CLEMSON: Clemson-Florida State week used to mean a high profile match up with national implications. A week of hype would lead to a frenzied atmosphere at the stadium. This time around, however, not so much.
Between them, the Tigers and Noles have combined for more losses (9) than wins (7). Neither will be the ACC Champion. Neither will make the College Football Playoff. This Saturday night at Clemson, all they have are each other and memories.
It’s seems appropriate that Florida State great Deion Sanders, who is having his own issues this season as head coach at Colorado, took this week to call Clemson coach Dabo Swinney. Was it to console one another or reminisce? Swinney didn’t say.
Despite the .500 record of 4-4, the Seminoles have the #1 offense in the country. And their quarterback, Thomas Castellanos, lives off the big play. He’s averaging nearly 17 yards per completion.
Considering that Clemson is ranked 101st nationally in passing yards allowed, that could be a problem for the Tigers Saturday night.
One big plus for the Seminoles is their offensive line. They start five seniors, and the same five have started every game except one. And it’s a good offensive line that’s led the way to an average of 241 rushing yards per game while allowing just 13 sacks, second fewest total in the ACC. Of course, it helps to have a mobile quarterback like Castellanos who can run away from pressure.
Florida State has not been half bad on defense either, ranking 26th nationally at 313 yards per game.
With all this good stuff, why did FSU go through a four game losing streak before winning at Wake Forest 42-7 last week? For one, they played three of the best teams in the ACC, and lost close games.
Virginia beat the Seminoles in double overtime in Charlottesville 46-38. They were handled for three quarters at Miami before a 19 point fourth quarter rally, but still fell short 28-22. And they lost to a hotshot new quarterback at Pittsburgh 34-31 being outscored 13-7 in the fourth quarter. The 20-13 loss at Stanford was a head scratcher. The Seminoles hurt themselves with 13 penalties, and they were 2-4 in the red zone compared to 4-4 for the Cardinal.
Florida State owns a 21-16 series lead, and the teams are tied 9-9 at Death Valley. Clemson won last season ion Tallahassee 29-13. The Tigers are 2.5 point favorites.
One injury note on Clemson: OL Elyjah Thurmon is out for the rest of the season and is going to have to have surgery on his shoulder. He’ll be able to redshirt this season.
Some Key Comments From Swinney
- All the problems for both teams out the window because it’s Clemson vs Florida State.
- Florida State is aggressive and down hill on their defense, offensively, number one in the country, Malzahn is committed to running the ball, when he has a QB committed to the system, he’s a problem.
- Very impressed with Castellanos, liked him when he was a Boston College, he’s very patient and waits for his chances, the offense will have a lot of eye candy with motions and formations, hard to defend.
- His defense will have to play a lot better coming off the Duke performance, needs to have everyone on the same page.
- On his defense, it’s frustrating when eight guys are doing what they’re supposed to do, got to be better, got to be on the same page all the time, got the right guys, untimely mistakes, not a lack of effort.
- Klubnik’s ankle is good coming out of the Duke game. He’s a warrior. Did everything he could to get ready for the SMU game. Has no fear and has great respect from his teammates.
- Everything bad that’s happened in his life, something good has come from it, this season has sucked and he’s pissed about it, but this season is a comma and not a period in their story, they will be back whether or not people on the outside don’t want to believe that.
- Not always happy, not happy right now, he hasn’t gotten it done this year, it’s his fault. “I suck this year.” But he’s at peace. Something great will come from this.
- One his greatest strengths has been following his instincts, he’s always leaned on that, and he believes he’s gotten away from that this season, and he’s got to be better with that.
- College football has lost its way, created a system that’s not sustainable, he told other coaches years ago when there was talk of playoff expansion, you’re going to see more coaches fired. It’s all about playoffs now, and there’s only 12 spots for 136 teams.
- When he gets his program back on top, which he says he’ll do, he hopes people will have a different perspective about what it means to win big in college football today.
- Coaches are getting fired at an alarming rate because it’s all about the playoff now. There’s no cracks in the Clemson foundation, this thing is built on rock, it’s built right.
- The lack of public accountability for the referees has to change, they can go home and drink a beer after a game and not answer to a critical call, it’s too important and it’s costing coaches jobs, there are flat out misses with no consequences.
- Need full-time officials and there should be coaches challenges and public accountability by the officials.
Dabo can whine about calls all he wants but he is usually on the beneficial side of bad calls. That interference call was absolutely correct. A defender cannot block the path of a receiver past 5 yards from the line of scrimmage, so apologize to the official and move on.