Coaching Staff

[upperdeck]

I didnt see anything from Clemson that made me think they played us well on D last year, other than the DE. Our issues were blown coverages, multiple times. If they schemed us into those mistakes then thats on them, if our guys just went to the wrong place then thats on us. only the team and coaches have a clue why we left guys so wide open. Im hoping it was more a brain fart then a play call our D couldnt handle.

 

[Chip]

On the bright side, I don't expect Clemson to jump out to a 21-0 lead in the first quarter while a WR I've never heard of just runs down the field completely uncovered. All quarter long.

I'd expect them to have to work just a little bit harder for the early scores.

On the flip side, I don't expect us to run for over 300, and we better be able to throw the ball a little better. Even though Beasley is a nightmare.

I just hope it's not over at halftime.

 

[kcsu]

Based on what?

crystal ball?

 

[RF2044]

I don't think we're at a point where we can legitimately expect to upset Clemson on the road.

However, I do believe that this coaching staff is the right group to get us there. I honestly do.

I expect us to be a lot more competitive this year. A LOT more competitive.

 

[anomander]

Dear god, please, please, please let this be the year that the offensive linemen stop accumulating so many false start penalties.

This absolutely drives me nuts. These are the type of penalties that are totally unnecessary. I really don't have an explanation for it either. It was everyone from Mackey to Hickey, guys you wouldn't expect to make those mistakes. I'm not sure how Shafer fixes this, but it is critical. There were at least 3 or 4 drives a game we basically threw away because of these mental mistakes. This is the first thing that should be addressed.

 

[TheCusian]

crystal ball?

They were favored by 14 at our place, so if you give them 3 for home field: Vegas is saying that it's a status quo - they didn't get worse and we didn't get better. Just don't think that's accurate.

 

[SUFaninNJ]

This absolutely drives me nuts. These are the type of penalties that are totally unnecessary. I really don't have an explanation for it either. It was everyone from Mackey to Hickey, guys you wouldn't expect to make those mistakes. I'm not sure how Shafer fixes this, but it is critical. There were at least 3 or 4 drives a game we basically threw away because of these mental mistakes. This is the first thing that should be addressed.

It's been a problem before as well. Not just last year. Very frustrating.

 

[OrangeMojo]

Is it as simple as looking at stats. They played Georgia and South Carolina out of conference. Georgia was a much healthier/better team early in the year when Clemson saw them than they were the second half of the year. Did we play anyone that was close to being as good as either of those two?

well, Clemson didn't have to play Clemson, and SU did - and Clemson got to play what was mostly a disaster of an SU offense (as noted in the posts above about all the self-inflicted wounds by SU).

That being said, that Georgia team last year was really good - they had national runner up Auburn beaten on the road even late in the season after lots of their injuries until one of the most ridiculous mistakes by a db I've ever seen gave the game away.

 

[sufandu]

Their rating system takes SOS into account. We both played FSU and our defenses had similar games. Our O looked beyond inept, while they looked better - as the stats bear out.

I was referring to the sack and int numbers. But even then, do the corrected stats take into account numbers that they gave up after the game was decided and they cleared their bench? All but four of their wins were blowouts, whereas most of ours were dogfights. I'm not arguing against your prediction. I think there's very little chance of an upset. I just don't think we can say our defenses were close based on stats. Their games and our games unfolded very differently and that can have an impact on numbers. Is there a way to look at their defensive stats by quarter or half to see if there is a significant difference that may reflect when their good players were in the game versus when the game was no longer in doubt and the scrubs were in?

 

[TheCusian]

I was referring to the sack and int numbers. But even then, do the corrected stats take into account numbers that they gave up after the game was decided and they cleared their bench? All but four of their wins were blowouts, whereas most of ours were dogfights. I'm not arguing against your prediction. I think there's very little chance of an upset. I just don't think we can say our defenses were close based on stats. Their games and our games unfolded very differently and that can have an impact on numbers. Is there a way to look at their defensive stats by quarter or half to see if there is a significant difference that may reflect when their good players were in the game versus when the game was no longer in doubt and the scrubs were in?

I'm not sure. I think if there is a discrepancy it's likely to make them only slightly better on D last year vs my take of us being slightly better.

The point was more that everyone has their D pegged as great - and us with issues on the Dline. We are really underrated on D this year, I think.