WHAT WE ARE HEARING: PREVIEW & PREDICTION FOR CLEMSON AT BOSTON COLLEGE

Welcome to another edition of What We Are Hearing!

 

What a difference a bye makes! Cade and the Tigers exorcised a bunch of demons last week with a rout of UNC in Chapel Hill, taking a 28-3 lead into the second quarter. They scored on the first play of the game and 4 touchdowns in their first 16 offensive plays! Cade had one of the greatest halves you will ever see from a quarterback. He was 22-24 for 254 yards with 4 TD’s, and one of his two incompletions was his best throw of the game! It was a perfectly placed 50-yard throw, as he was being hit, to the back of the endzone that Wesco would have caught for a touchdown if the safety hadn’t broken it up a the last second. Obviously, UNC is not a good football team, but what Cade did last week would have been hard for any quarterback to do against air. He looked like the Heisman favorite that he was going into the season and what we all expected to see in week one. And it wasn’t just Cade that looked like a different player. The other players were executing at a high level, and the defense had it’s most complete game of the season as well. Let’s just hope that it wasn’t a one-off but a harbinger of things to come because if they play at that level every week, they will not lose another game this season.

 

I believe it had to be a good thing that the Tigers were playing on the road last week. They had to hear for two weeks how bad they were and what a disappointment they were after the humiliating home loss to Syracuse, dropping them to 1-3 for the first time in Dabo’s career and almost assuring that their championship hopes for the season were over. Instead of the pressure of playing in Death Valley and hearing a chorus of boos every time they made a bad play, it was just the team in enemy territory with a smattering of Clemson loyalists in the stadium. Of course, by halftime, there was probably as much orange in the stands as Carolina blue! Well, the Tigers take it on the road again this week, about as far as they will ever travel from home to play Boston College in Chestnut Hill, and hopefully they will keep that road mojo going. If they can repeat what they did last week, it will be a much friendlier and optimistic Death Valley for their next home game against SMU! Playing in Chestnut Hill is always very nostalgic for Dabo because it was the site of his very first win as a head coach. It was fittingly on All Saints’ Day (November 1) in 2008 and I was one of the couple thousand Clemson fans in the stands that day as a young alumnus. I can tell you that it was bitter cold in the upper deck for that 3:30 game, especially when the sun started to set! I can still remember, like it was yesterday, watching Dabo run up and down high-fiving fans in the stands and CJ Spiller putting on the leather helmet as the MVP.

 

Let’s hope for more of that magic on Saturday night! On to the matchup…

 

BC SYNOPSIS

Offensive Standouts

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Lewis Bond (WR): As a team captain, Bond leads the Eagles in receiving with 366 yards on 38 receptions.

 

Turbo Richard (RB): Despite the team's struggling run game, the lead back has rushed for 331 yards and four touchdowns while also being a factor in the passing game with 165 receiving yards and two touchdowns.

 

Kaelan Chudzinski (TE): The true freshman tight end has started to break out, leading all true freshman tight ends nationally with 98 receiving yards. He has also received strong blocking grades from Pro Football Focus.

 

Defensive Standouts

 

KP Price (DB): As a team captain, Price leads the Eagles defense with 36 tackles.

 

Daveon Crouch (LB): A team captain at linebacker, Crouch has recorded the team's only interception of the season so far.

 

The Eagles are having a rough season, coming in 1-4, but don’t let the record fool you. They could easily be 4-1, having lost 3 very close games, including one in overtime to Michigan State. And if there’s one thing you know about a Bill O’Brien Boston College team, it’s that they are going to be well-coached and will test your physicality in the trenches. What most don’t realize about this team is that they have the No.10 passing offense in the country, averaging 313.4 yards per game! I can confidently say that they probably haven’t had a top-10 passing offense since Matt Ryan was their QB from 2005-2007.

 

The author of that passing attack is 6’2, 211-pound sophomore Dylan Lonergan. Sounds like the name of a Boston kid, right? Well, guess again. The native of Snellville, GA is a transfer from Alabama. He has completed 67.4 percent of his passes for 1,277 yards and 9 touchdowns with 3 interceptions. He can definitely sling it, but he’s not much of a runner. He has one rush TD this season but averages -1.7 yards per carry on his 18 attempts.

 

5’11, 195-pound senior slot receiver Lewis Bond (#11) leads the receiving corps with 38 catches and 366 yards, but he has yet to score and averages just 9.6 yards per catch. Sophomore Reed Harris (#4) is a big target at 6’5 and 217 pounds. He has just 17 catches but averages 16.8 yards per reception with a pair of touchdowns. Interestingly, none of the other receivers has more than 5 catches this season, but one of them is 6’2, 188-pound junior Jaedn Skeete (#1). Three of his five catches are touchdowns, so look out for him in the red zone. 6’3 senior TE Jeremiah Franklin (#17) has the second-most catches with 22, including a score. The Eagles also have one of the top freshman tight ends in 6’3 Kaelan Chudzinski (#85), who already has a TD this season.

 

BC has struggled in the run game this season, which is unusual for that program. The Eagles are ranked No.131, averaging just 85 yards per game. Their leading rusher is 5’8, 207-pound sophomore Turbo Richard (#2). He is from the Charlotte area and played his high school ball at Rock Hill, so he will be fired up to play the Tigers. Although he only has 331 yards this season, he averages 5.2 yards per carry with 4 rush TD’s and 2 more through the air. His 17 catches ties him for third-most on the team.

 

The defense has produced just 3 turnovers this season; a pair of interceptions and one fumble recovery. The Eagles also have just 10 sacks through 5 games. Senior Sedarius McConnell (#88) from Atlanta leads the team with two. Junior safety and captain KP Price (#2) leads the team in tackles with 36, and it’s never a good thing when a safety is your leading tackler.

 

The Eagles have an excellent kicker in junior Luca Lombardo. The first-year starter is a perfect 6-6 on field goals with two makes over 50 yards and a long of 52.

 

They are ranked No.56 in scoring offense (31.4 points per game), No.10 in passing offense, No.131 in rushing offense and No.64 in total offense (398.4 yards/game). They are No.119 in scoring defense (31.6 points per game), No.59 in rush defense (133.6 yards/game), No.84 in pass defense (230.8 yards/game) and No.71 in total defense (364.4 yards/game). The Eagles are No.35 in 3rd down offense (46.15 percent), No.81 in 3rd down defense (40 percent), No.47 in red  zone offense and No.109 in red zone defense. The are No.128 in turnover margin (-1.2 per game) and No.69 in penalties (54 yards/game).

Friday Injury Report

OUT                                                       QUESTIONABLE                                     PROBABLE

LB #1 Daveon Crouch                           DB #3 Max Tucker                                    LB #5 Bryce Steele

WR #1 Jaedn Skeete                             DB #14 Ashton Cunningham                   RB #5 Jordan McDonald

WR #8 Johnathan Montague Jr.            DL #15 Quintayvious Hutchins                 DB #16 Isaiah Farris

LB #8 Jaylen Blackwell                          LB #23 Vaughn Pemberton                      OL #77 Michael Crounse

DB #10 Syair Torrence                           DB #24 Amari Jackson

DB #19 Marcelous Townsend                DB #29 Cameron Martinez

WR #38 Will Graves III                          DB #30 TJ Green

TE #86 Danny Edgehille                        DB #39 Zach Kelly

DL #91 Makai Byerson                           LB #44 Palaie Faoa

WR #83 Luke McLaughlin (half)             DL #51 Sterling Sanders

                                                                DL #55 Kwan Williams

                                                                OL #79 Kevin Cline

                                                                DT #93 Owen Stoudmire

 

CLEMSON STATUS

The Tigers are in good shape from an injury standpoint. OT Elijah Thurmon will be out again, but the rest of the starters should be good to go. CB Shelton Lewis announced he would transfer during the bye week, but Ashton Hampton probably had his best game of the season last week, and they have decent depth at corner with Aevion, Lukus, Gipson, Strozier and Oliver. LB Jamal Anderson did not make the trip to Chapel Hill last week, and Dabo told us that they will try to get a red shirt for him this season. Kobe McCloud and Dee Crayton got some good playing time at linebacker last week, though, and transfer Jeremiah Alexander has been solid behind starters Woodaz and Sammy Brown. Redshirt freshman TE Christian Bettancur, who I noted as a bright spot in the first few games, had a breakout last week with his first two career TD’s in the first half. Dabo thinks that he could be as good as he’s ever had, and that’s saying something, having coached the likes of Dwayne Allen, Jordan Leggett, Davis Allen and Jake Briningstool! The Tigers have a great tight end group with Bettancur, Sapp and Patt-Henry, and even Ian is coming along. He made his first career reception last week, albeit a pop-pass for a one-yard loss. He was targeted in the endzone in the second half, but CV didn’t throw the fade high enough, and it was broken up. 

Defensively, TJ Parker had his best game of the season last week, and I’ve been waiting for him to start making some noise. Tom Allen decided to move from the press box down to the sideline to light a fire under his defense, and it appears to have worked. They held the Heels to just 57 yards rushing, and the starters did not allow a touchdown. Peter Woods converted a 4th down in the running game for the second straight game, so look for Dabo to continue to call his number in those situations. 

Antonio posted his first career TD pass on the first play of the game last week and is now 4-4 in his career as a passer! I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the season that first-year punter Jack Smith is having. That was one of the biggest questions coming into the season—who would replace Aidan Swanson—and Jack has been steady Eddie so far. He did a great job getting one off last week that should have been blocked because of poor protection.

 

PREDICTION

On paper, the Tigers have a decided edge. They held the Heels to just 57 rush yards last week with Tom Allen on the sideline, and BC has one of the worst rushing offenses in the country. That means they can sit back in coverage or blitz the quarterback—who doesn’t run well—without fear of their run game. I expect the Tigers to post at least 4 sacks on Saturday night. On the other side of the ball, there isn’t a defense in the nation that is stopping this offense when it is executing like it did last week, let alone a mediocre-at-best BC defense. The only hard thing about predicting this game is not knowing which Clemson team will show up. In past years, that was almost never an uncertainty, but this team did not perform even close to its potential through its first four games. If both teams play their absolute best on Saturday night, the Tigers win hands down by at least a couple of touchdowns. The only question is whether they will have a relapse or whether they will repeat what they showed us last week. Call me an optimist, but I think that the Syracuse was rock bottom and that the bye and last week’s rout was a turning point. Momentum is a real thing in sports, especially college football, and confidence is contagious. Losing is a disease and winning is habitual. I think this team has put the month of September behind them and is looking at this as a brand new season. Chalk up another win for Dabo in the stadium where it all began.

 

 

CLEMSON    41        Boston College    17