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YOUR BALANCE
random stuff
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random stuff


Aug 30, 2019, 12:44 PM

Just some thoughts:

Typical clunky first game in a lot of respects, but when Trevor Lawrence and your WR's play some (by their standards, anyhow) pretty poor ball and you can still name your score and have your 2's and 3's in halfway through the third quarter, you know your running game is humming along well. And it's a little shocking how quickly (and definitively) Chase Brice established himself as by far the best backup QB in college football.

I do worry about the loss of Renfrow a bit. Under Dabo, Clemson's big Secret Weapon on offense - all the way back to Dabo's original super-slot man, "Mr. Third Down" Curtis Baham - has always been that one guy who wasn't the biggest or fastest but who also couldn't be covered and had hands of pure stickum, and I didn't see that guy out there for us last night. We have that fleet of super-predators on the outside, granted, but sometimes you also need to just move the chains to continue on and that wasn't great for us last night. (We could seemingly really use Amari Rogers back and healthy.) I thought Brannon Spector could potentially grab that spot early this year but he was lining up mostly as a 2 (outside receiver) spot last night, which was a little weird for a guy wearing jersey #13.

But that run game. Wow. The Ramblin' Wreck's O was rebuilding from scratch, the D wasn't. And Clemson still ran through the Bee D like they were Furman. That is one absolutely dominant Clemson O-line (words I never thought I would ever say with a straight face), the only thing slowing it down was those holding calls. And Etienne...lordy. I haven't seen a back look as superior against the field since maybe Reggie Bush with Southern Cal, and Lyn-J Dixon is clearly emerging as an elite future-NFL back himself, which he flashed at times last year. I was pleasantly surprised by the true froshes...Chez Mellusi and Mikey Dukes are obviously more than talented enough to contribute this year, which frankly I very much doubted since neither was an early enrollee. (Mellusi is a Wayne Gallman clone and exactly like Gallman was also transitioning from an option-type running game, and Signing Day roster additions are usually plus-one warm bodies; Mikey Dukes clearly isn't.) But while the newcomers clearly have a ways to go, the physical talent is just as clearly there, and I suspect Clemson will have more than enough big leads this year to rep the two kids up.

Our TE's were more functional than I expected. We stayed mostly in our traditional 11p (3-wide, 1 TE, 1 RB) until the two-minute drill, which I did not expect...I expected a heavy dose of 4-wide. But JC Chalk did pretty well and Jaelyn Lay really looked the part when out there later.

I loved Mitch Hyatt and he played at an All-ACC level at LT for four years. Jackson Carman is still a huge and significant upgrade. Pure obliterator. We've never had a guy like that before on our OL, reminds me a bit of a Jonathan Ogden. Carman even makes Barry Richardson or Isaiah Battle look small.

That DL competition was supposed to be settled on the field. It quickly was. It didn't take Xavier Thomas or Tyler Davis long (like, about two series), to separate, and I noticed KJ Henry causing problems too.

I did have some concerns about our LB's because we had nothing but newbs behind Smith, Skalski, and Simmons, but Baylon Spector - who had mostly played only on special teams last year as a true freshman - made me feel a lot better. That dude can flat-out play and he was all over the field last night. Jake Venables and Mike Jones Junior had typical newb first games to forget but they also showed enough I'd expect them to get a lot saltier as the year wears along. We have four good LB's right now, whatever, and if Venables and Jones Junior round into shape we could have more than enough for our stretch run, which is something you worry about when you lose six LB's (five to graduation or NFL departure, one to transfer!) in one offseason.

No idea what our DB's look like yet in coverage because GT is still rediscovering the forward pass, but it's obvious our safeties are very confident in run support. Dabo absolutely stole one with Nolan Turner; how did even Alabama not have a scholie for that kid? They'll get tested a lot more against A&M. Mond and his receivers looked very sharp last night as well, albeit against Texas State.

Our kickers are awesome and have serious live legs, which hasn't necessarily always been the case at times under Dabo. But that's a lot of hidden yardage we aren't conceding anymore on kickoffs and punts.

This team is loaded, whatever. I expect to get pushed by A&M and maybe by Syracuse but once this team finds itself it's going to be a no-kidding nightmare to even slow down. I think you can make a case the O is more talented this year than that 2004 Southern Cal team. If they begin to play to it consistently...well. Should be fun to watch.

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Re: random stuff


Aug 30, 2019, 12:54 PM

Ditto

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Re: random stuff


Aug 30, 2019, 1:10 PM

Great write-up.

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Re: random stuff


Aug 30, 2019, 1:10 PM

Great write-up.

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Spector had a great Renfrow opportunity in the end zone, but


Aug 30, 2019, 1:19 PM

... he wasn’t up to the task.

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Re: random stuff


Aug 30, 2019, 1:41 PM

Before this year I have only seen one truly dominant O Line in all of my years watching Clemson Football. That was 1978. This line is better than that line.

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Null


Aug 30, 2019, 4:05 PM

NM


Message was edited by: CootSmackdown16®


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Q: Great post as always.


Aug 30, 2019, 1:54 PM

I have to say my that I may I have been looking at my biggest concern for the early season last night: gulp Trevor Lawrence. There I said it. However, it’s not how he handles pressure, fame, a sophomore slump or anything else that Clemson haters would like to harp on. It’s how he handles his body transformation. How has his body transformation affected his accuracy for the time being until he gets used to the added muscle? I felt like that was an issue for DW4 early in his sophomore season. It seemed to get better as the season wore on. Is it just my perception or is this a real thing? Either way this team is loaded and I believe that by the end of the season we will be unstoppable. As for the next couple of weeks we just need to survive and advance. It’s too much to ask for this team to be firing on all cylinders this early. The teams that seem like they are always burn out by the start of November. By the time November rolls around I have little doubt this team will be the best in the nation if we stay healthy. We’re built to get better as the season progresses. We need a big win next week and we could be in for a truly historic run. Thoughts?

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Re: Q: Great post as always.


Aug 30, 2019, 2:04 PM

My thought-
Your sample size is too small to draw any conclusions.

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For this season yes


Aug 30, 2019, 4:06 PM

but as Q said he looked like Clemson QBs tend to look in September for whatever reason. My theory, which could be completely off, is body transformation. It could be a valid theory but we will probably never know the real reason for our QBs tending to look sluggish in the early season. Anyways I hope the added muscle theory isn’t true and TL just did what every athlete or human for that matter does by having a bad day. Hopefully he torches A&M next week and makes my theory sound foolish. Go Tigers!

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Re: Q: Great post as always.


Aug 30, 2019, 2:29 PM [ in reply to Q: Great post as always. ]


I have to say my that I may I have been looking at my biggest concern for the early season last night: gulp Trevor Lawrence. There I said it. However, it’s not how he handles pressure, fame, a sophomore slump or anything else that Clemson haters would like to harp on. It’s how he handles his body transformation. How has his body transformation affected his accuracy for the time being until he gets used to the added muscle? I felt like that was an issue for DW4 early in his sophomore season. It seemed to get better as the season wore on. Is it just my perception or is this a real thing? Either way this team is loaded and I believe that by the end of the season we will be unstoppable. As for the next couple of weeks we just need to survive and advance. It’s too much to ask for this team to be firing on all cylinders this early. The teams that seem like they are always burn out by the start of November. By the time November rolls around I have little doubt this team will be the best in the nation if we stay healthy. We’re built to get better as the season progresses. We need a big win next week and we could be in for a truly historic run. Thoughts?



I dunno. Could be. But you're right his touch and placement seemed more than a bit off last night. For whatever reason, this is just how even elite Clemson QB's tend to look in September, and I have no idea why.

It could also be expectations. Heisman pressure, internalized pressure, whatever. I doubt it lasts but do I expect him to look like a world-beater against A&M either? Not really. I'm expecting kind of a another ugly Clemson-in-September-type game against the Aggies, and I'll be happy with any kind of "W". Feel the same about Syracuse, too.

Vegas has us as a 16.5-point favorite. No idea how that goes but I'd definitely lean in the direction of the "under".

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Re: Q: Great post as always.


Aug 30, 2019, 5:31 PM

Rust and/or pressure is most likely IMO, and I have a gut feeling he won't be off next Saturday.

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Sometimes the road to the truth is so elusive it's confusing and reality becomes illusion.


Re: Q: Great post as always.


Aug 30, 2019, 5:48 PM [ in reply to Re: Q: Great post as always. ]

I listened to the Trevor interview today. Basically he said he played like crap and the o line and Travis played great.

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There were also several dropped passes.


Aug 30, 2019, 4:03 PM [ in reply to Q: Great post as always. ]

Hard to say how if the balls were caught how it would have affected performance going forward. To be fair, there were many times last year our WRs made fabulously athletic plays on the ball to bail out bad passes.
If it were gonna happen, last night was a good place for it.

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null


Re: Q: Great post as always.


Aug 30, 2019, 6:02 PM [ in reply to Q: Great post as always. ]

I doubt it would be something to do with added muscle. While he's been lifting all off season, I'm 100% positive he was still working on throwing, as well as all during camp. It may play a small part, but I don't think it's a major item that would contribute to the rust.

I think the majority of it is just getting back into actual live situations, something that you cannot truly replicate in camp/scrimmages.

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Re: random stuff


Aug 30, 2019, 2:21 PM

Additional comments:
Back on the day... (the 80s), we had awesome OLs. Maybe we do again!

My two concerns were penalties and missed tackles. We haven't seen many of either in a looooong time. I hope the penalties are opening day sloppiness. The missed tackles? Skalski was a big offender. I hope BV gets that fixed; I am sure he will.

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Re: random stuff


Aug 30, 2019, 2:59 PM

The things I saw that need to be corrected are definitely correctable. Georgia Tech is in a period of transition, primarily on the offensive side. Their defense, alluded to earlier, should not have been faced with vast changes like the offense. Even though our passing game was not up to snuff, our running game was operating in high gear. Playing 90 men would appear to have a drop off on both sides of the ball but such was not the case. Over 600 yards of offense, even against Tech, is a clear indication our offense will be virtually unstoppable when they get all of the kinks worked out.

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Re: random stuff


Aug 30, 2019, 3:50 PM

Georgia Tech was #46 overall (out of 129 teams) in total D last year, and allowed just 369.6 yards per game...and they actually had a pretty good recruiting class. They also had seven guys transfer in from other schools on top of that.

The Bees do not have a bottom-feeder D, or even close, in other words. But their D looked helpless a lot of times last night. 632 yards of offense surrendered? That ain't the Bees, not at any point last year, anyhow.

Like I said, that wasn't Furman we were playing last night, they just looked like it.

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Re: random stuff


Aug 30, 2019, 4:40 PM

Excellent Quoz! After the first quarter I turned to the guy next to me and said, "they may be able to stop one thing, but they are not going to stop everything", which turned out to be true. They were content on trying to hold down the quick scores via the deep pass. We really didn't go deep much and of course our running game thrived.

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Re: random stuff


Aug 30, 2019, 5:27 PM

Q - As always, truly fabulous post. Thanks for sharing.

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