From David Lake article.
CLEMSON’S 2020 OFFENSIVE LINE DOESN’T HAVE MUCH STARTING EXPERIENCE
Experience does matter on the offensive line and Clemson’s 2020 unit is a pretty inexperienced group. The Tigers’ offensive line returns just 17 games of starting experience in 2020. That ranks 128th in the country.
Now inexperience doesn’t necessarily mean poor play at all. Talent can trump inexperience and Clemson annually recruits at a high level, but it is worth noting that the Tigers will feature an offensive line that might need a few games to build some cohesion and continuity.
CLEMSON’S DEFENSE WILL BE GOOD, BUT WON’T BE AS SALTY AS USUAL
Don’t get us wrong, Clemson is still going to have a Top 25 caliber defense in 2020. Will it have a top ten unit that is full of first and second round NFL Draft picks? We will see about that. From a dynamic game-changing talent standpoint, Clemson is going to miss the do-it-all ability of Isaiah Simmons now that he is in the NFL.
Clemson returns their entire defensive line from 2019, but they weren’t exactly the most dynamic group last year. Simmons provided the most effective pass rush with his timely blitzes. Overall, it might not matter if Clemson’s defense is elite or not. The Tigers will have an elite offense that will score plenty of points, which constantly puts the other team in a position to take chances and risks when they have the ball, which means Clemson’s defense will have plenty of opportunities to take advantage of opponents that play behind the chains.
We don’t think the 2020 Clemson defense will flat out suffocate good offenses, but it will be just good enough to give the ball back to their offense when it matters.
TO BEAT CLEMSON, IT TAKES A SPECIAL PERFORMANCE FROM A QUARTERBACK
Since 2015, Clemson has lost only five games. In order to beat Clemson, it takes a borderline NFL quarterback to have a strong performance against the Tigers.
Here are the quarterbacks that beat Clemson and the stat lines of those players in those games:
- 2019 LSU’s Joe Burrow: 31-of-49 for 463 yards and five touchdowns. Also 58 yards rushing and one touchdown.
- 2017 Alabama’s Jalen Hurts: 16-of-24 for 120 yards and two touchdowns. Also 40 yards rushing.
- 2017 Syracuse’s Eric Dungey: 20-of-32 for 278 yards and three touchdowns. Also 61 rushing yards.
- 2016 Pittsburgh’s Nate Peterman: 22-of-37 for 308 yards and five touchdowns.
- 2015 Alabama’s Jake Coker: 16-of-25 for 335 yards and two touchdowns.
Not all of the quarterbacks listed above went on to be selected in the NFL Draft, but the list above is full of players that were at least good college quarterbacks. So here’s the average passing stat line of the quarterbacks above when they beat Clemson: 300 passing yards, three touchdowns, and completing 63 percent of the pass attempts.
A notable stat from the above quarterbacks is that none of them threw an interception in the win over Clemson.
Being productive while protecting the football isn’t an easy task for any quarterback, but that is what it takes to beat a team like Clemson.