WHAT WE ARE HEARING: PREVIEW & PREDICTION FOR NO.1 CLEMSON vs. CHARLOTTE
- 2019-09-21 12:25:41
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Welcome to another edition of What We Are Hearing!
This will be the briefest edition in over four years of
these because I’ve been sick as a dog over the last couple days, and I’m still
feeling awful. I caught some kind of bug coming back from Syracuse. My
apologies, and thanks in advance for your understanding.
As a quick reminder for those of you attending the Charlotte
game, a Disney film crew will be shooting footage for the movie Safety
during halftime, so consider keeping your seats and contributing to the movie!
The story is based on former Clemson player Ray Ray McElrathbey and his little
brother Fahmarr, who was granted permission by the NCAA to live with Ray Ray
and receive financial support back in 2006. One of the producers spoke to us on
Tuesday about the project, and you can watch that below.
Now on to this week’s matchup….
MISCELLANEOUS
This is the first meeting between the two schools. Clemson
is 62-38-4 when playing an opponent for the first time…Saturday will be Dabo’s
150th game as head coach, and this is the 150th season of
college football…. Clemson has not lost a game before October since 2014, an
overtime loss in Tallahassee….Clemson is 27-3 in its last 30 night games. Two
of the three losses were to Alabama, and the third was at Syracuse without a
starting QB or starting kicker…Clemson and Alabama are tied for the most
consecutive weeks in the AP Top 10 at 63 straight weeks. Georgia is 3rd at
32 weeks… Clemson has won 17 straight in Death Valley going back to the
last-second loss to Pitt in 2016. Prior to that, the Tigers won 21 straight, so
the Tigers have won 38 of their last 39 home games, losing only on a
last-second field goal….Clemson has won 20 straight regular season
non-conference games….Clemson is 11-2 all-time as the No.1 ranked team….Clemson
has won 33 of its last 36 games away from home and 20 of its last 21 true road
games….Clemson has won its last 32 straight Saturday games, the longest streak
in the nation….Clemson has won 5 straight road openers, last losing at UGA in
2014….
CHARLOTTE SYNOPSIS
The 49ers have a new head coach in Will Healy, who is the
second-youngest FBS coach at 34 years old. Before Charlotte, Healy was Head
Coach at Austin Peay for 3 years. When he first took that job as a 31-year-old,
Dabo called him to see about getting a job for one of his graduate assistants.
Healy took the opportunity to express to Dabo how much he admired him and
appreciated his impact on the coaching profession. You can read more about that
in an article by ESPN’s David Hale HERE.
Charlotte has a legitimate NFL defensive end in 6’4,
242-pound senior Alex Highsmith (#5). He already has 4 sacks this season, and
Charlotte is tied for 6th nationally in sacks with 13 on the season.
That will be a fun matchup to watch: Highsmith on Jackson Carman or Tremayne
Anchrum. The Tigers have allowed just 2 sacks as a unit this season, so it will
be a strength-on-strength matchup in the trenches when the Tigers have the
ball.
Offensively, Charlotte is very multiple and will present a
variety of formations, but I expect Venables to have his group ready. 5’10, 192-pound
sophomore QB Chris Reynolds (#3) has completed about 70% of his passes this
season for 587 yards and 7 touchdowns with 2 interceptions. He’s also a good
runner, rushing for 141 yards and 2 touchdowns on 5.6 yards per carry. At
running back, Charlotte has a wrecking ball that Dabo compared to Maurice
Jones-Drew. 5’9, 215-pound senior Benny LeMay already has 351 yards and 4
touchdowns this season, averaging 7.6 yards per carry. The Tigers will need to
wrap him up because arm tackles won’t bring him down! Charlotte has scored 47.3
points per game this season, good enough for No.14 in the nation. The 49ers
scored 41 at App State in their only loss this season, and we all have a
healthy respect for the App State program.
CLEMSON STATUS
Unlike myself, the Defending Champs are in a great place
right now, having cleared their two biggest hurdles to another perfect regular
season and fifth consecutive trip to the College Football Playoff. In fact, I
believe that whoever the Tigers face in Charlotte for the ACC Championship—I predicted
that to be Virginia preseason and see no cause to deviate from that
prognostication—will not pose as great a threat as the last two games against
Texas A&M and Syracuse on the road. By December, this will be a well-oiled
machine on both sides of the ball, and no one outside of Alabama, Georgia, and
perhaps one or two others will have a chance of coming close against the
Tigers. They still have to play NC State in Raleigh, where the Pack has always
given the Tigers a dog fight, but State is struggling right now, fresh off a
loss to a very poor West Virginia team. No, the next 10 games for the Tigers
will be solely about self-improvement and prepping for a run at the sport’s
first repeat national championship since 2012. That begins with Charlotte.
Dabo told me on Wednesday that the biggest thing he’s looking
for on Saturday is consistency on both sides of the ball. He pointed out how
explosive they have been on offense but that they need to be more efficient on
3rd down. On the defensive side of the ball, they have also made some great
plays, but they have missed too many "lay-ups." Dabo said they've
made some 3-pointers and some dunks on both sides, but they've also missed a
bunch of layups. Charlotte has a big, physical running back that is able to
break arm tackles, so this will be a good test to see if the defense can wrap
him up and miss fewer tackles. The Tigers lost the turnover margin at Syracuse
after winning it in 5 straight games. If they had made it 6 straight, it would
have been their longest streak since 1989-90. Look for them to get back on the
right side of the ledger on Saturday night.
The Tigers’ defense is humming right now, having allowed
just 10 points per game in the first three. They are coming off an 8-sack
performance, the most since they sacked Auburn 10 times in 2017, and they
probably should have had 11 or 12 at Syracuse! Preseason All-American Isaiah
Simmons had a monster game last week, recording 2 of those 8 sacks. Mario
Goodrich played about half the game when Kendrick went out for back spasms. It
was a big step forward for the sophomore Goodrich, who made a big PBU in the
end zone early and then came up with a huge red zone interception in the second
half to swing momentum back in the Tigers’ favor. Incidentally, DK was still
experiencing back spasms early in the week, but Dabo said he was good on
Wednesday and will be ready to go. As I wrote before the season started, everyone
in the media that kept harping on the Tigers’ losses on defense didn’t have a
clue and that the Tigers would be just fine on that side of the ball. In fact,
they led the nation in scoring defense last year, allowing 13 points per game,
and they are even better than that so far this season, allowing just 10 points
per game. And that includes a last-second touchdown by a very good A&M
offense on 4th down! The Tigers have already produced multiple
goal-line stands, and they’re just going to get better as the season goes on.
On the offensive side, many are questioning the efficiency
and production of Trevor Lawrence and the offense through the first three games
because they were expected to be the best offense in the nation this season.
While there is some improvement needed, the Tigers have shown plenty of
explosiveness. They just need to get better on 3rd down, and Trevor
needs to eliminate some of the mistakes. You can bet they will do just that.
People forget that the Tigers’ offense went through the same criticism and
doubts early in the season in 2016, but by the end of the season, they were
rolling. They are averaging 39 points per game right now, which is just 5
points fewer than their average for the season in 2018. Bear in mind, too, that
Clemson is one of just four teams that has played a Power Five opponent in its
first three games. You can expect the Tigers to quickly climb the offensive
ranks over the next month, especially with the return of Amari Rodgers. It’s
truly remarkable that less than six months after tearing his ACL, he goes for
121 yards and 2 touchdowns at Syracuse. Even the coaches didn’t think he’d be
back as early as he was. I asked Dabo a week before the opener if there was any
chance he could play in the A&M game, and Dabo said there was no chance and
that they expected him to return by late September or early October! Well, lo
and behold, Amari made his 2019 debut against A&M and then ran wild at
Cuse. He scored the Tigers’ first TD of the game, and later his 87-yard TD gave
the Tigers an 18-point lead and totally took the wind out of the Orange and
their crowd. Who knows how the game would have gone without Amari. He told me
after the game that he really wanted to make an impact on that game because he
had a bad game against Syracuse last year. He said that was on his mind throughout
the rehab process and all the work he put in. Amari’s presence takes this
offense to another level. Let’s hope he stays healthy all season!
Finally, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention how well the
offensive line is playing. Sophomore tackle Jackson Carman stepped right in for
four-year starter and All-American Mitch Hyatt without missing a beat. They are
doing an excellent job both in run blocking and pass protection. In fact, they’ve
allowed just two sacks in their first three games after allowing zero sacks
against Alabama in the National Championship. You could argue that Clemson is
the best team in the nation right now in the trenches. The Tigers’ defense led
the nation in sacks last season and are well on their way to repeating in that category.
Since the start of 2018, the Tigers’ lead the nation in sack differential, and
it’s not even close. Their differential in sacks and sacks allowed is +49. The
next-closest is Alabama and UAB at +33.
One last little nugget before my prediction. DE KJ Henry’s
dad is a longtime college coach and was on the staff of Charlotte until this
year. I asked Henry if he’s glad he doesn’t have to go head-to-head against his
father, and he said no, that he would have enjoyed beating his dad’s team. As a
redshirt freshman, Henry is already a polished speaker—probably from all the
recruiting interviews and having a coach for a father. I asked him about Dabo’s
reaction when Henry told him he wanted to redshirt after the Wake game last season.
That’s gotta be a first for a player that was ranked No.6 in the nation overall
coming out of high school. He also told me how he happily ended up wearing #5,
his high school number, thanks to the transfer of Shaq Smith. Henry initially
had #13 and then was wearing #1 for a while, which became a problem when DK moved
over to defense with the same number. It all worked out, and Henry already has
1.5 sacks this season. Our interview with him is below!
DABO PC AND COACH/PLAYER INTERVIEWS HERE
PREDICTION
Since I’m starting to get light-headed again, I’ll make this
short and sweet. Charlotte is severely outmanned everywhere on the field, and the
Tigers will be looking to shore up the few deficiencies they’ve shown in the
first three weeks. As if that’s not bad enough for the 49ers, it’s Death Valley
at night.
This one is over early, and the Tigers get a lot more
playing time for their 80 freshmen and sophomores. The Tigers extend their
school record and nation-leading active win streak to 19 games with another
blowout win before setting their sights on Chapel Hill, where they lost their
last visit in 2010.
The Prowl toward a 5th consecutive ACC Title, a 5th
consecutive College Football Playoff appearance and a 4th National Title
continues……
CLEMSON 62 Charlotte 13
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