Hope everyone out there is doing well today. Let's get right to it:
-- Brent Venables isn't used to this short-week-of-preparation thing. When he showed up to today's scheduled meeting with reporters, his face was worn and he sounded like he was nursing a sore throat. You can probably count on one hand the hours of sleep he's gotten the past three nights.
Venables wasn't in the best of moods, as you might expect. A minute or two after he gave a detailed response to my question about backup inside linebackers Kendall Joseph and Jalen Williams, someone asked him the exact same question and he was none too pleased to have to sit there and answer it again. He was asked if he enjoys matching wits with a play-calling extraordinaire like Bobby Petrino, and he said "No, not really."
This game presents some really interesting schematic battles on both sides. As we've told you, the staff took two days of camp to focus exclusively on Louisville. It definitely helped, particularly since Louisville couldn't really set aside time when it was gearing up for Auburn.
One thing that's hard to prepare for in August is the presence of Lamar Jackson as a playmaking threat at quarterback. Petrino has been all over the map schematically in these first two games, tailoring the offense to suit the talents of Jackson, Reggie Bonnafon and Kyle Bolin. Bonnafon started the Auburn game but was replaced by Jackson in the second half. The surprising thing in that game was Petrino almost completely junking his conventional drop-back, play-action approach for much more spread stuff than he's been known for.
Jackson started against Houston and it looked like Petrino had incorporated more of the drop-back stuff while still using Jackson as a dual-threat weapon on the outside. Jackson couldn't protect the football, making two really bad decisions on deep balls and then losing a fumble in scoring territory. Bolin replaced him, and the offense reverted to the traditional Petrino approach.
Venables has prepared his defense for both guys, but here's why I suspect we'll see mostly Jackson on Thursday: Louisville's offensive line is really struggling, and it's hard to envision them establishing a between-the-tackles running game in this one if they haven't in the first two games. The Cardinals ran for 238 yards against Auburn, but Jackson accounted for 106 on 16 carries and that came outside. Petrino's traditional approach is rooted in establishing a physical running game and then running play-action off that. If he can't do that, Bolin is going to be a sitting duck in the pocket.
Auburn's defensive line dominated that game in Atlanta, leaving Petrino with no choice but to take his chances with Jackson doing his thing. Even though Petrino has to feel greatly uneasy about Jackson getting them into trouble with poor decisions against Clemson's defense, we think that'll be his highest-percentage option.
-- It's not been all that easy for the offensive staff to get a feel for what Todd Grantham is going to do, personnel-wise. Grantham is a 3-4 guy, but he sprang a bit of a surprise against Houston by going with much more nickel and using safety Josh Harvey-Clemons in the box. That was probably a function of Houston going with more of a finesse approach, using four receivers to spread the width of the field. Auburn went back and forth between 11 personnel (3 WR, 1 back, 1 TE/H-back) and 10 personnel (4 WR, 1 back), and Grantham immediately substituted based on those changes.
Here is a look at Louisville's defense when Auburn went 11 personnel:
No. 1 on the left, above the left tackle, is linebacker Keith Brown. When Grantham goes nickel, Brown goes out and Harvey-Clemons comes up to give them this look:
You see that there are six guys in the box, which tells offenses to run the ball. Houston ran for 226 yards and did a lot of its damage between the tackles against these six-man boxes.
Yesterday we talked with Tony Elliott about Grantham's changing defenses over the first two games. Elliott noted that two years ago Clemson's staff visited with current Houston coach Tom Herman, who was then with Ohio State.
"Structurally they're doing some of the same things from last year, but they are moving personnel around a little bit different based off of personnel matchings and also the style of offense. For us, we've got to prepare for both. Because we do a lot of the same formations and the same run schemes as Auburn because obviously Chad (Morris) and Gus (Malzahn) had a relationship.
"But then also we met with Coach Herman, so we do a lot of similar things to them. But they were more spread than Auburn was. So we've got the combination of both. So we've got to prepare for both."
Auburn rushed for 190 yards on 41 carries against Louisville, and a lot of those yards came late in the first half and early in the second. Malzahn's crew was able to run it even against Louisville's "big" personnel, but keep in mind Auburn is also a pretty physical team with those big receivers who can line up close to the box and serve as blockers in the run game.
So if you're in Clemson's situation, what do you do? The Houston approach -- spread it out to make them smaller, then slam it up the middle against six-man boxes with the threat of Deshaun Watson getting outside and throwing on the run -- certainly has some appeal, particularly given the struggles of the offensive line and tight ends last week against Appalachian State.
-- Subscriber CUAiken79 wanted to know about the poor shotgun snaps against Appalachian State, and how much they threw off the timing of the offense. Here's Dabo's answer from his press conference today:
"It affected us. We had the one really bad snap, but there were two or three others that were just a little off target. It does affect things. Because now your eyes go away from where they need to be and you're just a little bit out of sync with what you're doing. It's important. You've got to have the right snap to execute. And that goes back to what we talk about all the time: It's not the big things, it's the little things. And some of our issues we had Saturday -- and we did a lot of good things. Good Lord, we scored 41 points against a really good team that's got a chance to win their conference. But we're trying to be great. And what we tell them all the time is it's the little things that lead to big things. You've got to master the little things. So we were sloppy with three or four of our snaps. But we were really good on most of them."
-- Both Swinney and Venables were asked about Joseph and Williams. Here were there responses:
Swinney
"Kendall and Jalen are green and coming. They've just got to grow up. They've had good experiences the last two games. Kendall, last week he played well. It didn't seem too fast for him last week. He's still kind of working his way back into being really full-tilt where he's 100-percent confident in what he's doing. Because he did miss some practice time. But we're excited about those guys right there. J.D and Judah (Davis) are still learning. They don't get as many reps because we only rep two groups and they've got to kind of mentally learn, because they don't get quite as many physical reps.
"But those first four guys inside, we feel like we can win with in some fashion. Right now there's a big drop-off, as there should be. You're talking about a fifth-year senior in B.J. (Goodson) and a true junior that's played a lot of football and that's started games in Ben Boulware. So there's just a drop-off. We signed those guys because we really liked their talent. I've said this many times, but we were that close to playing Kendall last year. And then Jalen is just getting better. He's a true freshman out there. And we're going to continue to improve. ... I tell you this, they're going to be good players at some point. ... At linebacker this year, that's just the hand we've got. Brent knows what he's doing, and he's recruited well at that position. We've just got to coach them up."
Venables
"Some was good, some was not so good. Experience is invaluable. They're young guys, and they play like young guys. Sometimes they don't. Appalachian State kept their (first team) in, and some things they saw from a speed standpoint they can't get in scouts. ... It's a mixed bag right now, but both have bright futures. The future might be now. I'm not terrified of getting either one in the game. ... Experience is everything. We've got to find their spots."
-- Swinney was also asked about Nick Schuessler and Kelly Bryant. Here's his full response:
"(Bryant) has improved a tremendous amount, there's no question. We're all excited about him. Coming into camp, based on where we were this spring he was really a long way away from being in that conversation. But I really feel like he's really closed the gap and has improved. And it's really not anything Nick is doing (wrong).
"Nick right now gives us the best chance to win. We're all very confident in Nick. Very confident in him. And the reason we're confident is because we're at practice every day and we watch the tape. We know what he knows, and we watch him execute day-in and day-out. ... Mentally, he is right there where he needs to be. He's not Deshaun Watson, but we can win with Nick. There's not anybody in this staff room that doesn't believe that. ...
"Kelly probably has as much potential as Deshaun. But he's just learning every day. And you want to make sure that you give him a chance to be successful. He has a bright future for us. With the experience he's gotten through camp and the opportunity to get in some games, he's really made huge improvement. We all feel like by the end of the year, as we're going into next year, we have built some depth and some experience and some competition at the position."
-- Brent Venables isn't used to this short-week-of-preparation thing. When he showed up to today's scheduled meeting with reporters, his face was worn and he sounded like he was nursing a sore throat. You can probably count on one hand the hours of sleep he's gotten the past three nights.
Venables wasn't in the best of moods, as you might expect. A minute or two after he gave a detailed response to my question about backup inside linebackers Kendall Joseph and Jalen Williams, someone asked him the exact same question and he was none too pleased to have to sit there and answer it again. He was asked if he enjoys matching wits with a play-calling extraordinaire like Bobby Petrino, and he said "No, not really."
This game presents some really interesting schematic battles on both sides. As we've told you, the staff took two days of camp to focus exclusively on Louisville. It definitely helped, particularly since Louisville couldn't really set aside time when it was gearing up for Auburn.
One thing that's hard to prepare for in August is the presence of Lamar Jackson as a playmaking threat at quarterback. Petrino has been all over the map schematically in these first two games, tailoring the offense to suit the talents of Jackson, Reggie Bonnafon and Kyle Bolin. Bonnafon started the Auburn game but was replaced by Jackson in the second half. The surprising thing in that game was Petrino almost completely junking his conventional drop-back, play-action approach for much more spread stuff than he's been known for.
Jackson started against Houston and it looked like Petrino had incorporated more of the drop-back stuff while still using Jackson as a dual-threat weapon on the outside. Jackson couldn't protect the football, making two really bad decisions on deep balls and then losing a fumble in scoring territory. Bolin replaced him, and the offense reverted to the traditional Petrino approach.
Venables has prepared his defense for both guys, but here's why I suspect we'll see mostly Jackson on Thursday: Louisville's offensive line is really struggling, and it's hard to envision them establishing a between-the-tackles running game in this one if they haven't in the first two games. The Cardinals ran for 238 yards against Auburn, but Jackson accounted for 106 on 16 carries and that came outside. Petrino's traditional approach is rooted in establishing a physical running game and then running play-action off that. If he can't do that, Bolin is going to be a sitting duck in the pocket.
Auburn's defensive line dominated that game in Atlanta, leaving Petrino with no choice but to take his chances with Jackson doing his thing. Even though Petrino has to feel greatly uneasy about Jackson getting them into trouble with poor decisions against Clemson's defense, we think that'll be his highest-percentage option.
-- It's not been all that easy for the offensive staff to get a feel for what Todd Grantham is going to do, personnel-wise. Grantham is a 3-4 guy, but he sprang a bit of a surprise against Houston by going with much more nickel and using safety Josh Harvey-Clemons in the box. That was probably a function of Houston going with more of a finesse approach, using four receivers to spread the width of the field. Auburn went back and forth between 11 personnel (3 WR, 1 back, 1 TE/H-back) and 10 personnel (4 WR, 1 back), and Grantham immediately substituted based on those changes.
Here is a look at Louisville's defense when Auburn went 11 personnel:
No. 1 on the left, above the left tackle, is linebacker Keith Brown. When Grantham goes nickel, Brown goes out and Harvey-Clemons comes up to give them this look:
You see that there are six guys in the box, which tells offenses to run the ball. Houston ran for 226 yards and did a lot of its damage between the tackles against these six-man boxes.
Yesterday we talked with Tony Elliott about Grantham's changing defenses over the first two games. Elliott noted that two years ago Clemson's staff visited with current Houston coach Tom Herman, who was then with Ohio State.
"Structurally they're doing some of the same things from last year, but they are moving personnel around a little bit different based off of personnel matchings and also the style of offense. For us, we've got to prepare for both. Because we do a lot of the same formations and the same run schemes as Auburn because obviously Chad (Morris) and Gus (Malzahn) had a relationship.
"But then also we met with Coach Herman, so we do a lot of similar things to them. But they were more spread than Auburn was. So we've got the combination of both. So we've got to prepare for both."
Auburn rushed for 190 yards on 41 carries against Louisville, and a lot of those yards came late in the first half and early in the second. Malzahn's crew was able to run it even against Louisville's "big" personnel, but keep in mind Auburn is also a pretty physical team with those big receivers who can line up close to the box and serve as blockers in the run game.
So if you're in Clemson's situation, what do you do? The Houston approach -- spread it out to make them smaller, then slam it up the middle against six-man boxes with the threat of Deshaun Watson getting outside and throwing on the run -- certainly has some appeal, particularly given the struggles of the offensive line and tight ends last week against Appalachian State.
-- Subscriber CUAiken79 wanted to know about the poor shotgun snaps against Appalachian State, and how much they threw off the timing of the offense. Here's Dabo's answer from his press conference today:
"It affected us. We had the one really bad snap, but there were two or three others that were just a little off target. It does affect things. Because now your eyes go away from where they need to be and you're just a little bit out of sync with what you're doing. It's important. You've got to have the right snap to execute. And that goes back to what we talk about all the time: It's not the big things, it's the little things. And some of our issues we had Saturday -- and we did a lot of good things. Good Lord, we scored 41 points against a really good team that's got a chance to win their conference. But we're trying to be great. And what we tell them all the time is it's the little things that lead to big things. You've got to master the little things. So we were sloppy with three or four of our snaps. But we were really good on most of them."
-- Both Swinney and Venables were asked about Joseph and Williams. Here were there responses:
Swinney
"Kendall and Jalen are green and coming. They've just got to grow up. They've had good experiences the last two games. Kendall, last week he played well. It didn't seem too fast for him last week. He's still kind of working his way back into being really full-tilt where he's 100-percent confident in what he's doing. Because he did miss some practice time. But we're excited about those guys right there. J.D and Judah (Davis) are still learning. They don't get as many reps because we only rep two groups and they've got to kind of mentally learn, because they don't get quite as many physical reps.
"But those first four guys inside, we feel like we can win with in some fashion. Right now there's a big drop-off, as there should be. You're talking about a fifth-year senior in B.J. (Goodson) and a true junior that's played a lot of football and that's started games in Ben Boulware. So there's just a drop-off. We signed those guys because we really liked their talent. I've said this many times, but we were that close to playing Kendall last year. And then Jalen is just getting better. He's a true freshman out there. And we're going to continue to improve. ... I tell you this, they're going to be good players at some point. ... At linebacker this year, that's just the hand we've got. Brent knows what he's doing, and he's recruited well at that position. We've just got to coach them up."
Venables
"Some was good, some was not so good. Experience is invaluable. They're young guys, and they play like young guys. Sometimes they don't. Appalachian State kept their (first team) in, and some things they saw from a speed standpoint they can't get in scouts. ... It's a mixed bag right now, but both have bright futures. The future might be now. I'm not terrified of getting either one in the game. ... Experience is everything. We've got to find their spots."
-- Swinney was also asked about Nick Schuessler and Kelly Bryant. Here's his full response:
"(Bryant) has improved a tremendous amount, there's no question. We're all excited about him. Coming into camp, based on where we were this spring he was really a long way away from being in that conversation. But I really feel like he's really closed the gap and has improved. And it's really not anything Nick is doing (wrong).
"Nick right now gives us the best chance to win. We're all very confident in Nick. Very confident in him. And the reason we're confident is because we're at practice every day and we watch the tape. We know what he knows, and we watch him execute day-in and day-out. ... Mentally, he is right there where he needs to be. He's not Deshaun Watson, but we can win with Nick. There's not anybody in this staff room that doesn't believe that. ...
"Kelly probably has as much potential as Deshaun. But he's just learning every day. And you want to make sure that you give him a chance to be successful. He has a bright future for us. With the experience he's gotten through camp and the opportunity to get in some games, he's really made huge improvement. We all feel like by the end of the year, as we're going into next year, we have built some depth and some experience and some competition at the position."
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