Clemson/Syracuse- Know Your Opponent

[Palmer103]

So I started a thread yesterday that got pretty off track of my original intentions. Respectfully, I'm not going back down that road, but there have been some good posts following my last one that had specific questions about our secondary and front 7. I'm going to answer those here instead of in that thread, as I feel like that one has already gone past the point of no return.

**Secondary- The poster mentioned reading about the inexperience in our secondary. It's a mix between that and lack of talent compared to the other areas of our team. We actually returned some good experience of guys this year that were injured the majority of last year, so that has helped this unit improve a little. Also the fact that we are now getting constant pressure with our front 4 will help any secondary. We have 15 sacks this year (T6 in the country) compared to only 4 sacks thru 4 games last year. We had 4 sacks against UGA (one causing a fumble), who returned 5 starters on their Oline and only gave up 2 sacks combined against LSU and USCjr.

The problem with the secondary is mainly taking bad angles (see NC States 2 long runs on end arounds). It was atrocious last year, and though better this year, still has a ways to go if Clemson wants to be the team they're trying to become. Blanks is one of our most talented defensive recruits in the past 2 years, but has been the culprit of many missed tackles and being out of position on some long plays given up. The safety's are the biggest area of concern for me moving forwards, especially from a depth perspective.

The corners are better than people expected. Breeland might be the most surprising player thru 4 games for us. They need to continue to be more physical, but I've been impressed with their development from last year. Keep in mind that last year's secondary was one of the worst I can remember at Clemson.

**Front 7- Dabo said before the season that he would be disappointed if the front 7 wasn't the strength of this team. Bold statement considering the weapons you got on the other side of the ball. It really is just night and day from last year, and I credit Venables with this drastic improvement. LBs last year had the same problems as the secondary taking bad angles, but that really has been cut down this year. The front 4 is causing havoc pretty much on every play, and is led by Jarrett on the inside and Beasly (6 sacks, T3 in country) on the outside. Depth is just outstanding here as well. I'd imagine Shaq Lawson, Deshawn Williams, and DJ Reader would be starting for most teams in the ACC.

It's going to be tough to consistently run the ball up the middle on this defense, IMO. UGA had decent success, but even with them it was mainly on a few long runs (go back to my comments on bad angles). They weren't really able to get 4-6 yards a pop when they needed it, despite have the best 1-2 punch in the country. Which btw, seeing Gurley up close and personal was an absolute treat. I'm already dreading facing him next year.

Anyways, we'll keep this thread about football. I would be interested to hear about your Oline, which to me will be huge in this game. If you can offset our strength up front, you will find success against our secondary...

 

[TheCusian]

So I started a thread yesterday that got pretty off track of my original intentions. Respectfully, I'm not going back down that road, but there have been some good posts following my last one that had specific questions about our secondary and front 7. I'm going to answer those here instead of in that thread, as I feel like that one has already gone past the point of no return.

**Secondary- The poster mentioned reading about the inexperience in our secondary. It's a mix between that and lack of talent compared to the other areas of our team. We actually returned some good experience of guys this year that were injured the majority of last year, so that has helped this unit improve a little. Also the fact that we are now getting constant pressure with our front 4 will help any secondary. We have 15 sacks this year (T6 in the country) compared to only 4 sacks thru 4 games last year. We had 4 sacks against UGA (one causing a fumble), who returned 5 starters on their Oline and only gave up 2 sacks combined against LSU and USCjr.

The problem with the secondary is mainly taking bad angles (see NC States 2 long runs on end arounds). It was atrocious last year, and though better this year, still has a ways to go if Clemson wants to be the team they're trying to become. Blanks is one of our most talented defensive recruits in the past 2 years, but has been the culprit of many missed tackles and being out of position on some long plays given up. The safety's are the biggest area of concern for me moving forwards, especially from a depth perspective.

The corners are better than people expected. Breeland might be the most surprising player thru 4 games for us. They need to continue to be more physical, but I've been impressed with their development from last year. Keep in mind that last year's secondary was one of the worst I can remember at Clemson.

**Front 7- Dabo said before the season that he would be disappointed if the front 7 wasn't the strength of this team. Bold statement considering the weapons you got on the other side of the ball. It really is just night and day from last year, and I credit Venables with this drastic improvement. LBs last year had the same problems as the secondary taking bad angles, but that really has been cut down this year. The front 4 is causing havoc pretty much on every play, and is led by Jarrett on the inside and Beasly (6 sacks, T3 in country) on the outside. Depth is just outstanding here as well. I'd imagine Shaq Lawson, Deshawn Williams, and DJ Reader would be starting for most teams in the ACC.

It's going to be tough to consistently run the ball up the middle on this defense, IMO. UGA had decent success, but even with them it was mainly on a few long runs (go back to my comments on bad angles). They weren't really able to get 4-6 yards a pop when they needed it, despite have the best 1-2 punch in the country. Which btw, seeing Gurley up close and personal was an absolute treat. I'm already dreading facing him next year.

Anyways, we'll keep this thread about football. I would be interested to hear about your Oline, which to me will be huge in this game. If you can offset our strength up front, you will find success against our secondary...

The O-line is not as good as last years line, that featured Justin Pugh (1st round starter for the NY Giants). Hickey will be lined up against Beasly and is a 2nd/3rd round talent.

We expected to be better running the ball - but it might be a function of the new OC, rather than anything about O-line's ability to block. Our OC McDonald (coached at Miami last season) started out with Drew Allen (transfer from Oklahoma) and way too many plays installed vs. Penn State and 1st 1/2 vs NW. Since then, he's scaled way back and we've replaced the indecision and bad throws with T.Hunt and if eligible (#of plays) would lead the country in QBR. He's scored on nearly every drive. The O-line isn't asked to block for very long, as Hunt gets the ball out quickly. He's also sped up the entire offense and wants to go faster. Last year we were in the top 10 in amount of plays per game. Hunt is accurate, quick, and see's the field really well. He can be a nifty runner when the line breaks down.

The player Dabo and Morris mentioned specifically (they sounded kind of scared of him, honestly) was #45, Jerome Smith. The guy is huge runs hard, fast and leads the ACC in rushing TD's. If we choose to run it with him more than we have, it will be to keep your offense off the field. He can carry a team; and he and Gulley literally ran over WVU in a blizzard last season. He's fresh as his # of runs have been down so far. I wouldn't be shocked to see us test Beasly and run right at him.

Our WR's are probably the weakest spot on the O. They've been better against poor competition - but it's a concern. We may hold off your defenders and not be able to take advantage of your secondary.

Overall - I'd say you guys have an edge on both sides of the ball. But we just don't know what we have in Hunt, Smith is due, and they are a really confident bunch. McDonald has scaled back the playbook to great affect. We don't know how good we are, as Wagner and Tulane were awful - but most of us are really excited for the next three years with Hunt and our RB's.

 

[jekelish]

The player Dabo and Morris mentioned specifically (they sounded kind of scared of him, honestly) was #45, Jerome Smith. The guy is huge runs hard, fast and leads the ACC in rushing TD's. If we choose to run it with him more than we have, it will be to keep your offense off the field. He can carry a team.

Yeah, how we've used Jerome this year has driven me nuts. The dude rushed for 1100 yards last year, but this season he's only averaging 12.6 carries per game. That's just not enough. He needs to be involved more from the start of each game for our offense to really be successful.

As The Cusian also mentioned, our WRs are a weak spot. The best guy with the ball in his hands out in space is Ashton Broyld, a 6-4 sophomore who is a hybrid, and while he isn't blazing fast, he's got remarkable body control and is agile and elusive. He's a dangerous weapon for us, and leads the team with 19 catches. A guy I'd personally like to see get more involved is a true freshman named Brisly Estime, who is a little waterbug who shows flashes of becoming a poor man's Tavon Austin in time. He's extremely fast and shifty, but again, he's just a true freshman so he likely won't factor much this weekend.

 

[cvilleorange]

Sorry for the length of this post, but I love talking O line...

Our O line has not seemed to gel quite yet. We lost a lot of experience and talent (Pugh, Chibane) from the left side of the line and basically moved our right side from last year (Hickey, Trudo) over to the left side. Foy is our right tackle and started the first few games of the season at right guard last year, but was beat out by Trudo heading into conference play. Nick Robinson saw limited action last year in our goal line package as an extra blocker.

With the exception of some miscommunications, I think that they have done well in the pass game. There were a couple of sacks against Penn State (and Northwestern I think..) that we had some people come free and clobber former starting QB Drew Allen. Obviously I don't know if that is on Drew or on the line based on the protection that was called and if Drew was supposed to recognize that pressure and throw off of it.

I've been pretty underwhelmed with our ability to generate a push in the run game, especially on the right. It's weird because I would expect that they would be further ahead in the run game. Makes you wonder if there was some hesitancy with the complexity of the playbook/number of plays in the gameplan. That being said I saw some improvement against Tulane from the right side (even when compared to the Wagner game).

I honestly don't know what to expect, except that I think Hickey is really, really good. He has great feet, good technique and is strong as hell. I am looking forward to watching that battle. I would like to see Trudo return to form; I really like what he did in the run game last year. It sounds like he has been a little banged up, so hopefully the week off has helped

 

[ImperialOrange]

What does Clemson look like on offense at non qb or wr positions? It's pretty much a given that Boyd and Watkins will get theirs to some degree but what of your rb, te (do you even use te's?), and OL?

 

[orlandoorange]

So I started a thread yesterday that got pretty off track of my original intentions. Respectfully, I'm not going back down that road, but there have been some good posts following my last one that had specific questions about our secondary and front 7. I'm going to answer those here instead of in that thread, as I feel like that one has already gone past the point of no return.

**Secondary- The poster mentioned reading about the inexperience in our secondary. It's a mix between that and lack of talent compared to the other areas of our team. We actually returned some good experience of guys this year that were injured the majority of last year, so that has helped this unit improve a little. Also the fact that we are now getting constant pressure with our front 4 will help any secondary. We have 15 sacks this year (T6 in the country) compared to only 4 sacks thru 4 games last year. We had 4 sacks against UGA (one causing a fumble), who returned 5 starters on their Oline and only gave up 2 sacks combined against LSU and USCjr.

The problem with the secondary is mainly taking bad angles (see NC States 2 long runs on end arounds). It was atrocious last year, and though better this year, still has a ways to go if Clemson wants to be the team they're trying to become. Blanks is one of our most talented defensive recruits in the past 2 years, but has been the culprit of many missed tackles and being out of position on some long plays given up. The safety's are the biggest area of concern for me moving forwards, especially from a depth perspective.

The corners are better than people expected. Breeland might be the most surprising player thru 4 games for us. They need to continue to be more physical, but I've been impressed with their development from last year. Keep in mind that last year's secondary was one of the worst I can remember at Clemson.

**Front 7- Dabo said before the season that he would be disappointed if the front 7 wasn't the strength of this team. Bold statement considering the weapons you got on the other side of the ball. It really is just night and day from last year, and I credit Venables with this drastic improvement. LBs last year had the same problems as the secondary taking bad angles, but that really has been cut down this year. The front 4 is causing havoc pretty much on every play, and is led by Jarrett on the inside and Beasly (6 sacks, T3 in country) on the outside. Depth is just outstanding here as well. I'd imagine Shaq Lawson, Deshawn Williams, and DJ Reader would be starting for most teams in the ACC.

It's going to be tough to consistently run the ball up the middle on this defense, IMO. UGA had decent success, but even with them it was mainly on a few long runs (go back to my comments on bad angles). They weren't really able to get 4-6 yards a pop when they needed it, despite have the best 1-2 punch in the country. Which btw, seeing Gurley up close and personal was an absolute treat. I'm already dreading facing him next year.

Anyways, we'll keep this thread about football. I would be interested to hear about your Oline, which to me will be huge in this game. If you can offset our strength up front, you will find success against our secondary...

that's all well and good... but do you have a dome and is it hot and loud?

 

[Palmer103]

Great info. Sounds like one of the keys is getting Jerome going. Sustained drives would really benefit Cuse in this game. Aside from the obvious fact that you could run some clock, it also helps take our offense out of rhythm. It will be interesting to see if you guys decide to play as fast as possible, or do you tone that down some to try and shorten the game and keep Tajh and company off the field?

You'll definitely want to take your shots down field, even if you don't think your WRs are the strongest part of you team. You can also find big plays with RB screens, end-arounds, and wheel routes. Again, these things rely on the defense coming up, playing their assignments, and taking the proper angles, which haven't been Clemson's strong suite thru 4 games.

I think one of the things that will keep Syracuse in this game is that they will want to make this a fight. They're a tough football team, and I expect them to play their best game of the season on Saturday. Their confidence and excitement levels are high, so I think they'll have a chance at the upset if they can win the turnover battle and have a couple good breaks along the way.

 

[cvilleorange]

Great info. Sounds like one of the keys is getting Jerome going. Sustained drives would really benefit Cuse in this game. Aside from the obvious fact that you could run some clock, it also helps take our offense out of rhythm. It will be interesting to see if you guys decide to play as fast as possible, or do you tone that down some to try and shorten the game and keep Tajh and company off the field?.

What I hope to see is us mixing up the tempo. If we can get some chunk plays, and are getting first downs, that is really the time to step on the gas. We can really simplify our play calls if we get on a roll, and hamstrings the defensive play calling. There were some great examples of us doing that in the pinstripe bowl last year

If we are getting 3 and outs, we've gotta slow things down

 

[Palmer103]

What does Clemson look like on offense at non qb or wr positions? It's pretty much a given that Boyd and Watkins will get theirs to some degree but what of your rb, te (do you even use te's?), and OL?

Oline has been pretty average, IMO. They need more consistency in pass protection, but as you can imagine, every team we're playing is focused on getting pressure on Tajh and throws everything at them. We've had some injuries and been moving a lot of people around early this year. Luckily, this is the first time in a while that we actually have about 8-9 guys that can play. Thank goodness too, b/c if this was last year's team, we'd have been in trouble with all the injuries, suspensions, etc that we've had.

RB's have been by committee this year. Hot Rod is the starter and kind of a scat back type of guy, while Brooks is more the power, in b/w the tackles guy. I've been pretty pleased with them overall. They're good enough to hurt you, and tend to get better as the game goes on. One thing we haven't really seen is anyone breaking a long one, which we're accustomed to after Spiller and Ellington the past 5 years. Hot Rod is capable and has the speed, but the HR threat from the RB position is down from previous years, no doubt.

TEs have been hampered with injuries. We had to start Seckinger for the UGA game, and he was probably our 3rd best option coming into Spring. Leggett is our most talented guy, but just a true freshman. He scored last weekend on a great catch, and I expect to see more of him this Saturday. We've also kept our TEs in a little more this year to help with pass protection. Partly b/c we need help with blitz pickup on the line and partly b/c they aren't the receiving threats we've had the past 2 years with Ford and Allen.

WRs are just pretty nasty across the board. I won't get into Sammy, b/c you know about him already. Hopper and Bryant are 2 big play guys that are really coming into their own, and should see that continue throughout the year. Humphries is a serviceable possession receiver that will find openings in the zone on 3rd downs, but won't beat anybody deep with speed. True Freshman Mike Williams will continue to get an expanded role with an injury we had to Peake the other week. He might have the best hands on the team and at 6'4" is going to be a great one. Not sure if he's quite ready for a breakout game on the road just yet though. Bryant will be your main concern deep opposite Sammy. He's 6'4" and just as fast as Sammy. Quite incredible measurables that eventually NFL teams will be drooling over. He's not even close to Sammy's production b/c mentally he just isn't there, still a little immature, and doesn't do the little things well (blocking, drops, etc).

 

[CousinClem]

What does Clemson look like on offense at non qb or wr positions? It's pretty much a given that Boyd and Watkins will get theirs to some degree but what of your rb, te (do you even use te's?), and OL?

We will use 3-4 RB's. McDowell is a senior and waited his turn behind Ellington and Spiller. Zach Brooks is a little bigger and is also a good receiver. He was the #1 player from Arkansas when he signed. D.J. Howard has shown flashes of being a great back, but has had injury problems. Last week against Wake he looked like he may be 100% again. C.J. Davidson is the 4th option. He came to Clemson as a track guy, triple jump and 100 meter hurdles. He decided to try out for football and moved ahead of several talented freshmen. Also at RB is Boyd. On 3rd and short he is like a FB.

Clemson uses the TE a lot. Leggett is a Fr TE with great hands and speed. Seckinger is a WR that bulked up a few years to play TE. Cooper is a true TE and we have a FB converted to TE in Smith. They will use TE in motion as a lead blocker like a FB. Sometimes go to two or three TE sets.