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re: Upon watching Clemson's spring game...

Posted on 4/24/19 at 5:46 pm to
Posted by CivilTiger83
Member since Dec 2017
2525 posts
Posted on 4/24/19 at 5:46 pm to
quote:

Last thing about your secondary, if your DC is lamenting your depth at corner in spring after a couple of injuries, this does not bode well. Nickle is the default secondary in modern college football, and if you are having issues at corner with depth/experience/numbers, you could end up having bigger issues than you think. What, do you think you can beat playoff teams from base defense? You can't. No one can. Except maybe Notre Dame, but that's because they are a joke.


Good discussion overall...

Isaiah Simmons plays the nickel/hybrid linebacker role full time. He has very good coverage skills and elite speed at 6'2" and 220 lb. He did it last year and will do it again this year. He is one of those freak athletes that has just started to put it all together last year.

Last year we had similar depth at corner... We were not deep, but our starters were very good and fortunately stayed healthy.

We actually have more depth this year than last year at CB. We have a stud junior who will hold down the one CB position, 2 pretty good sophomores, and two true freshman - one which is a five star coming in the summer and another that balled out in the spring game and is a stud as well. And one of our five star WRs from last year is vying for a starter spot and may play both ways... All that to say, depth at corner is actually pretty good for the fall with everyone expected to be healthy before fall camp.

We are very good, but not elite at S. A couple injuries at S would test our depth there.

DT will likely be the spot that A&M will try to exploit against our D, and possibly run at our DEs. There will be some growing pains in the first half of the season for our D, but I expect them to be very good in the last half of the season.
Posted by prevatt33
Member since Dec 2011
2837 posts
Posted on 4/24/19 at 6:01 pm to
quote:

fortunately stayed healthy.


It's easy to stay healthy when you play 3 decent teams and Vandy nine times for your 12 game schedule. I know it's not Clemson's fault, and kudos for scheduling 2 respectable SEC teams, by God almighty in heaven, your schedule is pathetic. It's honestly so bad that you might be left out of the playoffs if you drop one, if it comes down to deciding between 1-loss conference winners - because Clemson's resume would be laughable if has a loss on it.

I expect you guys to be completely healthy by December, given that you will have played a G5 schedule while everyone else had to get up for big games in October and November. I honestly think the ACC is the worst conference in CFB at the moment. The Pac12 and Big12 have more potentially good teams than the ACC. Hell, the AAC is probbly better - they have Houston, Memphis, UCF, who are all good teams, and USF, Temple, and Cincy are as good as many teams in the ACC.

Wow. The ACC is worse than the AAC. That's a shocking realization.
This post was edited on 4/24/19 at 6:09 pm
Posted by prevatt33
Member since Dec 2011
2837 posts
Posted on 4/24/19 at 6:08 pm to
quote:

Good discussion overall...


Speaking of overall, my overall point was that your offense would be nasty if you sort out the Oline and pivot away from the TE schematically, and that your defense would take somewhere between a small step back and a large one - don't know which. Granted, you may think a large step back defensively is extremely unlikely, but you have to admit that this is an accurate representation.

I expect Alabama to be improve a bit offensively and improve dramatically on defense, and so if you guys take a step back on defense, then that's noteworthy - particularly in a year when Bama can play the "they're doubting us" card in the locker room and Clemson has to fight the complacency bug.

It'll be an interesting year to say the least.

But don't misread my words. I very much expect Clemson to make the playoffs and legitimately be one of the 4 best teams in the game next year. I also think that can be true, and your 2018 squad still be better overall than your 2019 one. Just my 2 cents.

Posted by prevatt33
Member since Dec 2011
2837 posts
Posted on 4/24/19 at 6:11 pm to
CivilTiger83, thanks for discussing this with us. If there's anything else you'd like to discuss related to Clemson or Alabama, throw it out there and let's talk about it.
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