Opponent preview: SMU, Clemson battle for ACC championship

[PonyPride]

Mustangs, Tiges kick off at 7 p.m. (Central)
Posted on 12/06/2024 by PonyFans.com

SMU head coach Rhett Lashlee is, if nothing else, willing to work hard.

For several weeks, as the Mustangs have piled up victories week after week, Lashlee has fielded questions about what he thinks of his team’s chance to earn a spot in the 12-team College Football Playoff. Week after week, he has said what any coach in his position has to say — that he can’t control how the members of the CFP committee will vote, that he and the Mustangs have to focus on each opponent and keep stacking wins to make their résumé so strong that the committee will have no choice but to include SMU in the postseason tournament.

After that, for several weeks, he has laid out the case for the Ponies to qualify. He points to the fact that his team’s lone loss was to a BYU team that spent much of the season ranked in the top 10, and that the Mustangs absolutely smoked TCU and Florida State. They met the challenge of winning on the road against the likes of Duke, Virginia and a Louisville team that was nationally ranked at the time. With each win, the bullseye on the Mustangs’ backs has shined a little brighter as opponents have tried to knock off a team that suddenly was nationally relevant … and each time, the Mustangs won.

In other words, he didn’t want to be asked whether the Ponies deserve to be in the playoff, but he obviously thinks they do, regardless of what happens when SMU (11-1 overall, 8-0 against Atlantic Coast Conference opponents) faces off against Clemson (9-3, 7-1) in Saturday’s ACC Championship game at 7 p.m. (Central time) Saturday in Charlotte’s Bank of America Stadium.

You know who else thinks SMU already deserves to be in the playoff, regardless of Saturday’s outcome? Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney.

“The ACC has had a great year,” Swinney said. “There’s a bunch of teams that I think are eight, nine-plus wins. There’s going to be a bunch of bowl-eligible teams. It has been a very competitive year in the league. You’ve seen teams that have competed at a high level outside of the league… But I think for SMU … I mean, obviously I know they want to win the game, but I think they should be in no matter what. I think they’ve earned that. I don’t think they should be punished, with whatever the outcome in this game is. I know the system is what it is, it’s been set up, but they’re an 11-1 football team, and they have done an awesome job.”

One of the first lessons for head coaches is about the art of building up every opponent — doing so, theoretically, minimizes a loss and magnifies the accomplishment in any victory, so maybe there is a little of that in Swinney’s rhetoric … or maybe he sees the team above his in the standings and really thinks the Mustangs are just that good. It’s safe to say Swinney knows a good team when he sees one: his eight ACC championships trail only the 12 (10 outright) won by former Florida State legend Bobby Bowden.

While the Mustangs are competing for their first ACC title in this, their first season in the conference, reaching the championship game is expected for Clemson, which has appeared in the title game nine times — they have won their last eight times in the ACC’s biggest game — and has won a record 21 ACC crowns, including those based simply on season records before championship games were played. Across the country, only four other programs have appeared in 10 conference title games: Alabama (14), Florida (13), Oklahoma (12) and Georgia (11, including this season).

Saturday’s game will be the first ever between SMU and Clemson.

The Tigers come into Saturday’s game in the wake of a heartbreaking 17-14 loss to in-state rival South Carolina. Sure, that means Clemson is beatable, but this is a team that knows how to rebound, boasting a 37-9 record after a loss under Swinney.

Lashlee will be the seventh head coach to face Clemson for the first time this season; of the first six, only Louisville’s Jeff Brohm picked up a victory.

The SMU defense has been celebrated this year for its excellent season, and rightly so, but the Mustangs face a stiff challenge Saturday. The Tigers are a team that beats up their opponents, by an average of two touchdowns per game, outscoring the opposition by an average of 35.7-21.6 points per game. The offense ranks eighth in the country in total offense, with an average of 465.7 yards per game; the 35.7 points per game scoring average ranks 14th in the nation. Clemson is the only team in the nation to average at least 275 passing yards per game (275.1) and at least 190 rushing yards (190.6) per game.

That offensive balance is by design: Swinney always has preached about his desire to be balanced on offense, and that is reflected in the way the offense is called: through 12 games, the Tigers have run the ball 34.75 times per game, while attempting 37.42 passes per game. At the wheel for the Clemson offense is junior quarterback Cade Klubnik (6-2, 210), the Austin Westlake graduate who is one of seven Texans on the Clemson roster. Klubnik has completed 258 of 402 passes (64.2 percent) this season for 3,041 yards. He takes enough chances to make a lot of plays — he has thrown 29 touchdown passes this season — but is exceedingly careful with the ball, throwing only five interceptions this season.

But he is more than a solid passer. He is the Tigers’ second-leading rusher this season, with 92 carries for 437 rushing yards (4.8 per carry). His 29 scoring passes are the fourth-highest total in the country. His 29 passing touchdowns and 36 total touchdowns responsible for both rank fourth in the country, and helped him earn Honorable Mention All-ACC honors..

“A lot of people wanted me to go get a portal quarterback, but we believe in Cade Klubnik, and he has had a great year,” Swinney said. “It’s been awesome. You know, he came in as a true freshman and you know, really wasn’t ready to play, got a little experience, [but] kind of physically not quite ready. He hadn’t had a lot of football adversity — had very little … I think the closest game he had was maybe 14 points in high school, won three state championships, won the Elite 11 — life was good. [Then] he ends being the started in this game and won the MVP of the ACC Championship game as a freshman.

“Last year, he was trying to become the leader of the offense, and now he’s the leader of the team. I’m really proud of him. He’s gotten better and better. Good players get better if they’re coachable and they’re made of the right stuff, and he epitomizes that.”

Many prolific quarterbacks are quick to point out that they benefit greatly from the presence of a strong running game who can change the way opposing defenses attack an offense, and that certainly is the case for Klubnik, who shares the backfield with senior running back Phil Mofah (6-1, 230), the bruising veteran who leads the Clemson offense with 201 carries for 1,078 yards (5.4 yards per carry) and eight rushing touchdowns. He already has rushed for 100 or more yards in six games this season.

Sophomore wide receiver Antonio Williams (5-11, 190) is one of two Tigers to earn first-team all-ACC honors on the offensive of the ball. Williams is an explosive playmaker who has turned his 66 receptions into 788 yards (11.9 yards per) and 10 touchdowns.

Swinney’s teams traditionally have relied heavily on tight ends to contribute to the offense, and this season is no different: senior Jake Briningstool is a huge (6-6, 240) target for Klubnik, with 41 catches for 438 and five touchdowns. Freshman wideouts T.J. Moore (6-3, 200) and Bryant Wesco (6-2, 180) have 33 receptions for 503 yards (15.2 yards per catch) and four touchdowns, and 30 catches for 535 yards (team-best 17.8 yards per reception) and three scores.

No offense can be effective without strong play from the offensive line, and Clemson’s line might be the best the Mustangs have faced all season. Junior right tackle Blake Miller (6-6, 315) is the second Tiger to earn first-team All-ACC honors, but he is hardly alone in that recognition — in fact, all five starters earned all-conference recognition. Senior left guard Marcus Tate (6-5, 315) was named to the second team, senior right guard Walker Parks (6-5, 305) was named to the third team, while junior left tackle Tristan Leigh (6-6, 315) and junior center Ryan Linthicum earned Honorable Mention all-conference honors.

Clemson’s defense operates out of a fairly standard 4-3 alignment. Sophomore defensive end and second-team All-ACC honoree T.J. Parker (6-3, 265) leads the defensive line with 52 tackles and leads the entire team in tackles for loss (15.5) and sacks (10). He lines up alongside two massive space eaters in the interior of the defensive line: senior defensive tackle Payton Page (6-4, 310) and sophomore Peter Woods (6-3, 315).

Junior middle linebacker Wade Woodaz (6-3, 235) has eight tackles for loss among his team-leading 71 tackles, despite missing a couple of games. Senior weakside linebacker Barrett Carter is just behind, with 70 tackles, including 9.5 tackles for loss and 3.5 sacks en route to earning first-team All-ACC honors.

The top defensive backs are sophomore cornerback Avieon Terrell (5-11, 180), who has 50 tackles, 4.5 tackles for loss and a pair of interceptions, and sophomore nickel back Khalil Barnes (6-0, 195), who has 51 stops and a team-high three interceptions.

Swinney said the Tigers have yet to play a complete game this season, and that despite losses this season to Georgia, Louisville and South Carolina, he is confident his team can reach a new level against the Mustangs.

Why?

“We’ve been right there,” said Swinney, now in his 17th season at the help of the Clemson program. “We match up [with strong opponents]. We can be explosive, we’ve got a quarterback that’s playing well for us. We’ve got skill, we’ve got some dudes up front that can really play in the line of scrimmage — our offensive line has been tremendous, the way they have protected all year long has been really, really good.”

Another reason the Tigers will be ready Saturday: while they prepared to play their regular-season finale against the Gamecocks, they knew the Mustangs already had qualified for a berth in the conference championship game, so just in case they earned the other spot in the title game, they got a jump-start on scouting SMU.

“We had … our scouting group go ahead and do some breakdown on them,” Swinney said. “We obviously knew they were in the championship game and we knew we had an opportunity. So we didn’t want to just be starting from scratch Sunday if it worked out, so we at least had some of our base scouting stuff done.”

SMU’s postseason future is less murky — at least a little — than Clemson’s. If the Mustangs win Saturday, they will receive a spot in the 12-team College Football Playoff; if the Ponies falter, they might still get in … or they might not, despite the season résumé that Swinney said should guarantee SMU gets included, regardless of the outcome Saturday.

The Tigers, however, are far more desperate. There might be a scenario in which Clemson could lose to SMU and somehow still find its way into the playoff, but it would have to be considered a longshot. Swinney said the ACC should get two, and maybe three, teams into the CFP, but pointed out the obvious, as far as his team’s chances.

“Obviously, for us, we’ve got to win,” Swinney said. “I mean, it is what it is — it’s playoff football for us. I mean, we qualified for the postseason, and as crazy a day as yesterday was [when Clemson lost to South Carolina], for the first time since before the Louisville game, we control our destiny. If we’d had a great regular season, maybe we would have that opportunity. We’ve got to win, but SMU, I think they should be in … and quite frankly, I can’t imagine Miami wouldn’t be in. I think it's been a tough, tough league, and again, you got 17 teams, and you know, for us to be one of the two that qualified to go play in this league championship … again, I’m really proud of that.

“But I think the league deserves the recognition, and we’ll see how it all plays out.”

[GrapevineMustang]

To me, it's our defensive front against their offensive line.
That's the game.

[Roach]

Great preview. Now we're ready.
Go Mustangs!