THURSDAY CLEMSON FOOTBALL NUGGETS
By: Larry Williams
A popular theme going into last week's game was Clemson finally getting guys back, particularly on defense, and finally getting back to its ferocious self.
One fairly significant flaw in that logic: It's not as though the return of some important players means the return of some important players who are back to their full selves.
At Boston College we saw what Xavier Thomas can do when he comes in for six snaps. At Florida State we saw there's a big difference between six snaps against a patchwork offensive line and 32 snaps against a pretty good one.
The one caveat to Bryan Bresee's return, which we noted last week, was that the dude had missed weeks and weeks of practice time. He wasn't able to practice as he recovered from the kidney infection and underwent more testing. Add that on top of the time missed when he was with his sister and family before and after she passed away. Now add to that the fact that he entered the season coming off ACL surgery and that was a pretty big deal by itself.
Sheridan Jones returned, but there still has to be at least a little angst there when you're dealing with multiple stingers and that left you unable to move on the sidelines a month ago.
Andrew Mukuba is back, but he's still wearing a bulky brace on the arm that suffered the dislocated shoulder.
None of this is to make excuses for some of the lapses we saw from the defense in Tallahassee. It's just a reasonable counter to the idea that the return of some players was going to translate to an instant suffocation of a pretty good offense with some really nice pieces.
One thing I kicked myself over soon after the game began was not giving adequate attention to just how big this Florida State offense is. Not just the offensive line, but the guys running the ball and catching the ball and doing some of the lead blocking for all those rushing yards the Seminoles piled up.
The Seminoles clearly wanted to hammer the boundary, and it's probably no coincidence that the boundary is where Clemson has a weak spot in run support.
Through seven games it's been pretty clear that Nate Wiggins has to bulk up to give the defense more point-of-attack resistance on his side. It's also been evident, to us at least, that he doesn't seem all that enthusiastic about the physical part of this game.
We thought it was quite revealing two days ago when we asked the head coach about this part of Wiggins' game and he made some rather pointed criticisms.
"Yeah, he's got to get more serious about it. I think it's a lifestyle thing for him: nutrition, really falling in love with the weight room. It's just a maturity thing with him."
If Dabo Swinney is going this far publicly, you can imagine how far he's going behind closed doors. Wiggins has made a major jump as a coverage guy since the mess against Wake Forest, and he had a couple of huge pass breakups against the Seminoles. The fact that he's starting tells you the coaches are pleased with him in some important respects.
But he's nowhere close to being a complete cornerback, and it sounds like the transformation has to come between the ears before we'll see him becoming less of a liability between the lines.
Yes, Tyler Venables whiffs on a tackle here in the hole. But it appears Wiggins is ... less than enthusiastic about getting the guy down:
Here the linebackers take themselves out of the play. But you can see Bresee not getting off the block. Have to think when he gets back to his optimum playing shape he makes this play. And not sure what Wiggins is doing because there's no threat outside:
More Bresee here. Yes, this looks like a guy who hasn't practiced much in a month:
Similar deal here, where Bresee isn't able to get over and make the play. Also doesn't help that Keith Maguire isn't able to get over, perhaps because of a hold.
At the end of that last play you can see Mukuba struggling to get his guy down, and in our eyes at least even before his elbow injury Mukuba wasn't exactly a sure-fire tackler.
It made some of you wonder back to the weigh-in preceding August camp when he checked in at 180 pounds.
That is noticeably slight. Yes, he moves around a lot and was preparing to play corner. But even the corners have established "the 200 club" as a collective aspiration for them to get to at least 200 pounds in hopes of being nasty at the point of attack.
We asked Swinney about Mukuba too as it relates to the weight and ability to make tackles.
"He's a 180 to 190 type of guy. I don't really see him much more than that with his frame. But he doesn't have to be; he's explosive. I mean he missed a couple of tackles but he's playing with a brace on his arm.
"But he's been one of our better tacklers since he got here. But same thing (as Wiggins): Still young. But he's definitely not boxed out at all from a frame standpoint. So he's still got a little more work to do. But he is an explosive tackler."
One of those missed tackles by Mukuba here:
For a time Saturday in the third quarter, the defense got the boundary runs buttoned up largely because the defensive line disrupted on first down.
But then it popped back up in the fourth quarter:
I don't have any explanation for the following clip other than: The defense had its minds elsewhere by this point.
Woof:
We'll close by touching on a few offensive subplots.
Brandon Streeter has been criticized often this season for his lack of creativity but I just don't see it. The guy has come up with quite a lot of cool wrinkles that aren't just for the sake of having wrinkles, but apply to a specific situation or matchup and fit nicely into the rhythm of where the offense is at that point.
What I dug about this play design was that it came on second-and-10, and it was designed to be a sure-fire way to get the offense into a manageable down and distance on third down.
Just perfectly drawn up and executed. It turns into a third-and-1, and they move the chains on a Will Shipley run after this:
We'll close by showing how close the Tigers were to three explosive touchdown plays.
This is not at all an attempt to nit-pick DJ Uiagalelei, who has been excellent this year and far better than most everyone anticipated.
It's more to point out what's available if he puts his eyes in the right places.
He was really good Saturday night. Just a tad jumpy at times, but to his credit he was able to move past it.
Still, he himself had to be wincing this week when he saw these guys running free on film:
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By: Larry Williams
A popular theme going into last week's game was Clemson finally getting guys back, particularly on defense, and finally getting back to its ferocious self.
One fairly significant flaw in that logic: It's not as though the return of some important players means the return of some important players who are back to their full selves.
At Boston College we saw what Xavier Thomas can do when he comes in for six snaps. At Florida State we saw there's a big difference between six snaps against a patchwork offensive line and 32 snaps against a pretty good one.
The one caveat to Bryan Bresee's return, which we noted last week, was that the dude had missed weeks and weeks of practice time. He wasn't able to practice as he recovered from the kidney infection and underwent more testing. Add that on top of the time missed when he was with his sister and family before and after she passed away. Now add to that the fact that he entered the season coming off ACL surgery and that was a pretty big deal by itself.
Sheridan Jones returned, but there still has to be at least a little angst there when you're dealing with multiple stingers and that left you unable to move on the sidelines a month ago.
Andrew Mukuba is back, but he's still wearing a bulky brace on the arm that suffered the dislocated shoulder.
None of this is to make excuses for some of the lapses we saw from the defense in Tallahassee. It's just a reasonable counter to the idea that the return of some players was going to translate to an instant suffocation of a pretty good offense with some really nice pieces.
One thing I kicked myself over soon after the game began was not giving adequate attention to just how big this Florida State offense is. Not just the offensive line, but the guys running the ball and catching the ball and doing some of the lead blocking for all those rushing yards the Seminoles piled up.
The Seminoles clearly wanted to hammer the boundary, and it's probably no coincidence that the boundary is where Clemson has a weak spot in run support.
Through seven games it's been pretty clear that Nate Wiggins has to bulk up to give the defense more point-of-attack resistance on his side. It's also been evident, to us at least, that he doesn't seem all that enthusiastic about the physical part of this game.
We thought it was quite revealing two days ago when we asked the head coach about this part of Wiggins' game and he made some rather pointed criticisms.
"Yeah, he's got to get more serious about it. I think it's a lifestyle thing for him: nutrition, really falling in love with the weight room. It's just a maturity thing with him."
If Dabo Swinney is going this far publicly, you can imagine how far he's going behind closed doors. Wiggins has made a major jump as a coverage guy since the mess against Wake Forest, and he had a couple of huge pass breakups against the Seminoles. The fact that he's starting tells you the coaches are pleased with him in some important respects.
But he's nowhere close to being a complete cornerback, and it sounds like the transformation has to come between the ears before we'll see him becoming less of a liability between the lines.
Yes, Tyler Venables whiffs on a tackle here in the hole. But it appears Wiggins is ... less than enthusiastic about getting the guy down:
Here the linebackers take themselves out of the play. But you can see Bresee not getting off the block. Have to think when he gets back to his optimum playing shape he makes this play. And not sure what Wiggins is doing because there's no threat outside:
More Bresee here. Yes, this looks like a guy who hasn't practiced much in a month:
Similar deal here, where Bresee isn't able to get over and make the play. Also doesn't help that Keith Maguire isn't able to get over, perhaps because of a hold.
At the end of that last play you can see Mukuba struggling to get his guy down, and in our eyes at least even before his elbow injury Mukuba wasn't exactly a sure-fire tackler.
It made some of you wonder back to the weigh-in preceding August camp when he checked in at 180 pounds.
That is noticeably slight. Yes, he moves around a lot and was preparing to play corner. But even the corners have established "the 200 club" as a collective aspiration for them to get to at least 200 pounds in hopes of being nasty at the point of attack.
We asked Swinney about Mukuba too as it relates to the weight and ability to make tackles.
"He's a 180 to 190 type of guy. I don't really see him much more than that with his frame. But he doesn't have to be; he's explosive. I mean he missed a couple of tackles but he's playing with a brace on his arm.
"But he's been one of our better tacklers since he got here. But same thing (as Wiggins): Still young. But he's definitely not boxed out at all from a frame standpoint. So he's still got a little more work to do. But he is an explosive tackler."
One of those missed tackles by Mukuba here:
For a time Saturday in the third quarter, the defense got the boundary runs buttoned up largely because the defensive line disrupted on first down.
But then it popped back up in the fourth quarter:
I don't have any explanation for the following clip other than: The defense had its minds elsewhere by this point.
Woof:
We'll close by touching on a few offensive subplots.
Brandon Streeter has been criticized often this season for his lack of creativity but I just don't see it. The guy has come up with quite a lot of cool wrinkles that aren't just for the sake of having wrinkles, but apply to a specific situation or matchup and fit nicely into the rhythm of where the offense is at that point.
What I dug about this play design was that it came on second-and-10, and it was designed to be a sure-fire way to get the offense into a manageable down and distance on third down.
Just perfectly drawn up and executed. It turns into a third-and-1, and they move the chains on a Will Shipley run after this:
We'll close by showing how close the Tigers were to three explosive touchdown plays.
This is not at all an attempt to nit-pick DJ Uiagalelei, who has been excellent this year and far better than most everyone anticipated.
It's more to point out what's available if he puts his eyes in the right places.
He was really good Saturday night. Just a tad jumpy at times, but to his credit he was able to move past it.
Still, he himself had to be wincing this week when he saw these guys running free on film:
FINAL DAY OF OUR STOREWIDE FLASH SALE: Over 3,500 officially-licensed CLEMSON apparel items ON SALE (some 65% OFF) at The Tiger Fan Shop HERE!
