Clemson’s Defense Is Ready to Experience LSU’s Elite Receivers
The LSU Tigers currently have two receivers ranked in the top five for receiving yards nationally. Sophomore Ja’Marr Chase has gained 1,559 yards and Junior Justin Jefferson has gained 1,434 yards.
Their video game-like numbers have both players ranked No. 2 and 3 respectively for receiving yards. The elite duo has also found the endzone 18 times each this season. No other player in college football has scored 18 receiving touchdowns except for the two LSU Tiger receivers. Tee Higgins has gained 1,115 total receiving yards with 13 TD’s this season and statistically, is the Clemson Tigers’ closest ranked receiver.
Clemson’s senior safety Tanner Muse gave his thoughts on the dynamic LSU offense and he said he is looking forward to the challenge that his secondary is about to face.
“I think they're their own unique team, their own unique dynamics. You can't really place them into any kind of category,” said Muse. “They're very special, obviously, with the stats that they've put up this year, but we've been going against a lot of teams that have been great, played them well, so I'm just really looking forward to this challenge and hopefully we'll have our best game.”
Much of the talk in the media has been about whether or not the Clemson Tiger secondary can handle the powerful LSU passing attack.
This is nothing new for Clemson’s defense as they heard much of the same rhetoric last year before facing the Alabama Crimson Tide and Tua Tagovailoa. That offense was thought to have been one of the best ever in college football. Nick Saban’s team ended up only scoring 16 points in that game.
“Yeah, from the media standpoint, you know, they're the best, very similar to last year, Tua and them put up a bunch of really good numbers,” said Muse. “We did a really good job with them, so hopefully we just do our game and play our best.”
The Clemson defense has done all they can to prepare in practice for those elite LSU receivers. Experience has taught Tanner Muse that there is nothing that can compare to defending them live and in person.
“You can say this and say that, but at the end of the day, you gotta go up against them in a lineup and get a real feel of how they play,” said Muse. “You can never really prepare for something like that. You just gotta kind of experience it, get in the first quarter, get comfortable and go from there.”
