Another Clemson crisis
As season turned sour, Tigers’ stability in question again
When the calendar flipped to November, the 2021 Clemson football season felt distant in the rearview mirror.
Yes, the Tigers hadn’t been as impressive to that point of the season as they had been in their College Football Playoff contention heyday, but after a one-year hiatus, they were undefeated, on the brink of another trip to the ACC Championship and right in the thick of the most important part of the CFP rankings.
My oh my, what a difference a month makes.
A blowout loss at Notre Dame and a mistake-riddled, gut-wrenching end to their long-held winning streak of South Carolina later, suddenly all the questions of 2021 are right back at the forefront of every Clemson fan’s mind.
“Is this the end?” “Are the best days of the Dabo Swinney era behind us?” “How could the good old days have ended so abruptly?”
The nature of being a fan is to assume you know the answers to your most feared questions long before the writing actually meets the wall. But it’s hard to argue with Clemson fans who are in full Doomsday-prep mode after last week’s loss to the Gamecocks. Not that there is any variation of a loss to their nearest and most hated rivals that Clemson fans could’ve stood, but so many of the elements of the game were tailor-made to send the Tiger faithful into the histrionics we’ve seen since Saturday.
Elements like the 14–0 lead, the abandonment of the succeeding running game, the turnovers that reared their ugly head at the worst possible moments, the missed assignments in the defensive secondary, the feeling that even despite all of the mistakes that the game was still there to be won and the end of the six-year long home winning streak in this particular fashion.
But most of all, it was the denouement to the two-year saga that has been the rapid decline of the Tigers’ once-feared passing game. The face of that decline for now and evermore is quarterback D.J. Uiagalelei, and while the junior certainly played a fair part in the Tigers’ struggles of Saturday, it was again a situation where all elements of the assembly line worked against each other — pass-caller, pass-thrower and pass-catcher. But when a maligned quarterback goes 8-for-29 for 99 yards and a highly-touted back-up quarterback never gets off the sideline, it distills the top-shelf angst you’ve seen pouring out of Clemson fans ever since.
So what now?
Well, in the short-term, a modicum of goodwill is on the table this weekend with a chance to win the ACC Championship — once upon a time, the attainable jewel for a season’s crown in Tiger Town. But with fans questioning when the Tigers will have another chance to compete for a national title, there’s only so much that beating a 9–3 North Carolina team can quiet the masses.
The primary directive between now and the beginning of the 2023 season will be to reestablish a reliable passing attack. The presence of Will Shipley and Phil Mafah at running back will mean the Tigers should be able to lean on their running game again, but it will only be so successful if the Tigers cannot threaten teams with the chance of the downfield pass.
It’s not out of the realm of possibility that the primary issues of the past couple of years more down to personnel than play-calling, so the departure of a large chunk of said personnel either via graduation or transfer with another highly touted quarterback and four new receivers set to come into the program in their stead as part of a talented recruiting class provides the shuffle needed to prove or disprove the notion. You also have to wonder if the uncertainly leads to Clemson to consider grabbing their first big transfer portal acquisition under Swinney.
However, those are largely conversations for the offseason, and the beginning of that shuffle doesn’t have to wait until 2023. It’s understandable if the coaching staff views the ACC Championship with enough weight to still want the experienced Uiagalelei taking the first and primary snaps from behind center, but the time to hold freshman Cade Klubnik fully in reserve has passed.
The Texan is not a readymade product like freshman predecessors Deshaun Watson and Trevor Lawrence and he doesn’t have the same weapons as those future title-winning quarterbacks had to throw to either, but last week’s second half does not provide a high bar he needs to clear to show improvement. If he plays a role in a Clemson win, it could go long way to forcing eyes away from the number two on the right side of the Tigers’ record and toward the №11 on the left-hand side.
Another Clemson championship may not be enough to stem another Clemson crisis.
But there’s only one place you can truly change fans’ minds — on the field.
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Robbie Tinsley is an award-winning columnist from his time as the sports editor of The Journal in Seneca, S.C. He now works on a freelance basis from his home in Massachusetts. He can be reached either via Twitter @RTinMan13 or email at robtinsley13@gmail.com.
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This column also appears in the Saturday edition of The (Seneca) Journal on December 3rd.
