Some random Sunday thoughts...

Oct 11, 2015, 5:56 PM

As usual, this is LONG. Be warned. And it's important to remember one very important thing if you don't like long posts:

I don't care. I'm wordy. Twitter's thataway if a lotta words are Not Your Thing.

1) One thing I really like about Dabo is his commitment to developing depth. Again, instead of keeping his starters in and running up 50+ when Tech was totally overwhelmed - which would have looked good for the pollsters, anyhow - he stuck in a bunch of 2's and 3's as early as the third quarter when it looked like Tech still had some chance of coming back - and they performed. Schuessler - who I think many had given up for dead after the start of the season - made some durn nice throws, long throws, and guys like Deon Cain and Trevion Thompson were making key catches. They weren't making those throws, or those catches, against App State and Wofford...but they were yesterday, and that was against an ACC opponent, not the Sisters of The Poor. Huge. Also repped a bunch of O-linemen...yes, Falcinelli had that atrocious snap that cost us a TD, but new centers do that stuff...I'd much rather Falcinelli gets those yips out of the way now and makes those mistakes now than when he's starting in a year or two. The scoreline was less sexy - yeah, we could have won 57-10, easily - but instead we got the convincing "W" anyhow - and key backups got key reps. That's just plain good developmental coaching.

2) We needed a guy who could take the top off a defense, and it looks like two of them might be emerging. I'm excited about Deon Cain's performance - he really was flashing the 5-star tools he was billed as having - but Trevion Thompson isn't far behind him. Thompson just missed about a 50+ yarder when he was a foot out of bounds...in a month or so, he's making that catch. Talentwise, those two are showing every sign they're at least close to being in Mike Williams' league...if they continue to progress, they could be impact guys by the end of the year. We're a good team now; we could be a scary one in December. Still a little befuddled by Peake - I think he's pressing right now - but Hunter Renfrow is really growing on me too. Ray Ray bounced back nicely from that freshman fumble as well and had a good game...those four freshman wideouts we've got are going to absolutely dominate the ACC the next few years.

3) The O-line, Wayne Gallman, and Zach Brooks. We seem to have our RB rotation right at the moment - Gallman seemingly gets more unstoppable every game, and Brooks is quietly emerging as the slashing, speedy change-of-pace complement to him. Brooks has always had WR speed and WR catching ability, and I question his ability to really be a feature guy because he still doesn't always seem to read or explode through the hole, but he's bad news for tired defenses because if he catches a seam he's got the ability to go a LONG way. More importantly he seems to be finding a strut I just haven't seen from him before...Brooks' confidence is growing and that could be huge down the stretch. Which is a bit shocking, considering that Brooks looked like - at best - the fifth-best RB on the roster in the Spring and I figured he was probably a lost cause.

What I'm particularly encouraged by is how much nastier we are up front, especially in run-blocking. Our young guys are still having some issues in pass-pro, which is getting Deshaun Watson hit more than I'd like, but they're opening holes and controlling D-line in the running game...GT got absolutely owned up front (on both sides of the ball) and that's a new thing for Clemson. I'd be curious to see how well Mitch Hyatt graded in particular; it seemed like Gallman was pretty much whatever he wanted off the left side. We've always had flashy skill; I have not seen an OL that could control things up front that well since we had the Fry Guys and Nathan Bennett grading the road and James Davis running behind them.

4) Defense. What can you say? Jayron Kearse got "had" a couple times by A-backs hiding and sliding out of the backfield but aside from that Clemson absolutely massacred the triple option and Justin Thomas will be feeling that game for at least the next week. Vicious. Lawson and Dodd might be better than Beasley and Crawford and if there's been much dropoff from Jarrett/Watson to Watkins/Pagano/Wilkins on the interior I haven't seen it. That's just shockingly good recruiting and DL development and it says volumes about how well Hobby and Brooks are coaching those guys up. I've said before I think we have the best defensive staff in the country and these guys are playing like it right now...Clemson now ranks 13th in defense nationally and that's with games against Louisville, Notre Dame, Georgia Tech, and a 4-1 App State team that's thumped everybody (except Clemson) they've played this year...that is quite a job, considering we replaced 9 starters off last year's defensive squad. Expect that ranking to rise significantly considering we're playing BC next week...and BC has one of the worst offenses in FCS football. (And, crazily, the #1 defense in college football, statistically. A hint: bet the under in this game, it seems a safe bet.)

5) I still think we haven't nearly seen the best of this team, either. This bunch is young, young, YOUNG - we have all of four seniors starting and our QB, top RB, and top WR are all sophomores. We're predominantly freshmen and sophomores in the 2-deep on the OL, and our top defenders are almost all juniors or younger. The NFL is almost certainly going to come calling for some our underclassmen - I'm staring particularly hard at Kearse, Lawson, and Alexander as guys who could jump early and maybe should - but it still looks like this bunch is primed to be a dominant force in college football the next couple seasons and probably beyond that.

Kudos to Dabo. And it definitely feels like Clemson might be taking that step from the Top-15 squad we've been the last four years into the true elite of college football. Could be a fun ride.

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Glad to see Brooks doing well. I'm just not sure why Dye isn't getting more opportunity....?

Cain is oozing with talent. He runs differently...moves differently...just has that "look."

Sort of reminds me of how Roscoe Crosby just had that "5-star way" about him. Difference with him was that we needed him much earlier and urgently than Cain. We've had the luxury of allowing Cain to come along at his pace.

I remember Venables commenting on how "different" it was to him to play all the players like Dabo does. This was Venables's first year. I think he may have bought into that mentality now.

Dabo was building something. He wasn't just looking for a quick fix...but a permanent, long-term one.

Some random Sunday thoughts...

Re: Some random Sunday thoughts...

good post, quoz.....interestingly, Clemson also now has

Thanks Q !***

Re: Some random Sunday thoughts...

Excellent post.. Thanks***

Re: Some random Sunday thoughts...

Re: Some random Sunday thoughts...

Great post! We have been slowly reentering the era where

Re: Great post! We have been slowly reentering the era where

Re: Some random Sunday thoughts...

You are correct. Ruled a catch on the field and NOT overuled***

Re: Some random Sunday thoughts...

Great post...as always.

Very good post, Q

Re: Some random Sunday thoughts...

Way too Wordy of a post Q.

Re: Some random Sunday thoughts...

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