Cheers and Jeers: Clemson

We were leading 3-0 after the first quarter, but I didn't like the situation one bit. The Hokies' defense was playing fantastic early—tackling was strong in particular, and they had done more than enough to keep us afloat. Grunk seemed pretty hesitant out there; the defense was definitely getting to him with their coverages, and Tom Allen mixed up the looks really well throughout the night.

I actually didn't know Dabo Swinney was 7-0 all-time against the Hokies entering the game. That's not really surprising, but still good to have that mark now formally blemished.

The offense, though, was struggling. The Hokies were just absolutely terrible in the red zone—this offense seemingly has to score on long plays or else we were screwed. I don't know what needs to change with the play-calling down there, but almost anything would be an improvement. Random, but those Billy Bob Thornton commercials were terrible. I didn't understand why he's doing them, or why so many actors in those days debase themselves in this way. Sure, it's an admittedly good paycheck, but you've won awards, man! You didn't have to do that!

Right before the half, we put together a pretty incredible drive: 17 plays over seven minutes to go essentially the length of the field.

Then came that fake punt—which was absolutely insane. I don't know why the hell someone would do that; it was just not intelligent game management. It was an absolute anti-momentum call, and a silly thing to do in that spot of the field. I was genuinely annoyed by it and continue to be several days later after a win. Our special teams unit has been very bad this year, and the kicking itself had been incredibly inconsistent. The only nice aspect has been Que’Sean Brown's returns, but other than that, gross! We got so incredibly lucky that our defense was awesome—the defensive line just bowled over Clemson and saved the coaching staff from their own dumb call.

My bad feeling early on proved to be only somewhat reasonable. The game was a tough watch—an absolute slugfest with both defenses teeing off time and time again. The Hokies finished with 13 tackles for loss and four sacks, while Clemson racked up six sacks, 10 TFLs, and six pass deflections. The offenses combined to convert just 8 of 29 on third downs.

In the end, that was just an incredible win on the road against Clemson—our first one there since 2007 (my junior year at Tech, by the way). It was our first win ever against Dabo, and we managed to prevail in one of the most physical football games we had played in many years. Jeff Overton took a lot of the biggest hits, as did Grunk. Even a team like Pitt, which was notoriously extracurricular, paled in comparison to how physical Clemson was—though unlike the Panthers, those cats kept the tough play above board, which was nice at least.

The Grunk-to-Luke Reynolds game-winning touchdown was instantly one of the biggest plays in modern Hokie memory.

Even though the Tigers were having an off year, that was still a huge win over a talented team. Things were going to get even tougher, though. Down the stretch run of the regular season, Tech was going to face two of the top quarterbacks in the country: SMU’s Kevin Jennings (No. 4 in passing efficiency) and Miami’s Darian Mensah (No. 1 in passing efficiency). The Hokies had proven they could win or lose any game, so anything was possible.