Clemson Has a Windshield Mentality; But Also Problems
Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney has always been a glass-half-full, optimistic kind of guy. And he was no different following the Tigers' first regular-season loss in three years.
"I always tell them that the three things you can never get back are time, words, and opportunity and that was certainly one that got away from us," Swinney said. "But we've got to flush it and keep moving and that's what we've always done around here, whether it's a win or a heartbreaking loss like that one. Windshield mentality."
However, before the Tigers can fully 'flush' the game, or put it in the rearview mirror, there are some issues that they need to address, and quickly, if they want to achieve the ultimate prize at the end of a trying 2020 season—a national championship.
First, the Tigers need to fix their case of fumblitis. The Tigers currently rank 114th out of 123 FBS teams in fumbles lost, and rank 117th in fumbles this season.
The latest two victims of the deadly disease, Amari Rodgers and Travis Etienne (Etienne has had two fumbles in the last two games turn directly into scores for the opposition) have put their recent mishaps out of their mind.
"Nah. I already forgot about it. I already forgot about the whole game. It's onto the next game," Rodgers said. "You have to take it on to the next play. You can't really sit back and think about the mistakes you made in the past. Not letting it happen again. We are going to learn from it, but we are also going to move on and not think about it too long."
But the simple fact was the Tigers' issues holding onto the ball had yet to cost them through their first seven games, but it ultimately caught up to them against Notre Dame.
But it is not only the fumbling issues that the Tigers need to clean up. There is an issue with the second-team offensive line.
It was no secret heading into the 2020 season that the Tigers expected to have some growing pains along the offensive line.
"That's one of our issues right now, to be quite frank with you," Swinney said following the loss. "In the past years, we've been playing a lot of guys along the OL, and we just really are young and don't have the depth there right now in a game like that. We have to really spend some time with those young guys this week. Love the guys we have but we just got a gap right now from a knowledge standpoint."
Newsflash: You do not need to be having the kind of issues with knowledge and depth heading into the ninth game of the season.
Maybe more than the fumbling issues, for me, this is the scariest issue with the Tigers. It came to fruition against Notre Dame. With the Tigers having to turn to second-team linemen Mason Trotter and Walker Parks at key moments in the game, there were some glaring issues with their protection and lack of understanding of the run-game.
Some of the issues could be resolved if the Tigers move away from the zone blocking scheme and move to a power scheme, which allows the lineman to have a designated assignment to block rather than an area to block.
Swinney's teams are not used to adversity. But if there is one thing that will hold true for 2020 Tigers, the adversity will either be a springboard for great things, or it will be a season-ender.
"Adversity either shines you up or grinds you up," Swinney said. "It shows what you're made of. Adversity brings out the best in good people, and we've got a bunch of good coaches and players around here."
