Welcome to another edition of What We Are Hearing!
After a bye and back-to-back road games, the Tigers finally have their mojo back and hope to keep it going for the home crowd in Death Valley on Saturday in a rematch of last year’s ACC Championship with SMU. Amazingly, the Tigers, who had the best home record in the nation for over a decade, have lost 4 of their last 6 home games. Granted, they led in the 4th quarter of two of those, but they simply have not played well for 4 quarters in any of their 3 home games this season. They have had hour-and-a-half lightning delays in their last two, but it looks like we will avoid that on Saturday!
In their last two outings, Cade and the Tigers have resembled the team that was one of the preseason favorites to win the national championship. In his last two first-halves (he hardly had to play in either second half), Cade was 40-47 for 498 yards, 5 pass TD’s, one rush TD and no interceptions! However, both games were obviously against inferior competition, so we will find out on Saturday if this team is truly back to being the one we expected in August. SMU will provide a good barometer for us. Cade, of course, injured his ankle last week at Boston College. More on that in a bit! On to the matchup…
SMU SYNOPSIS
Remarkably, the Mustangs have yet to lose a regular season conference game as members of the ACC! Their ACC only loss since joining the conference last season was the last-second, 56-yard field goal by freshman Nolan Hauser in the championship game last December. They come in 2-0 in ACC play and 4-2 overall, with close losses to Texas rivals TCU and Baylor. The former was on the road, and the latter went to double overtime. I really like Rhett Lashlee, and he has done an incredible job in his short tenure there. And he has a ton of respect for Dabo, Cade and Clemson, as his remarks revealed in his press conference the other day and back in July at the ACC Kickoff. He actually recruited Cade when he was the offensive coordinator at Miami, so he knows all about his skill set and what kind of a competitor he is.
Lashlee may not have landed Cade as a recruit, but he was able to sign another gem of a Texas quarterback in Kevin Jennings, who took the ACC by storm last season. He has picked up right where he left off, completing 71.7 percent of his passes for 1,658 yards and 15 touchdowns with 6 interceptions. He has one rushing touchdown this season, but he’s not the type of runner that will eat up big chunks of yards with his legs. He only has 5 net rush yards on 37 carries this season with 11 sacks. However, he is very athletic and can kill you with his scrambling ability. He is improvisationally gifted, and the Tigers’ secondary will have to cover for an eternity on several plays when Jennings goes into scramble drill mode. It will be critical for Parker, Heldt, Lawson and company to keep him contained in the pocket and get home. Jennings can throw from every different arm angle and even made a shovel pass around his back in one game, so that makes him all the more dangerous.
The Stangs lost their best offensive weapon from last year’s team, RB/WR Brashard Smith, but it’s safe to sat that they are “making do” with the backs they do have. 6’2, 220-pound senior TJ Harden (#27) gets the bulk of the carries and averages almost 5 yards per carry with 5 touchdowns. However, he only rushed for 39 yards on 12 carries in their 34-10 win against Stanford last week, and he hasn’t scored since his pair of TD’s against Missouri State over a month ago. He scored a hat trick the week before that game in the double-overtime loss to Baylor. Backing him up is 6’0, 184-pound sophomore Chris Johnson, Jr. (#6). He only has 28 carries this season but averages 8.1 yards per carry with a couple scores. He also has 8 catches for 122 yards and a touchdown. He had his best game last week against Stanford with 5 carries for 96 yards and a touchdown, so it will be interesting to see if he gets a bigger share of the touches on Saturday.
SMU no longer has WR Roderick Daniels, who had a monster game against the Tigers in Charlotte last December, but Jennings does a good job spreading the wealth among his receivers, as 6 players have at least 2 touchdown catches, and 2 more have scored as well. Leading the way is 6’2, 190-pound senior Romello Brinson (#3). He is one of the several players—including last year’s star, Brashard Smith—who Lashlee was able to pull out of Miami thanks to his time on the Canes’ staff. Brinson has 32 catches for 484 yards and 3 touchdowns. He was listed as questionable on Thursday, however, with an undisclosed injury. 6’2, 180-pound freshman Jalen Cooper (#9) only has 15 catches but averages a whopping 18.1 yards per with a pair of scores. 6’1, 200-pound senior Jordan Hundson (#2) was injured in the opener and missed the following game, but he now has 15 catches on the season with a pair of scores as well. The Stangs have a pair of great senior tight ends in RJ Maryland (#82) and Matthew Hibner (#88). Maryland has 14 catches and a couple touchdowns this season. Hibner has 13 catches and a touchdown this season, and he was a big part of that comeback against the Tigers in Charlotte with 5 catches for 69 yards, including a score.
On the defensive side, the Stangs lost both players who sacked Cade in the last meeting—Elijah Roberts and Jared Harrison-Hunte—to the NFL, but senior DE Cameron Robertson (#9) has stepped up to fill the void with 4.5 sacks and a couple of forced fumbles. Senior DE Isaiah Smith (#1) is opposite him with 2.5 sacks. They also have a pair of monsters on the interior of the defensive line. 6’6, 312-pound senior DT Jeffrey M’ba (#6) has 4 sacks. He started at Auburn and spent the last two seasons at Purdue, so he used to play right beside the Tigers’ Purdue transfer, Will Heldt. 6’3, 313-pound senior DT Terry Webb (#4) is another run-stuffer with 3 sacks on the interior. In the middle of the defense is junior LB Alexander Kilgore (#54), who had a pick-six in their opener, and senior LB Justin Medlock (#20), who had a pick-six of his own against Stanford last week! You rarely see a linebacker with a pick-six, let alone two of them. Medlock, however, is listed out for this game with an undisclosed injury. On the back end, the Stangs have an NFL prospect in senior safety Isaiah Nwokobia (#12), who leads the team with 48 tackles and 6 PBU’s. He also has an interception this season, giving him 10 in his career. Senior safety Ahmaad Moses (#3) has a pair of interceptions, including a pick-six. As you can see, this is an opportunistic, senior-laden defense.
The Stangs have had some drama at kicker this season. Senior Collin Rogers, who was 24-33 last season with a long of 55 yards, made his first attempt this season against Baylor from 43 yards but proceeded to miss two from over 50, including the one that cost them the game in double-overtime. After that, they turned to freshman Sam Keltner, and he has looked like a freshman in his first few games, missing his first 3 attempts over 40 yards. However, he was 2-2 against Stanford last week, including a 48-yarder, so he has some confidence coming into Death Valley. Perhaps his confidence was bolstered by his senior predecessor, Rogers, entering the transfer portal last week. Either way, SMU will have to rely on the freshman going forward.
SMU is ranked No.42 in scoring offense (34 points per game), No.100 in rushing offense (127 yard/game), No.27 in passing offense (277.8 yard/game) and No.61 in total offense (404.8 yard/game). The Mustangs are No.55 in scoring defense (22.3 yards/game), No.27 in rush defense (107.3 yards/game), No.135 (next to last) in pass defense (315.8 yards/game) and No.120 in total defense (423.2 yards/game). They are tied with Clemson at No.88 in 3rd down offense (37.84 percent), No.48 in 3rd down defense (35.05 percent), No.43 in red zone offense and No.10 in red zone defense. They average 3.17 sacks/game, which is tied for 9th nationally. They are No.20 in turnover margin (+0.83 per game) and No.112 in penalties (67.8 yards/game).
CLEMSON STATUS
Naturally, it got a lot of attention on Thursday when Cade was listed as “questionable” on the weekly ACC injury report. However, I wouldn’t panic just yet. As I mentioned earlier, Cade was knocked out of the second half last week with an ankle injury at Boston College with the game well in hand. He did not appear to be in much pain on the sideline, however, and looked like he could have gone back in if they had needed him. Dabo said after the game and repeated on Tuesday and Wednesday evening that Cade was sore but was practicing and that he expected him to play. Personally, I think that the fact that Dabo listed him as “questionable” instead of “probable” is merely smoke and mirrors—an attempt to sow doubt with the SMU camp. We all know how tough Cade is, what a competitor he is and how big the stakes are for the Tigers, who have to win out in order to get to 10 wins or to have any chance whatsoever of making the playoff. Cade is also from Texas and knows counterpart and fellow Texas native Kevin Jennings, among others on the SMU sideline, so he will not want to miss this game. I think that the Tigers can win with CV at quarterback, but I fully expect Cade to be the starter. The only question to me is how well he will be able to run, plant and throw on that ankle. It figures that he would injure his ankle right after the two best statistical halves of his career and by far this season! I will know for sure who will be the starter under center about an hour and a half before kickoff and will let you know on The Valley forum then!
The Tigers are otherwise in good shape. OT Elyjah Thurmon will be out again, and fellow starting OT Tristan Leigh is listed as questionable. However, freshman Brayden Jacobs stepped up and had a good game last week opposite Blake Miller, who had his best game of the season.
PREDICTION
Again, keep in mind that I am going on the assumption that Cade will be able to play the entire game and will be somewhat close to normal capability. If not, all bets are off. Again, I believe that the Tigers can win with CV under center, but it would completely change the dynamic of the game. That being said, I think the Tigers will finally put it together at home for the Clemson faithful. There is only one team in the nation with a worse pass defense than SMU, so Cade—or even CV for that matter—should have a field day on Saturday. The Stangs also rely heavily on the pass game, as did Boston College, and look how that turned out. For the first time this season, the Tigers will be in the black with a winning record at 4-3, handing SMU its very first regular-season ACC loss.
CLEMSON 41 Southern Methodist 27
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