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Your Take on This Year's Clemson

+4 HS
lljjgg's picture
October 31, 2020 at 4:37pm
36 Comments

I'm curious for those who have watched Clemson what your take is on them this year?

I've watched probably 3-4 of their games so far this year, and I personally wouldn't overact to this last game against BC and say they're not playoff worthy, they definitely are. Especially with Lawrence back.

But one thing that interests me is that outside of Etienne and Lawrence who are a nightmare to stop, I really haven't been impressed with the talent around them the way I am most years. The WR group in particular seems to have regressed this year with the loss of Tee Higgins and Justyn Ross, which is understandable but surprising given that Clemson tends to reload at that position. Cornell Powell seems very good, but he's not a game-breaker the way those two were. Amari Rodgers is back and still very good, but he's likewise not going to blow up your gameplan or keep you up all night the way Justyn Ross could. 

On defense they've been talking up the CBs a lot, but I've seen them get beaten regularly, especially in today's game. Had Jurkovec been more accurate at the end of the game there's a genuine chance Clemson would have lost that game. There is a lot of young talent on DL, but in the few games I've watched I haven't seen them get to the QB a whole lot. Xavier Thomas and Bryan Breesee are going to be great once they develop them, though. The LB group is solid, and will be better with Skalski back, but their are no stars here the way there was in Isaiah Simmons last year.

Has anyone else watched them much this year? I can understand if not, but I will say outside of the obvious in Lawrence and Etienne, the lack of standout talent on the team this year has been interesting to see. It really feels like a lot of B level talent that's been raised tremendously by their two unquestionably stars. I could legitimately see a Clemson-OSU or Clemson-Alabama game going down to the wire once again. I don't feel like they have the talent outside of those two to really blow away good teams this year. Average and below average talents like Georgia Tech, definitely. The question I think is whether playing close against talented teams will end up biting them the way it perhaps should have last year against OSU.

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