Clemson Football: Scouting Report vs. Virginia Cavaliers
The Clemson football team will take on the Virginia Cavaliers Saturday night in the ACC Championship. Here’s our scouting report for the matchup.
The Clemson football team will look to remain undefeated and clinch a spot in the CFB Playoff with a win over the Virginia Cavaliers in the ACC Championship.
The Tigers and Cavaliers will collide in Bank of America Stadium at 7:30 p.m. Saturday night.
Clemson football has won the last four ACC Championships and comes into this matchup a 28.5-point favorite, courtesy of the Action Network.
Here’s a look at our scouting report for Virginia, beginning with the Cavalier offense.
Scouting Report: UVA Offense
- Total Offense: No. 82
- Rushing Offense: No. 109
- Passing Offense: No. 38
- Sacks allowed: No. 116
- 3rd Down Conversion: No. 27
The Virginia offense doesn’t have a ton of play-makers, in many respects it’s a one-man show.
Bryce Perkins is the team’s passing and rushing leader. Honestly, Perkins is the only player that has had much of any consistent success running the ball.
He’s extremely fast and elusive. In 3rd-down-and-long situations, one of the tendencies for Virginia is to set up a QB draw and run Perkins if the linebackers clear out. It has allowed them to convert quite a bit this season and it will take Clemson’s linebackers and safeties remaining disciplined to stop him when he does take off and run, whether that be by design or on a scramble.
Perkins has three receivers that he’ll look to get the ball out to in Hasise Dubois (55 rec., 849 yards, 3 TDs), Terrell Jana (61 rec., 695 yards, 1 TD) and Joe Reed (70 rec. 627 yards, 6 TDs). Dubois is a physical 6-foot-3, 215-pound WR where Reed is a play-maker they’ll look to get out in space.
Virginia’s weakness is pretty clear and it doesn’t take a long time to figure out: It’s the offensive line.
The Cavaliers have struggled to run the ball because the offensive line doesn’t get a push out of their stances. Virginia is No. 116 in sacks allowed, averaging three sacks per game.
Clemson is one of the nation’s leaders in sacks and I’d expect Brent Venables to dial up the pressure with exotic blitzes to try and make Perkins uncomfortable and to frustrate that Virginia offense.
The Cavaliers will try to get the ball out quick and use designed run-packages for Perkins to see if he can break off a few big runs.
Scouting Report: UVA Defense
- Total Defense: No. 27
- Rushing Defense: No. 26
- Passing Defense: No. 51
- Sacks: No. 6
Defensively, Virginia is solid all around.
The Cavaliers 27th in the nation in total defense, allowing 336.5 yards per game and 5.27 yards per play. Over the course of this season, they’ve allowed 30 points or more just three times (Notre Dame with 35, UNC with 31, Virginia Tech with 30).
However, Virginia hasn’t faced an offense with as much as talent as Clemson’s this season.
The Cavaliers will line up in multiple formations- 3-man fronts, 4-man fronts- and blitz with linebackers and the secondary to try and hide the coverage and make opposing quarterbacks, in particular, uncomfortable. The strength for Virginia is getting in the backfield (No. 6 in the nation) with that front-seven.
When you look at the personnel, it’s tough to select the standout players. What makes Virginia’s defense so good is that they play as a unit. LB Jordan Mack and S Joey Blount are two to watch for, but what is more impressive is how everyone knows their role on the unit and they play to the system.
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Virginia’s secondary can be physical, but they’re going to have a tough time keeping up with the Tigers’ wide receivers.