re: Predict Clemson @ Georgia

This year Clemson has some substantial questions regarding their offense. But all the pre-season hype has been around their highly talented and nationally elite defense. I recall there wasn't much pre-season talk about their defense last year. Sure they thought a full year of experience in Venables' system should make for improvement. But the talk was mostly about Heisman contenders Boyd at QB, and Watkins at WR. So the defense got overshadowed a bit....

But now with Boyd, Watkins, and leading rusher McDowell gone, the pre-season hype has been all about Clemson's defense. And then I go, "now wait a minute".....


And then look at the stats. Clemson allowed 156.15 rushing YPG in 2012, and 155.69 rushing YPG last season. That was good enough for a national ranking improvement from 58th to 53rd. CU allowed 16 rushing TDs in 2012, and 22 TDs in 2013. So overall, was that great improvement?

Clemson also allowed 24.8 points per gm in 2012, and only 22.2 ppg last season. An improvement in scoring defense of about a FG less allowed per game. Was that a great improvement?

Then I saw passing D: Clemson allowed about 40 fewer passing yds per gm in 2013 than what they allowed in 2012. And thus that made their total defense improve by about 40 YPG as well. It made their Total Defense ranking go from 64th nationally - about middling - to 24th in 2013, which is above solid.


So there's the Great Improvement on Clemson's defense that everyone seems to be harking about. But then I go, "but wait a minute".....


There's something different about Clemson's 2013 season compared to most of it's other past seasons. It has to do with their 2013 opponents. Oh Yes: Clemson played TWO - not ONE - FCS opponents.

Clemson played SC State AND the Citadel in 2013. SC State finished 2013 ranked 90th in the FCS in passing offense. That's bad enough, but guess where the Citadel ranked. Out of 120+ FCS programs, the Citadel ranked DEAD LAST in passing offense. They run a triple-option, wishbone type of offense. They don't throw the ball at all.

Clemson held the Citadel to minus 4 passing yds, and SC St. to around 150 passing yds. THAT goes a lot of the way towards the passing defense improvement that Clemson saw in 2013. Against the top quality opponents on Clemson's schedule last season - UGA, FSU, USC, and OSU - they allowed around 40 points per game and 460+ total yds per game. Which isn't much worth a lot of pre-season hype over, at all, in my opinion.

So, what IS there to hype about, regarding Clemson in 2014??? Oh yeah - they've gone 6-0 versus SEC opponents under Swinney. Hey, it's a start.....