5 Clemson Storylines for Critical Road Game at Wake Forest
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The first quarter of the 2022 regular season allowed Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney to figure out what works, what doesn't, which players are going to help him the most this fall and how much improvement his team needs to make to chase a title.
Now, he'll hope all that pays off heading into the biggest game of the season thus far against the most quality opponent the No. 5 Tigers (3-0, 1-0 ACC), who are coming off a 48-20 win over Louisiana Tech, will have faced. Reigning ACC Coastal Division champion Wake Forest (3-0) hosts Clemson in a noon kickoff on Saturday.
The winner of this contest climbs into the driver's seat in the division, and the Tigers host NC State, another formidable conference opponent, in Week 5.
Here are five storylines heading into the Week 4 ACC showdown with the Demon Deacons:
1. Availability issues: Clemson went into last Saturday's win over Louisiana Tech down over a half of a dozen players. Several defensive players were banged up. Bryan Bresee was away from the team following the passing of his sister Ella. Swinney said Saturday night Bresee would rejoin the Tigers and be available to practice this week. The team will attend the funeral in Maryland on Tuesday.
Sunday night, Swinney said there weren't any players he'd rule out playing at Wake, but it's a long week ahead. The defense could really use safety Andrew Mukuba and cornerback Nate Wiggins back in a secondary that was tested depth-wise. The Deacs still have experienced QB Sam Hartman to deal with this week. They'll try to get everybody they can on the field in Winston-Salem, N.C.
2. Offense building: The Tigers feel like they've got some tangible things working on the scoring side of the ball. You'll hear a lot more about that throughout the week as the players feel more confident and comfortable in what they're doing. So is offensive coordinator Brandon Streeter. Swinney is encouraged with DJ Uiagalelei and the passing game, which finally hit on some big-play opportunities, and Will Shipley gave the run game a huge spark with a 139-yard, 2-TD performance against La. Tech.
The offensive line still hasn't put together a perfect game but signs are there, especially with what they did in the second half of the last game. There's legit optimism that Clemson will continue to improve on this side of the ball, and now they get an opponent they put 48 points up against last year. Wake is giving up an improved 317 yards per game this season, but it's come against inferior competition, although Liberty put 36 points on the Deacs in Week 3.
3. Secondary corrections: Much of it can be attributed to lack of depth after cornerback Sheridan Jones went down and Wiggins was out, but Clemson will still strive to fix several coverage mistakes where the corners and the safeties weren't on the same page. La. Tech receivers got too wide open when bad reads were made.
Assignment football will be key, but the silver lining is how much playing time Sherrod Covil, Toriano Pride Jr. and Jeadyn Lukus got and how much that will eventually help their development. Like Swinney said, he'd much rather be coaching these guys up after a 28-point win than a loss.
4. Mesh madness: Wake Forest's offense is predicated on a play that involves the quarterback putting the ball in the running back's belly and then holding it there until he reads the defense and makes a decision on whether to pull it or hand it off. It's called the mesh and it doesn't work on Clemson. It didn't when Wake coach Dave Clawson had much lesser talent, and it doesn't now against Clemson's stout defensive front.
There's no reason to believe this year will be any different, but could Clawson finally switch things up and do something different, or is the mesh just too ingrained in this offense? Clemson knows just how to prepare for it and its ability to get off the line of scrimmage blows up those delayed plays. Let's see what the Tigers say this week about defending the "Sneakin' Deacon."
5. Hartman's back: Swinney joked that he's prepared for Wake Forest's veteran QB for the last 12 seasons. It certainly feels that way with a redshirt season and an extra year of eligibility because of the COVID-19 season in 2020. But this has been a difficult couple of months for Hartman, who missed several weeks of practice and the season opener with a non-football-related medical condition.
In two games this season, one of the best signal-callers in the ACC has thrown for 625 yards and seven touchdowns, but he threw two interceptions against Liberty. In his career, Hartman has 9,891 passing yards, 79 passing touchdowns and 16 rushing scores. Clemson will have great respect for his ability.
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