Clemson returns to Death Valley on Saturday night with one job in front of it: answer the 51-10 loss to LSU. Georgia Southern is the opponent in the home opener, but the search around this game is really about Clemson's response after getting beaten badly in Baton Rouge.
Dabo Swinney did not dress it up after LSU. “Best thing about that one is it’s over,” he said, adding, “It’s not what we expected, not what we worked for, but that’s what happened.” He then put the next step in plain terms: “All we can do is try to let it develop us and get back to work.”
That work starts with the parts of Clemson that were exposed last weekend. The Tigers gave up more than 600 yards of total offense and more than 300 yards on the ground to LSU, and the offensive side looked just as unsettled. Collin Sadler is expected back at right tackle this week, but the quarterback picture still is not settled after Chris Vizzina and Tait Reynolds both played in Baton Rouge without one of them taking control.
Georgia Southern arrives with a very different recent box score. It allowed less than 10 rushing yards in its shutout win over Charleston Southern last weekend and ran for 163 yards, which means Clemson may not find an easy path to fixing its own ground game just because it is back home. That matters because the Tigers were pushed around up front by LSU and need Saturday night to look less like a collapse and more like a reset.
There is another reason this game will be watched closely. Clemson already owns a 2-0 series edge over Georgia Southern, including a 38-17 win in 2018, but the number that matters now is not the record between them. It is whether Clemson looks organized, physical and settled enough to move past one bad night. Tom Allen may use more of Sammy Brown at WILL and Jeremiah Alexander at MIKE, Kobe McCloud struggled in game one, and Markus Strong is out for the season, so the changes extend well beyond quarterback.
That is why Saturday night feels bigger than a normal nonconference game. Clemson is not trying to prove it can beat Georgia Southern; it is trying to prove LSU was the outlier. If the line steadies, the quarterback job starts to sort itself out and the running game finally shows something, the opener becomes a first step back. If not, the questions that followed the Tigers out of Baton Rouge will keep growing louder.
