Monday September 10, 2007

Louisiana-Monroe Review

Louisiana-Monroe Review
Two wins in one week is a great way to start the season but who would have guessed that each would look so different?

Against FSU on Monday the defense looked fantastic. The defensive game plan was very aggressive and the players had a ton of energy. On Monday night the Tigers tackled very well and shut down the Seminoles on third down.

On Saturday against Louisiana-Monroe the game plan looked very vanilla and the players lacked energy. Clemson’s tackling looked more like last year’s South Carolina and Kentucky games and the Warhawks thrived on third down conversions.

On Monday against FSU Clemson did not score in the second half and the offense lacked rhythm. On Saturday everything the offense did worked and the offense looked in sync.

And on Monday it was an electric atmosphere that had the old stadium rockin’. But Saturday it looked like a lot of fans thought that was the real Labor Day and took the day off.

Two wins but two polar opposite games.

Cullen Harper got in a great rhythm on Saturday when he hit five different receivers for touchdowns. The five scores through the air were a school record.

Harper threw the ball well and his vertical passing game was a pleasure to see. Coach Bowden said going into the game that he made a mistake last season when he did not throw the ball m ore in the blowout games and he vowed to fix that this season. The 319 passing yards sent that message to future opponents.

Willy Korn looked good with his 6 of 8 performance as well as the pair combined to go 26-34 for 319 yards with five touchdowns and no interceptions. Thru two games Harper has thrown for seven touchdowns without throwing an interception.

I thought the offensive line did an outstanding job of protecting the passer. Brandon Pilgrim had his left arm wrapped but he played despite being listed as questionable.

The receivers had a very nice day Saturday also. Jacoby Ford looks like he will be a weapon as he had three catches and a carry for a total of 97 yards. Rendrick Taylor re-emerged as a receiving threat with his four catches for 38 yards and Tyler Grisham scored another touchdown to go along with his four catches and 37 yards. Aaron Kelly had the great game against FSU and had another solid performance including a touchdown on Saturday.

For the second straight week Brian Lithicum looked like he was advanced beyond his years when he hauled in his second touchdown reception of the season.

James Davis and C.J. Spiller were not the focal point of the offense this week but both were effective. Davis had only seven touches but averaged 9.7 yards per carry and Spiller hit on a 68-yard touchdown reception.

This was an impressive offensive performance that saw the Tigers put up over 500 yards of offense in only 63 plays.

The defense was a completely different story and again the opposite of what we saw against FSU. I would have never guessed that Clemson would have allowed 419 yards of total offense, 271 yards on the ground and 26 points.

There were a couple of disturbing things that came out of the game were the way the Tigers tackled and the lack of recognition of the draw plays. This again was the opposite of what we saw against FSU when the Tiger front seven did a great job of shutting down the draws.

Third down was a major reason the defense struggled also. Louisiana-Monroe was 11 of 21 on third down conversions and 1-1 on fourth down. The Tiger defense gave up third down conversions on seven plays where the Warhawks had six or more yards to convert.

Louisiana-Monroe was only 13 of 30 through the air but the Tigers were able to sack the quarterback once for only five yards and had only one quarterback pressure the entire contest.

The officiating was bad but the Tigers had several defensive penalties that sustained drives also.

Clemson can play better defense than it did Saturday and will need to to get this team where it can go.

Special teams were much better this week. Kickoff coverage was excellent again Saturday as Buchholz did a great job with his directional kicking and Chris Wade another excellent game. The snapping and punting were greatly improved including a 71-yard effort from Jimmy Maners. In fact the Tigers averaged almost 45 yards per punt Saturday afternoon. The kickoff return and punt return game looked OK.

All things considered I think this was a good win for this team. It had to be very difficult to come out and prepare for Louisiana-Monroe after such an emotional win against Florida State. There were a bunch of positives including the play from most of the offense but not a lot of positives out of the defense especially the reserves.

Now the Tigers have a usual game week for the first time this season. I expect Furman to get the Tigers attention and I also expect the Tigers to come with a different energy level on defense.

Tomorrow we will have our worksheet for the UL-M game and Wednesday we will start to look forward to the Furman contest.

Another Tiger Passes
A few weeks ago I wrote a blog about my friend Terry that was battling cancer and how phone calls from Rick Stockstill, Tommy West, Danny Ford and Tommy Bowden helped him with his effort. I was saddened to hear Terry Swygert lost his battle this weekend. Our condolences go out to his family and friends. “Swag” was a true Tiger and he will be missed by his Clemson friends. I was honored to know this Tiger and know he will be watching future Clemson games from a higher but better seat location starting this week.

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