Clemson vs. S.C. State: Tigers Maul the Bulldogs

By mutual agreement between the head coaches at halftime, the third and fourth quarters of the Clemson-SC State game today were shortened to twelve minutes. If you hadn’t seen the game, and knew only that fact, you’d have a pretty good idea of what went down in Death Valley today. The Tigers probably played everyone on their roster in a dominant 59-0 win over the Bulldogs.

The Tiger offense came out early and established a good rhythm between the running and passing games, moving the ball effectively down the field to score multiple times in the first quarter en route to a 31-0 lead. By halftime, the lead was 45-0, and I began to worry that I’d fall asleep and miss writing this recap. The Tiger starters probably could have taken naps on the sideline to get an early start on the preparation for the Thursday night game against Georgia Tech.

In the second half, we saw play by a couple of very promising true freshmen, Trayvon Mullen and Tavien Feaster. I was particularly impressed with Feaster. All the talk about him has been about his blazing speed, but I liked what I saw in his decision making and quick cuts when running in traffic. When his day comes, that young man is going to be a powerful weapon for the Tigers. Mullen played well too, and I expect to see him on the field a lot more as the season goes on.

The defense played another good game, and plenty of backups got to get some valuable experience at game pace. They continued their penchant for getting to the ball behind the line of scrimmage, limiting the Bulldogs to 8 first downs. Yes, it was that ugly for SC State.

Now the Tigers move into the meat of their schedule with the Thursday night game in Atlanta. With Louisville annihilating FSU today, the game in two weeks now has a very different feel to it. I warned people not to underestimate Louisville, but I didn’t see that whipping coming. Here’s hoping that the Tiger offense has finally found its rhythm and is ready to challenge better teams than SC State. Stay tuned to STS in the coming days for in-depth analyses of today’s game, and previews of the Georgia Tech game on Thursday.