Clemson coach Dabo Swinney says he has no clue what the Tigers' season would be like if freshman Deshaun Watson started the season under center.
Senior Cole Stoudt was the Tigers' QB out of fall camp. He was the starter through the third game of the season, when he was replaced by Watson against Florida State. Since playing the second half against the Seminoles, Watson has been the team's QB ever since. However, Swinney says he doesn't deal in hypotheticals when he was asked Tuesday about Watson taking the field as the starter against Georgia in the first game of the season.
"I have no idea. I don't deal in hypotheticals," Swinney said. We hadn't seen him play in that situation before. We have to go through that process. Cole clearly won the job in the spring. He was still No. 1 after camp, although we all recognized that Watson was really coming. But … we had no idea how he'd respond in a game. Hindsight is always 20/20, but seeing him in that UGA game, the stage wasn't too big for him. He played well against S.C. State and just kind of took off against Florida State. I don't sit around and play hypotheticals."
Saturday, Clemson hosts Louisville in a game that probably eliminates the loser from any shot of competing for the ACC Atlantic Division title. Each team has a conference loss already, and the loser would likely be two games behind Florida State.
The Louisville defense is giving up 12.7 points per game and is sixth in the country in scoring defense. And Watson has played very well since becoming Clemson's full-time QB. He's completed 69 percent of his passes with 12 touchdowns and one interception and is 2-0 as a starter. Something will have to give.
“I think we want him to stay within the system," Clemson coach Dabo Swinney said. "Our system is set up to where they take what they are given. Obviously, we don’t want him holding the ball but he has done a phenomenal job at that. He really has. He took a sack last week. We had two sacks."
“One was one the offensive line and one was on Deshaun," Swinney said. "For the most part, he has had a good instinct as far aswhen to run and when to create and extend a play. He has not done a whole lot of just holding the ball. He has a very good feel for his progressions."
It may be a bigger game for Louisville than Clemson. The Cardinals host Florida State on October 30 and if Louisville gets a win on Saturday, the Thursday night showdown with the Seminoles could be for the Atlantic title.
On Monday, Louisville coach Bobby Petrino compared the environment at Clemson's Death Valley to Syracuse. As you can imagine, it's a comment that didn't go over well with the Clemson faithful.
I think it's something you look forward to and you enjoy," Petrino said. "To be real honest with you, it's gonna be very similar to last week. That was a loud place. It was extremely -- I don't know if it can get any louder, even though the crowd wasn't that big. On that first third down and everyone started screaming and yelling, maybe it can't get any louder than that. The stadium will be big. There will be a lot of people there. The field's the same length. The goal posts are the same height."
So there's now a Clemson movement to start a "silent out" for pre-game warmups. The idea is that the Cardinals will be startled by the noise level at the beginning of the game if the stadium is extremely quiet before the game.
This was sent to me by someone, who I shall not name \uD83D\uDE09 http://ift.tt/1uYfC8p
— Clemson Tom (@ClemsonTom) October 7, 2014 Who knows if it will actually work, but if it's going to incite some fan motivation, it's worth a shot, right?
- - - - - - -
Nick Bromberg is the assistant editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
From Dr. Saturday - NCAAF - Yahoo Sports - Dabo Swinney says he's not thinking about 'what if?' about Deshaun Watson
No comments:
Post a Comment