Clemson is decent, but nothing special this year. We played mediocre teams close with Tyler. Our two best wide receivers are out along with many other players. Our team is incredibly young and coaching and play calling have been abysmal in the games we lost handily. This squad, at full strength, with Mazzone running the offense is a mediocre team. It’s easy to say how terrible we are in a blanket statement based on our record but there are a lot of issues at play here. How many of the wide open TD passes that we missed this season would have been caught by Ross or Drayton? Would we have lost to Holy Cross with Mazzone or Tyler Phommachanh there? How about UMass? This team is a lot closer to decent than many realize.
Clemson is a typical “pretty good” team this year. With all of our players and a creative offense we could play a presentable game against them. I went into the season expecting to lose 65-3, which is back where I am now. If we were at full strength and playing our best offense, I think this team could keep it somewhat interesting for a while and lose 35-14 or so in the end.
I’m just disappointed that we’ve lost that momentum we had where we were competing, seeing the future of the program and having fun again. It was a nice surprise after Edsall left. No need to jump all over me for looking at what could’ve been rather than continuing to whine about a situation that can’t be changed overnight. Also, I stand by my assertion that staying positive as a fan base will help retain talent this offseason. Saying we have no talent and being overly negative doesn’t sit well with the players that can easily go someplace less toxic. It’s a team of college kids that haven’t been put in a position to win, give them a break.
