4 painful realizations Clemson needs to accept after its brutal beatdown loss at LSU

It may only be one-of-12, but that shouldn't make it feel any better. Clemson had a great opportunity to steal LSU's sunshine during Lane Kiffin's team debut. Instead, it devolved into the most damning loss of Dabo Swinney's coaching career. Falling 51-10 in what was the signature game of the Week 1 slate could not have been a worse look. Clemson is left with no choice but to pick up the pieces here.

The Tigers will have their home opener next week vs. Georgia Southern, but Swinney and his program need to reclaim the narrative of their quickly fading season before it is too late. Clemson was a 10.5-point underdog coming into the second leg of the Battle for Death Valley, but few saw Swinney's Tigers getting 50 burger-ed like Pat McAfee envisioned. At least there is plenty for them to clean up.

For Clemson to get better as a football program, it must accept these four uncomfortable truths.

Clemson's quarterback battle was all for naught, revealing no starters

When it looks, sounds, and feels like a dog-and-pony show, that is probably because it is a dog-and-pony show. Swinney dragged out the starting quarterback battle far too long for Clemson's own good. Truthfully, he probably wanted veteran Christopher Vizzina to beat out true freshman Tait Reynolds earlier in the summer. Instead, it became apparent that Clemson does not have a quarterback.

Vizzina completed 10-of-16 passes for 83 yards and an interception. If we were to add his five carries for four yards, he did not account for close to 100 yards of total offense in this one. The moment was simply too big for him. As for Reynolds, he looked like a true freshman with no feel in the pocket. He completed only 4-of-6 passes for 22 yards. His five carries on the night went for negative nine yards.

The best way to encapsulate Clemson's quarterback play on Saturday night was Vizzina's pick-six.

Chad Morris is no better than Garrett Riley was with the running game

It didn't matter for one second that Chad Morris was on the Clemson sidelines calling offensive plays. Clemson tried to run the ball early and often in this one, but got nowhere in the ground game. Blake Baker's LSU defense held the Clemson rushing attack mostly yardless for the better part of the night. Clemson finished the contest with 26 carries for 40 yards and a touchdown. This felt so Garrett Riley.

All summer long, we heard so many great and wonderful things about the Clemson offensive line and how this rushing attack was going to be much improved. Well, old habits die hard in big spots. With how poorly Clemson ran the ball, combined with how much Tom Allen's defense struggled to stuff the run, no wonder this game got out of hand early. It played a part in the quarterback play being so awful.

Clemson is simply not talented enough to only win games by throwing the football around the field.

Clemson does not have the personnel to stop the run whatsoever

As stated above, this was arguably the most concerning issue from a tactical standpoint in the game itself. Kiffin and Charlie Weis Jr.'s LSU offense ran the ball a whopping 58 times for 309 yards and four touchdowns. Quarterback Sam Leavitt and running back Dilin Jones each had 113 rushing yards and two trips to pay dirt. Keep in mind that neither of them played for the Bayou Bengals this time last fall.

With Vic Burley suspended indefinitely, JUCO transfer Andy Burburija was thrust into a bad situation for himself in stuffing the run along the defensive line. LSU averaged 5.3 yards per carry, but never had more than 18 rushing yards on a given play in that game. In short, it was a death by a thousand paper cuts for the Clemson defense. LSU saw a massive weakness and took full advantage of it.

Clemson's inability to slow down the run at all could be a season-long problem for Allen's defense.

This may be the final season Dabo Swinney gets to coach this team

There is no way around it. If Saturday night was not the beginning of the end for Swinney's time coaching up Clemson, what would it even be then? No, Clemson was not expected to beat LSU in Baton Rouge. However, this team should not have been blown out by 41 points. As the Clemson fanbase has been begging and hoping Swinney would adapt, he chose to be painfully stubborn.

Instead of doing what this program needed, he opted to hire his friend as offensive coordinator and not take a gander at what the transfer portal quarterback market could offer, gaslighting us every step of the way. Swinney may be an institution at Clemson, but he may have to be institutionalized if he thinks this kind of continued effort out of the Tigers will be tolerated. It has become so decadent.

With a $57 million buyout, now may be the time to see if the Clemson boosters can come together.

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