Clemson and Dabo Swinney have been taking a beating through 2 games this season. First, there was the national TV beatdown at LSU. Then there was a sluggish, sloppy win over Georgia Southern.
Saturday, after falling behind 17-3 in second, the obituary on the Clemson season was about to be written. You fall to 1-2 with a game at Cal and then Miami and the Tigers would struggle to make a bowl. If Clemson just folded, it wouldn’t really have surprised anyone.
The thing is, they didn’t fold. The defense started making plays and effectively shut down the Tar Heels in the second. Freshman QB Tate Reynolds began looking comfortable in the offense. The offensive line played their best half of football of the season by far as the running game wore the Tar Heels defense down. The Tigers ended up running for 187 yards and completed a stirring 28-20 comeback.
Does this mean Clemson is back? Of course not; Clemson is a far cry from their glory days, but you have to start somewhere. Tate Reynolds has shown enough that I think it will be difficult for the previous starter Christopher Vizzina to get his job back. We will see, but he’s starting to show a real command of the offense. There is no reason to think it won’t keep improving.
Clemson isn’t going to win the ACC. They are going to lose more games, but it’s a building block that Dabo Swinney can point to, especially with the freshman QB.
For at least one half, Clemson played with the heart and pride we saw so often over the previous years. If Dabo Swinney can harness that play, Clemson can still put a reasonable season together.
