OrangeBowlMagic
CEO
- Joined
- Jul 13, 2014
- Messages
- 21,124
As always, these are FBS vs FBS numbers only:
Offense:
Yards per play: 6th (7.24 YPP)
Yards per game: 13th (479.5 YPG)
Points per game: 6th (42.8 PPG) *The 2024 offense that led the country finished at 42.9 PPG*
Passing yards per game: 10th (311.5 YPG)
Passing completion percentage: 1st (80.8%)
Passing yards per attempt: 6th (9.6 YPA)
Passer rating: 4th (190.20) *Mensah's as an individual is 212, 4 points higher than the single-season NCAA record*
Passing TDs: 6th (12 TDs)
Interceptions: 11th (1 INT)
Rushing yards per game: 48th (168.0 YPG) *The 2025 offense averaged 148 per game*
Rushing yards per attempt: 25th (4.98 YPA) *IMO this is one of the most important numbers. 78th in the country last year (4.15). 5th in 2024 (5.65)*
Rushing TDs: 22nd (9)
Sacks given up per game: 30th (1.25 per game)
First Downs per game: 2nd (26.5 per game)
3rd down conversion %: 6th (52.27%) *5/13 vs Wake, 4/11 vs Clemson. Need to be better here*
4th down conversion %: 27th (67%, 2/3 on the season)
TFLs allowed per game: 9th (2.75 per game)
Red Zone TD %: 10th (82.4% TD rate, 14 TDs in 17 chances)
Red Zone Scoring %: 1st (17 scores in 17 chances)
Field goal %: 46th (5 for 6)
10+ Yard Scrimmage Plays: 15th (67) *16.75/game average, in 2025 we averaged 13.5/game*
20+ Yard Scrimmage Plays: 17th (23) *5.75/game average, in 2025 we averaged 4/game*
30+ Yard Scrimmage Plays: 22nd (11) *2.75/game average, in 2025 we averaged 1.87/game*
40+ Yard Scrimmage Plays: 71st (3) *0.75/game average, in 2025 we averaged 0.87/game*
50+ Yard Scrimmage Plays: 77th (1)
60+ Yard Scrimmage Plays: 38th (1)
70+ Yard Scrimmage Plays: N/A (0)
Defense:
Yards per play allowed: 12th (4.51 YPP) *We finished 2025 at 4.73 per play, against obviously way better competition*
Yards per game allowed: 18th (285.3 YPG)
Points per game allowed: 2nd (10.5 PPG)
Passing yards per game allowed: 88th (241.3 YPG)
Passing completion percentage allowed: 85th (63.9%)
Passing yards per attempt: 17th (6.1 YPA) *So 88th in yards, 85th in comp%, but 17th in yards/attempt. See below*
Passes faced per game: 134th (39.5) *New stat. Will discuss in takeaways, but only 5 teams in America are facing more pass attempts per game*
Passer rating allowed: 28th (117.71)
Rushing yards per game allowed: 1st (44.0 YPG) *This number won't hold, but Wisconsin in 2021 is the best number of the past 6 seasons, at 61 YPG allowed*
Rushing yards per attempt allowed: 2nd (1.85 YPA)
Sacks per game: 6th (3.5 sack per game)
3rd down % allowed: 65th (39% allowed)
4th down % allowed: 16th (25%, opponents 2/8 on 4th down)
Red Zone td % allowed: 5th (40% allowed -- 3 TDs in 8 chances)
Red Zone Scoring % allowed: 22nd (75% allowed -- 6 scores in 8 chances) *Only 1 team who has played 4 games or less has as few total RZ attempts*
Punting: 31st (46.0 Yard average)
10+ Yard Scrimmage Plays allowed: 29th (44) *11 per game, 11.2 allowed per game in 2025*
20+ Yard Scrimmage Plays allowed: 28th (12) *3.0 per game, 3.27 allowed per game in 2025*
30+ Yard Scrimmage Plays allowed: 4th (2) *0.5 allowed per game, 1.33 allowed per game in 2025*
40+ Yard Scrimmage Plays allowed: 20th (2)
50+ Yard Scrimmage Plays allowed: 23rd (1)
60+ Yard Scrimmage Plays allowed: 1st (0)
Team Stats:
Penalties: 105th (7.8 penalties per game) *Have ranked 112th, 97th, 76th, and 104th in Mario's 4 years here*
Penalty yards: 117th (72.5 Yards per game)
Turnover margin: 12th (1.25 per game -- 6 takeaways, 1 giveaway) *IMO the most important stat in the game*
Time of possession: 29th (32:21 per game)
Seconds per play: 113th (28.8 seconds between plays)
Takeaways: Overall, not the most statistically dominant game of all time, but still a resounding beating of the former class of the ACC, on the road, winning in that building for the first time since 2010, and by 28 points. For all of the "Mario does less with more" stuff we had to endure for what seemed like forever, Miami is now 9-1 against the spread in its last 10 games, so we're continuing to outperform even Vegas's expectations. I wanted to highlight a few Clemson specific numbers, and then some season long stuff.
On offense, we scored 34 points on 10 offensive drives. That's 3.4 points per drive, which is easily a Top 10 number in the country nationally, year over year. I try to avoid a decent bit of fan dialogue during the games here and on social media, but there is some odd discourse that goes on (is every fanbase like this?) where, if we don't score a touchdown on every drive, everybody sucks. We scored 34 points on 10 drives. That would've ranked 7th in the country last season. And think about it, that's a TD, then a punt, then a TD, then a punt, etc. If you score a TD every other time you get the ball, you average 3.5 points per drive, which is Top 5 in the country stuff. Indiana won a natty last year averaging 3.45 points per drive. So some of you guys gotta relax, it's ok to punt the football once in a while.
Especially when your defense gives up 13 points on 11 drives (the last one where they're running out the clock doesn't count). That's 1.18 points per drive allowed. That would've ranked 4th in the country last season. So, we had some folks saying we didn't play well, we have concerns, etc. And I'll admit it wasn't the best game we could've played. But at the end of the day, we put up a Top 7 type performance on offense, and a Top 4 type performance on defense in terms of the scoreboard. That, folks, ain't half bad. Now, we all know Clemson isn't making the playoffs anytime soon. So take it for what it's worth, but it was a very good performance, on the road, at night, in front of a hostile crowd, against a proud program in front of their friends and families, with multiple NFL athletes. And we whipped their ***, never trailed, and were really never threatened.
The ground game really took a step on Saturday. We're still not ripping off many (any) explosives, but the push is a lot better than last year, and we ran for 192 yards, at 5.5 a carry. Both excellent numbers. Mensah was awesome...not eye-popping, but steady, consistent, and most importantly, never turned the ball over. Aside from the hit that was initially ruled a fumble, which isn't his fault, he never even came close to turning it over, at least that I can remember without yet a rewatch. I think this was a perfect game for us and for him. Some talented defenders, some NFL DBs, a decent pass rush, a game where we aren't going to have guys just wide open, and he played well. 8.4 yards per pass is very good, and obviously the long TD run was something you really love to see. I hope he does more of that, he was moving out there and that can be a weapon for us. We got 6.76 per play on offense, and that includes clearly taking the air out of the ball late (13 out of the last 17 plays were runs, including 9 straight on the bury your **** in the dirt final TD drive where we snatched their souls and showed it to them like that dude in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom). Gave up 4.67. A 2.1 yards per play differential will win you a lot of games, and possible championships.
On the season, although it wasn't our best stat game, it was good, for the most part, and as teams around the country continue to play tougher competition, most of the numbers got better. A few to highlight:
1. We are now #6 in the country in points scored per game, and #2 in points allowed. Nuff said.
2. We are #6 in yards per play, and #12 in yards per play allowed. Again, a very balanced, very good football team.
3. The pass defense numbers are misleading. No, I'm not going to say the pass defense has been very good. However, if you'd have told me we'd have Bryce Fitzgerald and Ryan Mack playing every snap during a portion of a game that is still in doubt against Clemson in Game 5, I'd have just assumed some sort of nuclear warhead hit the defensive meeting rooms. So, to say we're decimated is an understatement. Also, the raw numbers are bad (88th in yards per game, 85th in completion percentage allowed), but the yards per attempt is very good. It's because only 5 teams in America are facing more passes against than we are. Why is that? Well, it's a lot like what many of us talked about through the summer. We're winning all these games, by a lot of points. So, teams have to throw. And also, our defensive line is just swallowing opposing run games. We are #1 in the country in run defense, and I know, ain't played nobody Pawl, but save that ****. Clemson ran for 150 against GA Southern, 186 against UNC, and 257 against Cal. They only *attempted* 17 runs with their backs, and 4 of those were on the last drive when they were just running clock. Teams aren't even trying to run against us. It's pointless. Prior to the last drive of the game, their backs had 13 runs for 45 yards. So, we are totally dead in the secondary, but we have a great DC who is doing everything he can to take away something from offenses, play soft and rally to the ball with your backups of backups in the secondary, and then hold teams out of the endzone (5th in the country in redzone defense). But 17th in yards per attempt and 28th in passer rating allowed with, at times, our top 4 corners out, is pretty insane.
4. The pass rush is starting to have the ***. We're now up to 6th in the country in sacks per game. We pressured Wake 44 times, I think it was mid-30s for Clemson. We abused that poor kid. Wilson is becoming unblockable, and this is all without Blount for most of the last 2 games and Lightfoot went out. We just have waves of talent on the lines. If we can ever get fully healthy, with how well the kids who are healthy are playing, it's going to be scary. Moten and Scott just are immovable objects in the middle, and Chase and Toure are really hitting the **** out of people. If we can ever get healthy, this defense might really be better than I even thought.
Overall, it's just another really, really good football team. I know Clemson has declined, obviously. But i was in Charlotte in 2017. I was in Clemson in 2020. I didn't go to the 2022 game, but I think we had something like 6 yards of offense at halftime. It was like a college vs high school team. Those games were like we were playing different sports. Just completely different planets as programs. And now, we push this team all over the field, we do basically anything we want to do, we crush their QB, we run it 9 times down their filthy throats when we want to close out games, our banged up true freshmen look like Sean Taylor taking interceptions down the sidelines in a blur, and we just waltz into one of the toughest buildings to play in around the country, and aren't even really challenged. What a time to be alive, boys and girls.
Offense:
Yards per play: 6th (7.24 YPP)
Yards per game: 13th (479.5 YPG)
Points per game: 6th (42.8 PPG) *The 2024 offense that led the country finished at 42.9 PPG*
Passing yards per game: 10th (311.5 YPG)
Passing completion percentage: 1st (80.8%)
Passing yards per attempt: 6th (9.6 YPA)
Passer rating: 4th (190.20) *Mensah's as an individual is 212, 4 points higher than the single-season NCAA record*
Passing TDs: 6th (12 TDs)
Interceptions: 11th (1 INT)
Rushing yards per game: 48th (168.0 YPG) *The 2025 offense averaged 148 per game*
Rushing yards per attempt: 25th (4.98 YPA) *IMO this is one of the most important numbers. 78th in the country last year (4.15). 5th in 2024 (5.65)*
Rushing TDs: 22nd (9)
Sacks given up per game: 30th (1.25 per game)
First Downs per game: 2nd (26.5 per game)
3rd down conversion %: 6th (52.27%) *5/13 vs Wake, 4/11 vs Clemson. Need to be better here*
4th down conversion %: 27th (67%, 2/3 on the season)
TFLs allowed per game: 9th (2.75 per game)
Red Zone TD %: 10th (82.4% TD rate, 14 TDs in 17 chances)
Red Zone Scoring %: 1st (17 scores in 17 chances)
Field goal %: 46th (5 for 6)
10+ Yard Scrimmage Plays: 15th (67) *16.75/game average, in 2025 we averaged 13.5/game*
20+ Yard Scrimmage Plays: 17th (23) *5.75/game average, in 2025 we averaged 4/game*
30+ Yard Scrimmage Plays: 22nd (11) *2.75/game average, in 2025 we averaged 1.87/game*
40+ Yard Scrimmage Plays: 71st (3) *0.75/game average, in 2025 we averaged 0.87/game*
50+ Yard Scrimmage Plays: 77th (1)
60+ Yard Scrimmage Plays: 38th (1)
70+ Yard Scrimmage Plays: N/A (0)
Defense:
Yards per play allowed: 12th (4.51 YPP) *We finished 2025 at 4.73 per play, against obviously way better competition*
Yards per game allowed: 18th (285.3 YPG)
Points per game allowed: 2nd (10.5 PPG)
Passing yards per game allowed: 88th (241.3 YPG)
Passing completion percentage allowed: 85th (63.9%)
Passing yards per attempt: 17th (6.1 YPA) *So 88th in yards, 85th in comp%, but 17th in yards/attempt. See below*
Passes faced per game: 134th (39.5) *New stat. Will discuss in takeaways, but only 5 teams in America are facing more pass attempts per game*
Passer rating allowed: 28th (117.71)
Rushing yards per game allowed: 1st (44.0 YPG) *This number won't hold, but Wisconsin in 2021 is the best number of the past 6 seasons, at 61 YPG allowed*
Rushing yards per attempt allowed: 2nd (1.85 YPA)
Sacks per game: 6th (3.5 sack per game)
3rd down % allowed: 65th (39% allowed)
4th down % allowed: 16th (25%, opponents 2/8 on 4th down)
Red Zone td % allowed: 5th (40% allowed -- 3 TDs in 8 chances)
Red Zone Scoring % allowed: 22nd (75% allowed -- 6 scores in 8 chances) *Only 1 team who has played 4 games or less has as few total RZ attempts*
Punting: 31st (46.0 Yard average)
10+ Yard Scrimmage Plays allowed: 29th (44) *11 per game, 11.2 allowed per game in 2025*
20+ Yard Scrimmage Plays allowed: 28th (12) *3.0 per game, 3.27 allowed per game in 2025*
30+ Yard Scrimmage Plays allowed: 4th (2) *0.5 allowed per game, 1.33 allowed per game in 2025*
40+ Yard Scrimmage Plays allowed: 20th (2)
50+ Yard Scrimmage Plays allowed: 23rd (1)
60+ Yard Scrimmage Plays allowed: 1st (0)
Team Stats:
Penalties: 105th (7.8 penalties per game) *Have ranked 112th, 97th, 76th, and 104th in Mario's 4 years here*
Penalty yards: 117th (72.5 Yards per game)
Turnover margin: 12th (1.25 per game -- 6 takeaways, 1 giveaway) *IMO the most important stat in the game*
Time of possession: 29th (32:21 per game)
Seconds per play: 113th (28.8 seconds between plays)
Takeaways: Overall, not the most statistically dominant game of all time, but still a resounding beating of the former class of the ACC, on the road, winning in that building for the first time since 2010, and by 28 points. For all of the "Mario does less with more" stuff we had to endure for what seemed like forever, Miami is now 9-1 against the spread in its last 10 games, so we're continuing to outperform even Vegas's expectations. I wanted to highlight a few Clemson specific numbers, and then some season long stuff.
On offense, we scored 34 points on 10 offensive drives. That's 3.4 points per drive, which is easily a Top 10 number in the country nationally, year over year. I try to avoid a decent bit of fan dialogue during the games here and on social media, but there is some odd discourse that goes on (is every fanbase like this?) where, if we don't score a touchdown on every drive, everybody sucks. We scored 34 points on 10 drives. That would've ranked 7th in the country last season. And think about it, that's a TD, then a punt, then a TD, then a punt, etc. If you score a TD every other time you get the ball, you average 3.5 points per drive, which is Top 5 in the country stuff. Indiana won a natty last year averaging 3.45 points per drive. So some of you guys gotta relax, it's ok to punt the football once in a while.
Especially when your defense gives up 13 points on 11 drives (the last one where they're running out the clock doesn't count). That's 1.18 points per drive allowed. That would've ranked 4th in the country last season. So, we had some folks saying we didn't play well, we have concerns, etc. And I'll admit it wasn't the best game we could've played. But at the end of the day, we put up a Top 7 type performance on offense, and a Top 4 type performance on defense in terms of the scoreboard. That, folks, ain't half bad. Now, we all know Clemson isn't making the playoffs anytime soon. So take it for what it's worth, but it was a very good performance, on the road, at night, in front of a hostile crowd, against a proud program in front of their friends and families, with multiple NFL athletes. And we whipped their ***, never trailed, and were really never threatened.
The ground game really took a step on Saturday. We're still not ripping off many (any) explosives, but the push is a lot better than last year, and we ran for 192 yards, at 5.5 a carry. Both excellent numbers. Mensah was awesome...not eye-popping, but steady, consistent, and most importantly, never turned the ball over. Aside from the hit that was initially ruled a fumble, which isn't his fault, he never even came close to turning it over, at least that I can remember without yet a rewatch. I think this was a perfect game for us and for him. Some talented defenders, some NFL DBs, a decent pass rush, a game where we aren't going to have guys just wide open, and he played well. 8.4 yards per pass is very good, and obviously the long TD run was something you really love to see. I hope he does more of that, he was moving out there and that can be a weapon for us. We got 6.76 per play on offense, and that includes clearly taking the air out of the ball late (13 out of the last 17 plays were runs, including 9 straight on the bury your **** in the dirt final TD drive where we snatched their souls and showed it to them like that dude in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom). Gave up 4.67. A 2.1 yards per play differential will win you a lot of games, and possible championships.
On the season, although it wasn't our best stat game, it was good, for the most part, and as teams around the country continue to play tougher competition, most of the numbers got better. A few to highlight:
1. We are now #6 in the country in points scored per game, and #2 in points allowed. Nuff said.
2. We are #6 in yards per play, and #12 in yards per play allowed. Again, a very balanced, very good football team.
3. The pass defense numbers are misleading. No, I'm not going to say the pass defense has been very good. However, if you'd have told me we'd have Bryce Fitzgerald and Ryan Mack playing every snap during a portion of a game that is still in doubt against Clemson in Game 5, I'd have just assumed some sort of nuclear warhead hit the defensive meeting rooms. So, to say we're decimated is an understatement. Also, the raw numbers are bad (88th in yards per game, 85th in completion percentage allowed), but the yards per attempt is very good. It's because only 5 teams in America are facing more passes against than we are. Why is that? Well, it's a lot like what many of us talked about through the summer. We're winning all these games, by a lot of points. So, teams have to throw. And also, our defensive line is just swallowing opposing run games. We are #1 in the country in run defense, and I know, ain't played nobody Pawl, but save that ****. Clemson ran for 150 against GA Southern, 186 against UNC, and 257 against Cal. They only *attempted* 17 runs with their backs, and 4 of those were on the last drive when they were just running clock. Teams aren't even trying to run against us. It's pointless. Prior to the last drive of the game, their backs had 13 runs for 45 yards. So, we are totally dead in the secondary, but we have a great DC who is doing everything he can to take away something from offenses, play soft and rally to the ball with your backups of backups in the secondary, and then hold teams out of the endzone (5th in the country in redzone defense). But 17th in yards per attempt and 28th in passer rating allowed with, at times, our top 4 corners out, is pretty insane.
4. The pass rush is starting to have the ***. We're now up to 6th in the country in sacks per game. We pressured Wake 44 times, I think it was mid-30s for Clemson. We abused that poor kid. Wilson is becoming unblockable, and this is all without Blount for most of the last 2 games and Lightfoot went out. We just have waves of talent on the lines. If we can ever get fully healthy, with how well the kids who are healthy are playing, it's going to be scary. Moten and Scott just are immovable objects in the middle, and Chase and Toure are really hitting the **** out of people. If we can ever get healthy, this defense might really be better than I even thought.
Overall, it's just another really, really good football team. I know Clemson has declined, obviously. But i was in Charlotte in 2017. I was in Clemson in 2020. I didn't go to the 2022 game, but I think we had something like 6 yards of offense at halftime. It was like a college vs high school team. Those games were like we were playing different sports. Just completely different planets as programs. And now, we push this team all over the field, we do basically anything we want to do, we crush their QB, we run it 9 times down their filthy throats when we want to close out games, our banged up true freshmen look like Sean Taylor taking interceptions down the sidelines in a blur, and we just waltz into one of the toughest buildings to play in around the country, and aren't even really challenged. What a time to be alive, boys and girls.
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