pressuring the quarterback will make or break the effort. These guys (or anyone else really) won't be able to play on island with the Clemson receivers for more than a couple of seconds.
Morris' offense is fast paced and explosive, but not pass happy (261 runs to 232 passes). Tailback Andre Ellington leads the ACC in rushing (597 yards, 6 TDs) and quarterback Tajh Boyd is a threat to carry the ball (224 yards, 2 TDs). There will be a lot of inside/outside zone, buck sweep (definitely reread this from French), power, and inverted veer.
Shakin the Southland did a nice breakdown of Clemson's Inverted Veer/Dash. Like most great football plays, it's a simple concept modernized. It's the zone read, except the play side, not back side, defensive end is left unblocked and becomes the option man.
Instead of leaving the backside End unblocked as in the zone read, in this play you leave the playside End unblocked. The OL on the playside veer blocks, and the Guard from the backside pulls around. Next, you move the RB to the other side of the QB, so he's coming from the backside, and have him run a sweep or stretch (outside zone). We would also use the 2-man in motion on the jet sweep to do this, with the 4 as a lead blocker, like a QB Isolation.
From their Georgia Tech film review, "This power read/IV [inside veer] jet is consistently successful for Tajh when Sammy is going in the jet."
Clemson had a well timed bye last week after playing Georgia Tech. However, the Tigers play Wake Forest next Thursday on a short-week, so their coaches didn't dedicate an entire two weeks scheming for the Hokies.
What are your early thoughts on the game?
Comments
Can Tech do this?
Warning: I'm probably going to sound like Negative Nancy right now, but let's be realistic here: to win this game, a lot has to be different, and more importantly, better. Much better.
I've seen this program do some amazing things, and beating Clemson on the road Saturday would be quite the turnaround for this group.
Defense:
The front four looked outstanding in the second half last week against a shell-shocked Duke team that was missing a critical part of their offense after Connette went out.
I'm not saying they're incapable of playing at that level against Clemson, but to mark that down as a given would be foolish.
If they don't bring the necessary level of pressure and we leave it to Exum (on Sammy Watkins) and Fuller (on Nuk Hopkins), with Michael Cole wandering around the secondary, we're going to get smoked.
Think about Pitt, Cincy, UNC and even Duke. How many almost-touchdowns were there, missed on a slight overthrow? Several.
If Clemson's offense is Clemson's offense they're not missing those throws.
Offense:
I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around the fact I'm more comfortable about this side of the ball.
The offense has shown flashes of what it could be, including a big flash last week. I hope they come out physical. Let Logan punish defenders like he did last week in short yardage situations.
In order for this offense to do what is required Saturday, there are quite a few things we're banking on:
- JC Coleman. I saw a lot of "Coming out party" statements after the Duke game. This has to carry over.
- Marcus Davis. I hope he's annoyed with how much attention Sammy and Nuk get. He can be that good. Let's get him the ball and put that ability to work.
- Offensive line. Losing Miller is a tough blow, but a week of preparation is the best we can ask for at this point. The coaches have played offensive line units without Miller, so it's been done before. Tech cannot afford another injury here, which is frightening.
That's all I have to say about that.
Go Hokies.
The comments about the Clemson defense could practically be cut and pasted to the VT defense so far this year. We really need them to step up again this week... hopefully the outing against Duke will energize them to come out strong this Saturday.
I only had the chance to watch the second half of the game, but the entire team played with a passion and effort that had seemingly been missing all season. That is the kind of football I like to see and it's going to be necessary coming out of the gate against Clemson. A slow start in this game could be a death blow, especially on the road. I'm hopeful for the rest of the season, but still cautiously optimistic. While Duke is an improved team from years past, there is still a talent gap between them and the top-tier teams in the ACC, so we really have to play disciplined football from here on out. Clemson will be a tough test and a better measuring stick of how good the Hokies will be this year, in my opinion.
Copy/Paste
Yup I had to go back to double check if I miss read something.
Recruiting/ BeamerBalls
Great point. Clemson's recruiting classes have been top notch in recent years. We can't continue to lose, and expect some of our VA talent to not look elsewhere...
Honestly, my biggest concern is resting the DL. If our offense continues these short drives, and leaves the ball in the hands of Clemson's offense, we're beyond screwed. I'd love to see more gaget plays from the offense, RB screens on Logan roll-outs, and straight up runs from Logan of tackle with 2 lead blockers.
Keep it easy for Logan. Posses the ball on offense. Great turnovers on D/ST... Isn't there a name for that? #BeamerBall
Sustained drives...
You bring up a point I think is critical - meant to mention it up top.
We need sustained drives. 3-and-outs will destroy this team, and we can't get into a home run derby with them, either.
Establish the run, use the middle of the field, get first downs.
Not only give JC the ball from the backfield to establish the run... I want to see us use him more in the slot like we have, but not on those sweeps and reverses that hardly net us any yards -- get him on a quick 7-yard in route or a slant pattern and hit him with a pass in space. Guarantee he can make a few men miss and make it go for 20+ yards at least twice per game.
LETS GOOO..... HOOOOKIESSS!!
LETS GOOO.....
HOOOOKIESSS!!
Time of Posession
the longer we can keep their offense off the field the better chance we have at making this a game.
Taj and Sammy scare the crap out of me, and I've been having vietnam style flashbacks to the ACCCG since the season started. keep the ball out of their hands and we have a good chance at some good ole fashioned redemption saturday.
Hate to be "that guy"
but the Clemson's inverted veer is definitely not "the zone read" with the playside DE being unblocked.
The zone read is called the zone read because there is zone blocking. The inverted veer run by Clemson definitely doesn't have zone blocking.
Clemson will use Veer blocking, they will sometimes pull a guard into the hole, they will sometimes pull a lineman across the face of the unblocked DE, sometimes they will run an "outside inverted veer" by pulling a lineman and trapping the DE then reading the outside LB (that'll screw up a defense's read keys)... but they almost never zone block on the inverted veer.
No worries "hate to be 'that guy'", guy.
I was trying to put it in the simplest terms possible, then let the citation from STS give the details. A lot of our readers are familiar with the zone read, and I wanted that to be the starting point, then the reader could see how the concepts are flipped, and the blocking schemes are different.
The one thing that pissed me off more than anything during those Clemson games last year was our reluctance to go deep. Clemson brought the house leaving one-on-one on the outside and I only remember us taking a shot twice. One ended up in a completion and the other in a defensive PI. Take your shots to Knowles and Davis, they'll stop bringing the blitz and that'll get Coleman going.
The line kept getting snowed under
Hard to go deep when the line can't give you any time to do anything.