Clemson football: 5 encouraging signs for the Tigers as we move forward

The 2021 Clemson football season didn’t get started the way that Tiger fans had hoped.

Clemson came into a mega-matchup against the Georgia Bulldogs with a ton of hype, but the Tigers were unable to muster any kind of an offensive attack on their way to 10-3 loss.

Now, they’re looking to rebound.

We’ve talked quite a bit about some of the negativity surrounding the team and the concerns moving forward, but that doesn’t mean everything that happened Saturday– and in the aftermath– was bad.

Here’s a look at five encouraging signs for the Tigers as we prepare to move forward.

Five encouraging signs for Clemson football as we move forward

1. That defense is even better than advertised

There was plenty of hype surrounding this defense coming into the season and they absolutely met every single one of those expectations and more against Georgia.

Now, let’s not pretend that the Bulldogs have an elite offensive attack. But, still, the defense absolutely dominated the Bulldogs throughout the night and the result saw UGA muster just three points offensively, despite owning the field position game.

Clemson’s front-seven did an excellent job stopping the run and getting in the backfield and the defensive backs had what we might say is the best game we’ve seen from that unit in quite some time.

Andrew Booth Jr. and freshman Andrew Mukuba really stood out for their plays in the secondary and it’s clear that group– which once was thought to be a concern on this defense– might actually have a chance to be one of the better units in the country this season.

If the defense can stay healthy, there’s nothing standing in the way of this unit being as dominant, if not more dominant, than the 2018 team.