Clemson Post-Game Thread

A little late, but I'm having trouble sleeping, so here are my thoughts:

1. Defense is legit. The second half was an incredible effort after some gaffes in the first quarter (tackling...), but holding Clemson to 24 points is all you can ask for. Tim Settle is a man among boys. Adonis was disappointing and Mook was severely shook the first half but he bounced back nicely in the second.

2. Offense is not ready for primetime. They're just too young. I thought JJ did pretty well all things considered, the pick 6 wasn't his fault. Cam was decent but tries too hard to juke around defenders rather than barreling in for a few extra yards. Savoy was good. Rest of the receiving corp aren't ready this season yet. Travon has hit his ceiling and it's disappointing seeing that he hasn't fixed his fumbling issues. That really punched the air out of us. Coleman Fox has huge potential and I hope we see more of him going forward.

3. I'm not sold on Cornelsen. There were some severely questionable playcalls throughout. Why try the QB draw repeatedly if it never worked? Why abandon the pass in the redzone and get cute with the WR pass and screen? Why try a fake field goal instead of playing a regular snap? Couple that with slow starts in all of our games this season (and a bunch last season) and I think that something serious needs to change in our approach if we want to compete at a high level.

4. Offensive Line was really impressive. The Clemson DL is probably the best in the country and they took it in their stride and gave JJ a clean pocket for most of the night. Well done.

5. Joey Slye. What's happened man. It's sad to see we can't rely on him anymore. I really hope he gets rid of his demons soon otherwise we won't be winning close games.

6. We have a looooong way to go to get back to the top of the ACC. Not only has the conference as a whole improved the past ten years but Clemson and FSU are playing at levels that the conference hasn't seen in a very long time. Prime 2003-2010 VT would struggle against Clemson and FSU today. The Tigers were bigger, faster and more disciplined than us. We did pretty well all things considered however this is an eye opener to how much work we have to do on the field and in recruiting to compete with these guys, but we are definitely moving in the right direction.