Well, here we are with the season over and only the Orange Bowl game left before we close the books on this Clemson team. I'm asking myself how I feel about the season as a whole. To do that, I generally try to rewind to the start of August camp and what were my expectations for the season. As I recall, given last year and the offensive struggles, I was hoping to be improved over the 2021 season and for Clemson to return to the conference championship game and maybe win it. I didn't think we'd be good enough to make the playoffs and thought 10-2 or 11-1 were the most likely end results. That seemed to be in line with the thinking of the staff here at TI. And that's exactly how the season went... so overall, I can say that I'm happy with the results. This season was a success and I believe that we will be well positioned for a similar run next season with a decent chance to make the playoffs. FYI, if you can't be happy with a top 10 finish and a conference championship, you are going to have a LOT of bad seasons over the course of your life.
The above is the truth, but DAMN it was hard to type that, b/c like everyone else on this board, I can't help think of what might have been had CK been put into the USCjr game in the 2nd half. If that were the case, it's pretty hard to believe CK would not have been more effective than DJU. We are talking about an 83% completion rate from CK against UNC vs a 28% completion rate from DJU vs USCjr. We can write a novel on why that was and how it was/wasn't DJU's fault. Dabo made some valid points in defending DJU after the USCjr game. Absolutely. BUT no reasonable person is going to look at the performance of CK against UNC and the performance of DJU against USCjr and have any doubt who the better QB is. Results matter more than anything else and at the end of the day one guy is completing passes at 80+% and the other guy is below 30%.
Now there's not a thing we can do about losing to USCjr this year. It's over and nothing is going to change it. But the staff overall can MOST DEFINITELY learn from this season. We heard all season long that DJU gave us the best chance to win and that he was better than CK. CK was simply not ready to play. I believed this in August and I still do believe it was true at the start of the season. The first half of the season, DJU exceeded my expectations and frankly on the very few series that CK got, he was a mixed bag. BUT I also believe that at the end of this season, that CK is ready to play and that DJU does NOT give us the best chance to win. I don't think any reasonable person can argue this. So when Dabo and company decided to stay with DJU in the USCjr game, they were wrong. Not only were they wrong, they were REALLY, REALLY WRONG. Again, it's pretty hard to argue this... I can't imagine that somehow CK improved that much over the course of a week.
So at some point during the season CK became the better option and the staff didn't recognize that. And "better option" is putting it kindly... this isn't some measurement where the players are sort of close and you have to give the nod to player B over player A. We are talking night and day here. THAT'S what I want to see improve. Not recognizing that is a MAJOR mistake by the staff and needs to get corrected.
So a last couple of points. I looked at the game thread this morning and honestly couldn't believe a lot of what I was reading. I generally don't even bother to look at the game threads b/c I hear that they are pretty poor reading overall. But damn! You've got a 1st year DC that held UNC to a season low in points scored. And we should fire him? REALLY? I'm not saying the man can't improve (and being a 1st year DC, It's a pretty safe bet that he will). He could absolutely have done some things differently, especially in the 1st half. We got almost doubled up on time of possession. There's plenty of room for improvement, but holding a really good offense to that few points is really good. I don't see how anyone can think we should fire the man.
DItto on the other side of the ball. Streeter seems to call good plays when they work and not so much when they don't. That was solid work vs UNC. He can definitely improve as he seems to forget that we have some damn fine RBs and a pretty good running game. A trait that he seems to share with former OC, Chad Morris. There seems to be an attitude that "The running game is working, we'd better work on our passing game now" Instead of stepping on a team's neck when they are down. But it's pretty hard to argue with the product on the field last night... Our offense works really well when the players (particularly the QB) can actually execute the play calls.
Anyway there you have it... A pretty good season overall and one that most folks should be content with if not overjoyed about. I can admit that I'm a bit bummed that we aren't going to the playoffs again while still acknowledging that this was yet another good season where it's great to be a Clemson fan.
The above is the truth, but DAMN it was hard to type that, b/c like everyone else on this board, I can't help think of what might have been had CK been put into the USCjr game in the 2nd half. If that were the case, it's pretty hard to believe CK would not have been more effective than DJU. We are talking about an 83% completion rate from CK against UNC vs a 28% completion rate from DJU vs USCjr. We can write a novel on why that was and how it was/wasn't DJU's fault. Dabo made some valid points in defending DJU after the USCjr game. Absolutely. BUT no reasonable person is going to look at the performance of CK against UNC and the performance of DJU against USCjr and have any doubt who the better QB is. Results matter more than anything else and at the end of the day one guy is completing passes at 80+% and the other guy is below 30%.
Now there's not a thing we can do about losing to USCjr this year. It's over and nothing is going to change it. But the staff overall can MOST DEFINITELY learn from this season. We heard all season long that DJU gave us the best chance to win and that he was better than CK. CK was simply not ready to play. I believed this in August and I still do believe it was true at the start of the season. The first half of the season, DJU exceeded my expectations and frankly on the very few series that CK got, he was a mixed bag. BUT I also believe that at the end of this season, that CK is ready to play and that DJU does NOT give us the best chance to win. I don't think any reasonable person can argue this. So when Dabo and company decided to stay with DJU in the USCjr game, they were wrong. Not only were they wrong, they were REALLY, REALLY WRONG. Again, it's pretty hard to argue this... I can't imagine that somehow CK improved that much over the course of a week.
So at some point during the season CK became the better option and the staff didn't recognize that. And "better option" is putting it kindly... this isn't some measurement where the players are sort of close and you have to give the nod to player B over player A. We are talking night and day here. THAT'S what I want to see improve. Not recognizing that is a MAJOR mistake by the staff and needs to get corrected.
So a last couple of points. I looked at the game thread this morning and honestly couldn't believe a lot of what I was reading. I generally don't even bother to look at the game threads b/c I hear that they are pretty poor reading overall. But damn! You've got a 1st year DC that held UNC to a season low in points scored. And we should fire him? REALLY? I'm not saying the man can't improve (and being a 1st year DC, It's a pretty safe bet that he will). He could absolutely have done some things differently, especially in the 1st half. We got almost doubled up on time of possession. There's plenty of room for improvement, but holding a really good offense to that few points is really good. I don't see how anyone can think we should fire the man.
DItto on the other side of the ball. Streeter seems to call good plays when they work and not so much when they don't. That was solid work vs UNC. He can definitely improve as he seems to forget that we have some damn fine RBs and a pretty good running game. A trait that he seems to share with former OC, Chad Morris. There seems to be an attitude that "The running game is working, we'd better work on our passing game now" Instead of stepping on a team's neck when they are down. But it's pretty hard to argue with the product on the field last night... Our offense works really well when the players (particularly the QB) can actually execute the play calls.
Anyway there you have it... A pretty good season overall and one that most folks should be content with if not overjoyed about. I can admit that I'm a bit bummed that we aren't going to the playoffs again while still acknowledging that this was yet another good season where it's great to be a Clemson fan.
