Clemson Football has never lost to an FCS opponent since the division was created. Despite the struggles of the Tigers against the Duke Blue Devils, it is hard to believe the program could possibly lose to Charleston Southern.
Victory against the Buccaneers includes more than the scoreboard. This game is important to the Tigers’ fortunes for the rest of 2023.
Here are five things Clemson needs to do to be successful against Charleston Southern.
The offense needs to eliminate the mistakes
It is unrealistic to expect perfection, even against an FCS opponent.
That being said, the biggest thing the Clemson offense needs to take out of this game is confidence that they can be efficient and reliable.
They drove the ball against the Blue Devils. They only had one penalty all evening. They did several things well enough to win. They just did enough bad things to lose.
The top priority is turnovers. The Tigers should set a goal of absolutely no turnovers whatsoever. No interceptions. No fumbles. No turnovers on downs. They shouldn’t beat themselves up if an accident happens, but zero turnovers should be the goal.
The next priority is better decision-making, especially by Cade Klubnik. He needs to make sure he knows where the first down line is always. He needs to be decisive on option reads.
This offense needs to prove to themselves that they are better than what they showed in Durham.
The defense needs significant improvement in tackling
It is unrealistic to expect perfection, even against an FCS opponent.
That being said, the biggest thing the Clemson defense needs to take out of this game is confidence that they can be efficient and reliable (you might see a pattern here).
Clemson was bad with their tackling Monday night. Players we know are good athletes and quality players were letting the opponent slip through their fingers. Sometimes their positioning was so bad they couldn’t even lay a finger on them.
The backfield had a couple of busted coverages that left Duke wide receivers wide open. They shouldn’t allow a single uncontested catch on Saturday.
There is no reason this defensive line shouldn’t get to the quarterback. Every lineman that enters the game should have the goal of getting a tackle for loss.
Coach Swinney said after the game:
"“It’s almost indescribable what I just saw. It’s incredibly frustrating when you had so much opportunity. … It’s routine stuff. The basics. The fundamentals. Basic, basic stuff.”"
That’s what the goal should be. This defense needs to nail the basics and fundamentals.
Perfection should not be the expectation, but it should be the goal.
No goofs on special teams
Stop me if you’ve heard this before….
It is unrealistic to expect perfection, even against an FCS opponent.
That being said, the biggest thing the Clemson special teams need to take out of this game is confidence that they can be efficient and reliable.
This is easy for Robert Gunn. He needs to make a field goal. It doesn’t matter if it is short or long. Center of the field or the left hash. He needs to put three points on the board and start rebuilding his confidence.
Aidan Swanson needs to put the punts where they belong. Distance is great, but I’ll take a coffin corner punt any day of the week. Placement, placement, placement.
I’d love a kick return or punt return for a touchdown. I’ll settle for making smart decisions about which kicks to field, which to avoid, and making good decisions with fair catches.
Even better, just make sure if you decide to catch it that you catch it.
I know this all sounds basic but what this team needs most, in all three phases, is the experience of stepping on the field and doing their job efficiently without a disaster. These players probably feel snakebit right now.
That’s the best summary of each of the first three things: avoid disasters.
No injuries
There were only a few silver linings from Monday night. One of them was that the Tigers entered the game with no surprises on the injury report that we didn’t already know about.
This is a major change from the opening games from the past couple of seasons when fans refreshed their news feeds nervously every few minutes anticipating one type of bad news or another.
As far as we know they left Durham without any major injuries. This is a welcome sight to Clemson fans, it’s just so unfortunate that it’s getting overshadowed by the loss.
It’s a long season and while Clemson might not be ready right now to handle any heavyweights, this team can improve. As we’ve already said, just re-establishing confidence can be huge for this team. If they can do that in this game, they can take another step, then another step.
If key players go down to injury, then we aren’t just talking about re-establishing confidence. We’re talking about younger players stepping in who will need to learn on the job.
The starters need a good experience on Saturday. Then they need to sit down on the bench, stay healthy, and let the second and third-string get experience.
Expectations need to be reset
Some observers were surprised to hear players talking about national championships during talking season. We were even more surprised to hear Coach Swinney embrace such expectations.
The Tigers had never looked that far ahead before. They had always taken a one-step-at-a-time approach to stay focused and not get carried away with expectations.
Swinney and his coaches were in the best position to know how to push this team’s buttons. I don’t blame them for changing their philosophy if they thought that was the right call to make. It was simply the most tremendous backfire ever.
The talk about national championships has made this team look silly. Now the staff has to re-establish a realistic mindset about what this team can achieve in 2023.
Everything is still in front of them. They have hurt their chances to advance to the ACC championship game, but stranger things have happened.
Clemson will need help, but that shouldn’t be their concern. Their focus needs to be on the task at hand: the Charleston Southern Buccaneers. The only important game is the next game.
Clemson needs to handle Clemson’s business and let all the other cards fall where they may. If it’s meant to be, it will work out.
The coaches and team leaders need to install these reset expectations to keep the players pointed in the right direction.