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A look at the Clempson depth chart

skyman said:
Thats where good leadership comes in, Our OC has been in the trenches, been in big games, Primetime, all over SEC, SEC championship, Championship games, etc.

King is a mature QB, we are also a more veteran team on defense also, mostly 3-4th year players.

But you are right, this is business as usual for Clemson. Trevor is transcendent at QB, makes throws multiple times again, nobody else can. Etienne is another player on another level who does things that 99% of players cant do. They have weapons that are young but super talented. Pressure will be on them. Our Dline has to live up to hype. This is game Phillips, Silvera, Roche can make some money. If Trevor stays clean and can just sit in pocket, not get rattled, long nite
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This is the only game on our schedule where we need Gregory R.
 
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Starts with Etienne. LB’s are gonna have to play their best game yet by far to have any chance. We cannot role with 53 and 44. They both are constantly late and not trusting their eyes. You get out of your lane against Etienne and he’ll score from anywhere on the field..
 
AUcane said:
Etienne/Lawrence matchup against our LBs is a bad one. Both of those dudes can outrun virtually our entire back 7. The striker position is gonna be HUGE as it's the lone speed person we have in our front 7 alignment. We can't afford to lose gap integrity/take bad lanes on run plays b/c Etienne can house it on any play.

You make Lawrence make the throws - just like LSU did. I thought their OL was their weak spot when we lined up against them in the ACCCG some years back and boy was I wrong. I'm not underestimating their OL b/c their playcalling helps mitigate it.
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yep.

clemson could easily drop 50 on our defense.

we do not match up well against them.

our offense can make some plays, but their DL will likely eventually overpower our OL.

the only way we win is to have our special teams be truly special, not turn the ball over and make dumb penalties, and have our offense be super efficient on 3rd down. if we win, it's because we figured out with how to win with our offense and our kicking game in a shoot-out.

if you tell me we score 21 points, then I'll probably tell you we will lose 42-21.

if you tell me we score 34, then i'll probably tell you we win 34-31.
 
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I see our offense continuing success against Clemson. The 1 v 1 matchups are key. Clemson may have gritty LBs, but they are the position on their defense to expose the most. They can't hang with Brevin, Will, or any of our backs catching passes. I see Lashlee making the Clemson LBs play in space by sending our WRs vertical and throwing underneath for big run after the catch plays with the TEs and RBs.

I'm more concerned about Clemson's DBs than I am their defensive line even though their defensive line is elite and the star position group of their defense. The reason I say that is because Clemson DBs play physical, but do and get away with a lot of grabbing. Will our WRs play physical and fight thru the "grab ***" or will they qet pushed around and quit on their routes?

One thing that gives me confidence is that earlier in the Summer just after the schedule came out, Manny said they had already started watching film preparing for Clemson. I'm certain they already have a plan in place and will tweak it based on Clemson's most recent games.

Secondly, because of our offense, our defense is use to playing against a fast uptempo spread team. I think they'll be fine.

Our team played its best game as a team against FSU. They are improving every week. I expect a very competitive game against Clemson.
 
Kn[]_[]ckles3o5 said:
Offense

QB – Trevor Lawrence is exceptional. He can be rattled under pressure on a play by play basis, like any QB, but he generally regains composure even when under fire throughout the game. He is a gunslinger so if the offense can get going and get us a two score lead we may be able to pressure him into making some mistakes but the expectation is he is going to get his and be difficult to contain for 4 quarters. Both Back ups are highly recruited and talented with difficult names to spell and/or pronounce. If for some reason we knock Lawrence out of the game they could come in and still make plays.

RB – Etienne is considered one of, if not the best back in FBS. Strong, fast, and elusive. If we can contain him we have a good chance to win this game. The back ups aren’t as scary but Dixon can be serviceable.


So with the two obvious stars out of the way what’s left?


WR – Amari Rodgers is the veteran playmaker on the outside for a relatively young group of elite recruits at WR. Cornell Powell is a Sr but the fact I don’t know who he is let’s you know he isn’t the guy we should have to worry about. Frank Ladson Jr was able to step up against Citadel but hasn’t shown a ton yet against P5 comp. We’ve struggled defending veteran WRs but we may be able to frustrate the mostly young group for Clemson. If we can put the clamps on Rodgers and the young WRs aren’t ready to step up we may be able to make life a little more difficult for Lawrence.

TE – Their starter is a serviceable player who can make catches and block but not a gamebreaker. As long as we don’t allow him to run free in the secondary unchecked he shouldn’t be a problem for us.

OL – There was some turnover at this position from last years team. Jr Jackson Carman is a 5 star LT and the best prospect on their line. RS JR Matt Brockhorst is a 4 star talent with experience at LG. RS SR Cade Stewart is a 3 star experienced Center. These three are the heart and soul of the line. On the right side we have SO Will Putnam, a solid 4 star at RG and RS SO Jordan McFadden a 3 star RT. I use star rankings here to lend some context to the players projected abilities but I haven’t broken down any film and don’t really know whether or not any of these kids are really good. The point being, to say Clemson has this mountain of an o line with unlimited elite recruits is just not true. Aside from Jackson their o line doesn’t look much different than ours on paper. Also important to note is they have zero experienced talent backing these guys up. We have a potential advantage here in this match up. If we win the game it will likely be because we exposed the right side and depth of Clemson’s o line as a weakness.



Defense

DL – The DL is the clear strength of this unit. All of their players were highly recruited out of High school. Multiple high 4 star and 5 star recruits. Nice mix of youth and experience. Too many names to discuss. Seek more detailed info about their games from our X’s and O’s guys on the board. They are going to be a handful.

LB – Much less intimidating names here. Skalski and Spector are 3 star veteran guys paired with a low 4 star RS SO Jones Jr. These guys are what Clemson likes at backer. Smart and gritty. Lashlee may have trouble fooling them but we may be able to out talent them with our skill. They lost elite swiss army knife Isaiah Simmons, that loss may prove to be a big deal for this Clemson defense against more talented offenses.

S – Lannden Zanders and Nolan Turner suit up at the S spot, neither are elite recruits. More glue guys holding down the center of the defense. We should be able to get behind these kids and make some plays. They simply don’t have the talent to recover if we get them off balance. Not much behind them either. If we had this safety room the whole fanbase would be trying to get our safety coach fired.

CB – Jr Derion Kendrick is a nice player and their best corner. SO Andrew Booth Jr was highly recruited but got toasted consistently against Wake. I’ll be watching him closely against Virginia to see if he has any juice. If UVA is able to abuse him Saturday then we may have a real advantage attacking his side of the field. Behind them you have a bunch of 4 star corners. I’m not sure who plays in the nickel spot but they have talent there. All I know is if Booth is the 2nd best they have and he gets lit up against UVA then they’ve missed on some evals. Here’s to hoping Booth aint got it because if I can see it you **** well know Lash is gonna be up his *** all night.



Specials

We are good they aren’t bad. They have playmakers so we can’t lose that battle but I’m not going into any details about what they got going on over there.



What to watch against UVA

Clemson on Offense

  • Does UVA get pressure on Lawrence? How and where does it come from? Does it affect him at all?
  • What WRs are making plays for them? Is it all Rodgers? How well are the young Wr playing overall against stiffer competition? Blocking? MEs?
  • Do they have anything behind Etienne that can hurt us? How about at TE?
Clemson on defense

  • Try not to let the DL scare you, do they show any weaknesses? Youth/inexperience?
  • How well are the LBs and S playing? Are they liabilities in coverage against speed? Is their an obvious lack of physical ability? Does the scheme and/or their Football IQ make up for it?
  • What is Andrew Booth Jr doing? Is he a liability in coverage? Do they have anybody to replace him with that can do better?
These are the things I will be looking at after watching some of what they have put on tape this season and going through their roster.
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Great job kUckles! Your point in a nutshell "is" no team is "unbeatable" and that means we have a chance if we execute the coach's game plan. We will be stressed equally on both sides of the ball, but we will have an advantage against their OL and our TEs will have an advantage against their defensive backfield. I think our TE's will help open up the rest of our offense as the game goes along and I have full confidence Rhett Lashlee will find points to attack and have these kids head totally into the game plan from the get-go.

Another motivating force is that we will be the underdog. So not being expected to win will help us to play with nothing to lose type effort. Stress will be purely on Clemson. That type of stress usually makes unforced errors. I will be glued to the TV this weekend to pick up whatever nuances I can from their game against UV.
 
JD08 said:
Back in 92 we went to the Sugar Bowl against Alabama certain that we would win. We had a QB who had just won the Heisman. We had Donnell Bennett, Larry Jones, Stephen McGuire, Lamar Thomas, Horace Copeland, Kevin Williams, the Bermuda Triangle, and a roster full of NFL talent.

Alabama did not have more talent than us. They did have a game plan to handle us on both sides of the ball and it worked. On that 92 Alabama roster was a wide receiver with a whopping 4 catches for 48 yards for the year. His name was Dabo Swinney. Payback's a bytch.
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Some rough memories there !!
 
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Their big, bad defensive line can be somewhat minimized by quick plays, quick throws.

If your offensive line isn't fighting them off all night - they're not going to get worn down.

We can be quicker. Faster. Chaotic for their defense.

I don't see Clempson putting 52 on us - they're good - but they're not that good. We're good, too. And for the first time in decades - we have an offense.

Our talent versus their talent.

I like that.
 
JD08 said:
It's the reason I'll never host a watch party again.
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Ha. Unless I'm at the actual game, I've grown accustomed to only watching with a very small crew - even a subset of the gameday crew. Perhaps it's because we've sucked in big games for so long, but it felt like each time we did a big watch party (which correlate to bigger games), we'd get smoked. Then you sit there miserable for hours. Only thing worse is traveling to watch the Canes lose.
 
JD08 said:
Back in 92 we went to the Sugar Bowl against Alabama certain that we would win. We had a QB who had just won the Heisman. We had Donnell Bennett, Larry Jones, Stephen McGuire, Lamar Thomas, Horace Copeland, Kevin Williams, the Bermuda Triangle, and a roster full of NFL talent.

Alabama did not have more talent than us. They did have a game plan to handle us on both sides of the ball and it worked. On that 92 Alabama roster was a wide receiver with a whopping 4 catches for 48 yards for the year. His name was Dabo Swinney. Payback's a bytch.
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Someone mentioned gap integrity.... Forget about it. Thats something we don't do. I'm more worried about our linebackers. Clemson runs a lot of misdirection, and our LBers aren't the most instinctive and don't have the speed to make up for it. It will be a busy night for the safeties. With King leading the way, we need our Dline and secondary to make some plays and we can pull out a win.
 
mane, we're about to beat the chit out of clemson... Y'all gone call those ninjaz syracuse after this beat down
 
mjackson6 said:
Their secondary and OL are the weakest units of their team thus far and that’s where they had the most turnover from a year ago. WR isn’t scaring many teams unless Ladson takes it to a new level but Lawrence makes them look better than they are.

Our LB play scares me against Etienne and Lawrence is gonna make big throws. I think the pace of our play neutralizes their DL a little (enough to make throws and get some yards) and I think Brevin/Mallory are the key pieces for us against them. If we can get some timely stops on D and maybe a turnover or 2 we could make it a game. Just how effectively can we be stopping Etienne? Our LBers would have to make a 180° improvement over the bye week to do that. Only way we beat them.
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#44 is a total weak link. He had ONE tackle against UL. He topped that by having another ONE tackle game vs. FSU. We CAN NOT have him in there chasing Etienne or Lawrence. I would rather go with rangy-high twitch youth versus a guy who "knows the defense" but can't get to the play or make more than ONE tackle per game at MLB.

DEs have to play disciplined ball and not get too far upfield against Lawrence. We have to be able to collapse the pocket without leaving huge escape lanes. Contain. Contain. Contain.

We MUST match personnel with Clemson. They are well-coached and will not waste real estate when they have the numbers outside. They get upfield and head towards the marker. We can't give up easy dumps on first and second as we've done vs other opponents. Can't get out leveraged either. We have a lot to clean up in that regard.

We have to stop their run. That's the only way we'll get enough stops to get our offense enough opportunities to get on the field.

OUR OFFENSE: Love what Rhett Lashlee brings to the table.
(1) King has to hit on the deep balls. May not get a ton of opportunities compared to previous opponents.
(2) WRs can not fugg off this game. Catch the ball.
(3) We must do better on First down vs Clemson. Get ahead of the sticks.
(4) Our TEs vs their LBs/Safeties is a good bet.
 
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D_G87 said:
Starts with Etienne. LB’s are gonna have to play their best game yet by far to have any chance. We cannot role with 53 and 44. They both are constantly late and not trusting their eyes. You get out of your lane against Etienne and he’ll score from anywhere on the field..
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Etienne is my biggest concern. We haven’t been great against the run lately. Clemson loves delayed hand-offs, draws, etc. we have to be disciplined and can’t get washed every play.

Also we can’t give up third and longs in this one.
 
Clemson will send Lawrence on a half roll and then hand it off to Etienne on a delayed counter at least a few times a game. These are the types of plays Miami needs to be disciplined against. Dabo is gonna throw in a whole lot of horizontal eye candy against our aggressive D - you can bet on that.
 
dirtyred786 said:
Someone mentioned gap integrity.... Forget about it. Thats something we don't do. I'm more worried about our linebackers. Clemson runs a lot of misdirection, and our LBers aren't the most instinctive and don't have the speed to make up for it. It will be a busy night for the safeties. With King leading the way, we need our Dline and secondary to make some plays and we can pull out a win.
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just saw this. Completely agree man.
 
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