Clemson Football: How Week 1 of college football impacts the Tigers
By John Chancey
Week 1 of college football isn’t over until Clemson Football and Duke finish their game Monday night. There is a big game tonight between the Florida State Seminoles and the LSU Tigers. Former Clemson quarterback DJ Uiagalelei plays later today too.
Most of the games of Week 1 are in the books. There were a few surprises here and there. Here is a recap of the games that might impact Clemson Football as the season progresses.
TCU scored points without Garrett Riley but didn’t get the victory
The matchup between TCU and Colorado was high profile because Deion Sanders is high profile, and his methods of rebuilding the Buffaloes program have come under scrutiny.
The game turned out to be a great offensive contest. Shedeur Sanders, Travis Hunter, and the rest of the Colorado offense were much better than expected. The Buffaloes got the victory 45-42 over the Horned Frogs. Colorado held a 17-14 advantage at halftime.
From a Clemson perspective, I wanted to see how the offense led by Kendal Briles would perform compared to the 2022 offense led by Garrett Riley.
What I saw was very similar. TCU’s offense started slow in the first half but eventually found their groove. TCU often came out of the gates slow last season too. They became known for making comebacks as the game aged. They performed the same way on Saturday. The difference was the defense couldn’t hold off Colorado.
Briles is a respected coordinator so it shouldn’t be a shock that TCU’s offense was still potent. The point that often is forgotten is that Sonny Dykes was known for good offenses long before Riley joined his staff.
In the end, I am not sure we learned anything that would give us a good idea of what to expect Monday night, but we did learn Colorado will be worth watching, at least when they are on offense.