Before every game, we provide a preview of Ohio State football’s opponent for the upcoming week. It was a twelve game slate to the regular season, then the Big Ten Championship game, and now the College Football Playoff semifinal in the Fiesta Bowl.
The Buckeyes are taking on the ACC Champion and defending national champion Clemson Tigers. It’ll be a daunting task, but one the Buckeyes are hopefully up to. We’re here to give you all you need to know about a Clemson team on top of the college football world right now.
So, if you want to impress your friends while watching the game, we’ve got your cheat code right here. We do the research, you drop nuggets. You win on Saturdays. It’s as simple as that.
This is as big as it gets, so let’s roll on the scouting report on the No. 3 Clemson Tigers.
Next … Clemson all-time vitals
Clemson Record
(13-0 overall); (8-0 ACC): Won the ACC Championship over Virginia 62-17
All-Time Record vs. Ohio State
3-0 (1.000)
All-Time Vitals
Record: 757-459-45, No. 21 All-Time
National Championships: 3, No. 17 All-Time
Conference Championships: 25, No. 12 All-Time
Bowl Games: 44, No. 14 All-Time
Bowl Record: 24-20-0, No. 26 All-Time
Consensus All-Americans: 28, No. 27 All-Time
Heisman Winners: 0
NFL Draft Picks: 254, No. 29 All-Time
College Football Playoff Appearances: 5, tied for No. 1 All-Time
Best All-Time Season
2018 – Clemson is in its golden age as we speak. It won a national title in 2016, lost the semifinal to Alabama in 2017, then came back to run the table in 2018, including a revenge-blitzing of the Tide last year. And it’s the season that just occurred last calendar year that was likely its best.
That team was led by freshman quarterback Trevor Lawrence who hit the ground running and played well beyond his years. The offense was a dynamic one with him slinging the ball around and running back Travis Etienne gobbling up yards on the ground. But it wasn’t all offense.
The defense was dominant too, led by a fantastic defensive-line that got tons of pressure on the quarterback and stuffed the run. The team ended up 15-0, the first and only team to do so in college football history.
Best Player Of All-Time
Deshaun Watson, QB, 2014-2016 – It could be argued that Watson should have won the Heisman Trophy in 2016. He’s simply one of the best signal-callers in college football history. He could make plays with his legs when he needed to, but it was his ability to read defenses and make precision passes that set him apart.
Watson was a multiple-year ACC athlete of the year, Heisman Trophy finalist, and Davey O’Brien and Manning Award recipient. He was also named ESPN’s College Male Athlete of the Year in 2017. He finished his career at Clemson with over 10,000 yards passing, almost 2,000 yards rushing, and a total of 116 touchdowns.
He is a legend. Plain and simple.
Next … Head coach, offensive and defensive styles
Current Head Coach
Dabo Swinney – 129-30 overall (.811)
Clemson Offensive Style
Like most teams these days, Clemson will employ a spread attack. And similar to Ohio State, the Tigers will run the power-read option out of it as well with the running game. However, this is a balanced squad that can do some significant damage through the air as well.
The Tigers will look to exploit matchups on the outside with quick bubble screens and slants, but will also take advantage of one-on-one read matchups down the seam for big gains. And with the athletes Clemson has, it’ll read the defense and find a mismatch often with an up-temp style that puts a lot of pressure on the defense.
It’s a hard one to stop consistently.
Clemson Defensive Style
The defense has always been aggressive with defensive coordinator Brent Venables calling the shots. Most years, you’d see Clemson line up in a 4-3 defense and use blitz packages out of it on all downs. This year however, things are a little different because of what Venables has identified as the strength of this team, the back seven.
So now, instead of seeing four down-lineman, the Tigers utilize just three down-lineman with a couple of linebackers and six so-called defensive backs. From there, it’ll line up Butkus Award winner Isaiah Simmons all over the field. He might drop back in coverage, come off the edge on a blitz, or come up in run support. It’s a defense that will keep you off-balance and is difficult to read.
It’s a high-risk, high-reward unit and you have to know that some negative plays will happen.
Next … Player to watch and the Tigers’ chances
Clemson player to watch
Trevor Lawrence, QB — Clemson’s super sophomore may have gotten out of the gate a little slow in 2019, but since then he’s been lights out. But the narrative was set before Clemson began playing games under the radar. The ACC was literal trash this year, so the Tigers didn’t get too many spotlight games after the scare against North Carolina.
But don’t sleep on Lawrence. When you start comparing 2018 with 2019 though, Lawrence ended up having a pretty similar year.
He still has a cannon of an arm, a quick release, and stands tall in the pocket with great accuracy. Lawrence threw for over 3,000 yards, completed almost 70% of his passes, and threw 34 touchdowns this year. He’s got plenty of weapons to throw to, and the Ohio State secondary will have its work cut out. That might be where this game is won.
Clemson Can Win The Game If …
It comes out, plays Clemson football and executes.
Both of these teams have NFL talent all over the place, and this is one of those games where the level of athlete on the field is about as equal as you can get. That means it all comes down to turnovers, big plays, and execution.
If the Tigers execute and take care of the ball, and Ohio State has one or two big mistakes in the game, Clemson probably wins. However, if the Buckeyes can take Clemson out of their game plan by forcing some miscues, it could be a different story, and one that will end up in New Orleans for the Buckeyes.
