View from the Cheap Seats-Clemson
1st home CFB playoff game
1st home CFB playoff game
One word to describe this game was PHYSICAL. The Horns gave up a long touchdown drive to open the game, not unlike a boxer feeling out an opponent in Round 1, before they said enough of this and took the game over. The defense would force Clemson to punt on their next 2 drives, force an INT then another punt before giving up a FG shortly before the end of the half. On the other side of the ball, TEXAS would put up 21 unanswered points which would have been 24 but Sark eschewed a chip shot FG to go for it on 4th and 1. One of the rare Sark mistakes of the night. The O would put another TD on the board scoring 28 in the 1st half. The game was effectively over. To match the stout performance of the D, the O would lean hard on the run game putting up 148 yards in the 1st half against a team that averaged only allowing 151 an entire game all season.
If you had not heard, this was the first match-up between these 2 storied programs. Of the Power 4 schools, TEXAS is now down to 3 schools they have never faced, Illinois, Florida State, or Michigan State. If we missed one, drop us a note (Power 4 only). One very cool aspect of the College Football Playoffs is that Round 1 is a home game for teams seeded 5-8 before the remainder of the games are played at traditional bowl sites. In the more trivia department, if TEXAS plays for the National title, they will play in Austin, Atlanta (Peach Bowl) Arlington (Cotton Bowl) then back to Atlanta.
TEXAS played their best/most complete game of the season as DKR was the scene of TEXAS’ 1st playoff game of the 12-team playoff era. TEXAS and Sark leaned hard on the running game led by Quintravion Wisner until he was dinged then Jayden Blue picked up the slack which included a 77 yard touchdown run. Gotta give it up for Coach Flood and his offensive line. Even after 2 starters left the game, the backups came in and performed well.
Sark would call 48 rushing plays to only 24 passes. And when Quinn did throw, he was largely very effective, completing 17 of the 24 attempts. His TD pass to Gunnar Helm was beautiful and 3 of his incompletions resulted in defensive pass interference calls as the young Clemson DB could not handle the TEXAS WR named Wingo. Another incompletion was caused by a DPI which wasn’t called. Ewers would also take off on a QB scramble to keep the 2nd half touchdown drive alive. He had a very good game for a QB some think is only “average”.
One of the most talked about storylines coming into the game was that Quinn Ewers and Clemson’s QB Cade Klubnick had faced off in the Texas HS state title game 4 years ago. Cade, from nearby Westlake, had a bigger game than Quinn on the day but Quinn would be the one leading his team to advance in the College Football Playoffs. Quinn played very well, TEXAS leaned harder on the run game than the pass while Cade was Clemson’s offense. Interesting that their QB ratings were almost identical.
Glass Half Full
- Run Game, say hello to our not-so-little friends. IMPRESSIVE racking up 292 yards.
- TEXAS jumped out to a big early lead, very nice to see.
- Defense bowed up mid-way through the 4th on 4th down at the 1 preventing Clemson from getting closer than 14.
- Our offense would score 4 touchdowns in the 1st half off 6 drives before adding a FG and a TD in the 2nd half.
- Clemson’s young DBs could not handle our WRs, especially Wingo, who drew three Pass interference calls and one that the Zebras missed.
- 1 Penalty on the offense, 1 on the defense. The cleanest game of the season.
- Juan Davis worked his butt off blocking
- Clemson only gives up 151 yards rushing per game, TEXAS rushed for 148 in the 1st half alone
- TEXAS tackles very well
- Sark added $250,000 to his $10 million a year salary for advancing to the quarters bringing his bonus money this year to $600,000. Money well earned.
Glass Half Empty
- Clemson is good but despite playing perhaps the best game of the season, TEXAS failed to put Clemson away.
- The defense gave up way too much yardage, allowing Clemson to double the D’s average points allowed per game. Thus their B+ grade
- WRs continue to struggle to make contested catches. Too many drops still
- Moore missed an easy catch which led to an INT for the 2nd week in a row.
- 3 key players now questionable with injuries.
- TEXAS failed to capitalize on their lone turnover of the night when Sark went for it on 4th down instead of taking the FG to go up by 21 points.
- TEXAS only 1 of 4 on 4th down. Fine to go for it, but you have to make it more often.
- Clemson secondary is young but talented, they are really good in man coverage while TEXAS faired poorly against man coverage vs Georgia and Aggie (not that Clemson is in their league defensively). Suspect we see the RBs and TEs featured a great deal in the passing game. Helm had a good night but largely we just handed the ball to the RBs
- Clemson front does very poorly (one of the worst in Power 4) against zone run. I expect Tre to have a big day. (OK, I nailed that one) Outside of TJ Parker who is a very good edge
- Outside of Cade, the last 4 FBS games, Clemson has run the ball very poorly. (yep, nailed it) OTOH, TEXAS has not been burned by a dual threat QB this season. Ask Reed down at Aggie. Though the Dawgs back up was a problem, TEXAS will be prepared. (Cade threw the ball better than I expected, best QB we faced this year? But was largely contained running)
- Teams with good defensive lines give Clemson problems.
- They raved about our front 6/7
- Spread too high, TEXAS is the better team, 23-17 (I originally called this 31-17 so not too far off)
- With above-average QB play, TEXAS can win the National Title (Quinn was anything but average tonight)
Red Zone
One of the key pre-season stats we pointed to was TEXAS need to improve their Red Zone TD scoring. Something Sark noted too. While a problem vs Georgia and Aggie, TEXAS would have 5 Red Zone attempts with 3 TDs a FG and one turnover on downs when Sark foolishly went for it on 4th down instead of taking the points to go up by 21. Overall a very good sign.
- Pigs 5 trips, 2 TDs 2 FG Punt (went so far backward we had to punt, might as well be a turnover)
- Kentucky 4 trips 4 TDs
- Aggie 5 Trips, 2 TDs FG and 2 turnovers
- SEC Title game 3 Trips, 2 FGs and a turnover.
- Clemson- 5 trips, 3 TDs a FG and turnover on downs, MUCH better.
Stats that Matter
- 7 of 12 The D held Clemson to 5 plays or less drives (that did not end in a score) of their 12 drives
- 3 of 12/1 of 3 The D held Clemson on 3rd & 4th down, PHYSICAL.
- 26 Games in a row where Quinn threw a TD pass
- 1 Punt for TEXAS. That’s an excellent stat.
- 2 Penalties, the cleanest game of the year for the Horns
- 48-24 TEXAS’ rush/pass mix
Offensive Player of the Game
Quintravion Wisner and Jayden Blue, combined for 258 yards and 4 touchdowns. Blue would explode for touchdown runs of 36 and 77 yards.
Honorable Mention: Gunnar Helm, 6 catches 77 yards and a TD to lead all pass catchers
Defensive Player of the Game
Bill Norton for his 4th and goal from the 1 stuff of Clemson’s RB to end Clemson’s hope of a comeback, he would also record a sack. This was a strong team effort by the D though Klubnick did carve them up for over 300 yards passing. The D mostly bent but did not break.
Special Teams Player of the Game
Kickoff coverage team. On TEXAS’ 2nd and 3rd kickoffs, Clemson went for the return, both times the KO coverage team stuffed them inside their 20. After that, nothing but fair catch and take the ball at t he 25
Postseason Honors
Kelvin Banks was the big winner as he brought home both the Lombardi Award (TEXAS’ 4th) and the Outland Trophy (TEXAS’ 5th). TEXAS also went back to back with the Outland as T’Vondre Sweat brought it home in 2023. He also is close to locking up consensus 1st team All American awards plus 1st team All-SEC. We’ll miss the big man. Not sure he ever missed a regular season start over his 3 years here though he did miss the 1st SEC title game start for TEXAS.
Jahdea Barron was TEXAS’ 3rd recipient of the Jim Thrope Award for best defensive back. This ties LSU for the most winners at one school. Additionally, he has also been named to multiple All-American teams and 1st team All-SEC. He will also be missed but we appreciate him re-establishing TEXAS as DB U.
AP All-American List:
1st Team
- Kelvin Banks-Consensus All-American
- Jahdea Barron
- Anthony/Ant “I was robbed of the Butkus Trophy” Hill, Best LB Award
- Alfred Collins
- Michael “I was robbed of the Bulworth Trophy” Taaffe (best player who started his career as a walk-on)
- Quinn Ewers QB
- Gunnar Helm TE
- Ant Hill LB
- Quintrevion Wisner RB
- Andrew Mukuba S
Next:
TEXAS advances to face BigXII Champ Arizona State and one of the strongest rushing attacks in the nation. Their best RB is Cam Skattabo and he is 6th in the nation with 130 rushing per game. They are a run heavy offense but rank well in pass efficiency. Their QB can run but he is not the threat that Clemson’s QB posed. ASU plays good defense, ranked in the Top 25 of scoring defenses in the nation. They are very opportunistic and ranked #7 in the nation in turnover margin. This will be a game where our offense needs to play clean though that will be the case the rest of the way. Jumping out early again and scoring TDs in the red-zone will go a long way to victory. ASU was picked pre-season to finish at the bottom of Big XII as was their title game opponent BYU. Needless to say, the prognosticators whiffed badly on both. This will only be the 2nd meeting between the 2 schools, the first match-up was in the 2007 Holiday Bowl under Mack.
Talent-wise, this team is not quite as good as Clemson. We’re going to stick with our 31-17 projection from this week as TEXAS seems to be playing much cleaner and now will have 10 days to prepare for this game. Of note, playing in the Peach Bowl means TEXAS will have played in each of the New Year's 6 bowl games.
Game Highlights
