It will be Homecoming at Clemson Saturday, and the Tigers will play host to an ACC rival, but one which is a most unfamiliar foe. Stanford is an ACC newbie, and this will be only the second matchup between the Tigers and Cardinal. They met in the 1986 Gator Bowl with the Tigers holding on for a 27-21 victory.
Stanford will be coming east for a second straight weekend. The Cardinal won at Syracuse last Friday on a field goal on the final play. Clemson and Stanford are part of a group of five teams sitting at 1-0 in the ACC standings.
Clemson will be playing its 100th recorded Homecoming game, and the Tigers have won their last twelve in that setting. And after winning the 800th game in program history last Saturday, head coach Dabo Swinney will be gunning for his 100th win inside Death Valley. He is 99-9 on his home turf.
One more victory will also bring Swinney equal to Florida State legend Bobby Bowden for the most wins as head coach of an ACC team at 173.
Key comments from Swinney:
- Stanford is a well-coached team, and they play hard in all three phases, they are smart and fundamentally sound and compete from the first to the last play.
- Stanford has a lot of experience on offense and it’s all about the QB, he’s from Georgia and he can run and throw, impressed with their three running backs.
- Impressed with Stanford receivers and tight end, Ayomanor is a super star.
- Important for them to win up front on defense but they have to be very disciplined in their approach to the QB, and have to be aware of the screen game.
- Stanford is stout up front, they don’t let up and play with a lot of intensity from the start, they are 3-1 and coming in with a lot of confidence.
- Ayamanor is a very good player, better know where he is all the time; Stanford has been good at stopping the run thus far, they are tough up front, big and strong and the move around.
- Peter Woods and Tyler Brown are getting better every day, still identifies them as being “day to day.” Sadler is day to day, Wesco is doing better, could have come back last Saturday but held him out, and Capehart is fine as well.
- Next step for his offense is to show constancy with their performance, Klubnik is playing really well, not going to score 59 points every game but you want consistent performance, make the routine plays, which they have been doing.
- Offensive line hasn’t allowed a sack in three games, they have some functioning depth and has been able to plug in guys, it’s a really good group who have developed, just need to stay healthy.
- Receivers have done a great job in blocking down field, they’ve taken a lot of pride in that.
- He did not listen to the outside noise after the Georgia loss, not aware of things said about him, could care less about any criticism that might come his way, he’s not trying to prove anything to anybody and only focused on having the best program he can.