Kirk Herbstreit didn’t sugarcoat Clemson’s situation on Saturday morning.
During ESPN College GameDay’s rapid-fire dashboard segment, the lead analyst put the Tigers’ level of concern at a 9 out of 10, and he pointed straight at the offense as the problem.
“Clemson’s level of concern. On a scale of 1-10, I think it’s a 9,” Herbstreit said during ESPN College GameDay on Saturday morning.
“They can’t run the ball. The offense doesn’t have any identity at all.
So yeah, forgetting overreacting to it - I’m concerned about the schedule, and they’ve got to find an offense. Because I think the defense can hang around, but the offense has gotta get a lot better.”
That kind of blunt assessment lands harder because Herbstreit’s sons played at Clemson, but he still didn’t hold back. The Tigers’ rushing game has been a real issue, and that showed again with just 26 carries for 40 yards and a garbage time touchdown. The problems Garrett Riley had raised over the previous two seasons have not gone away, even with Chad Morris back in the mix to fix the run game.
The timing is what makes this so tricky for Clemson. Georgia Southern is a chance to settle things down before ACC play, but the road ahead is no picnic. Clemson is staring at a three-game stretch that includes home games against UNC and Miami, with a trip to Cal in between.
Herbstreit’s concern is tied as much to that schedule as it is to what Clemson has shown so far. The Tigers should be able to look better on the ground against lesser competition, and Morris ought to be able to put something together in the next few weeks. Clemson doesn’t need to become a different team overnight, but it does need the offense to stop looking stuck.
If the Tigers can get to around 40 carries against Georgia Southern, North Carolina, and Cal, that would at least give them something to build on before the Miami game. And if they can emerge from that stretch at 3-2, the season still has a path. Clemson would still be in position to chase what it’s playing for, with a route that would require going 7-1 in ACC play to maybe reach Charlotte.
But if the ground game stays stuck in neutral through those winnable games, the year could turn ugly in a hurry for Dabo Swinney and his staff. A 1-4 start with losses to LSU, North Carolina, Cal, and Miami would put Clemson in a brutal spot, and while Swinney’s buyout is massive, the frustration would be impossible to ignore.
For now, Clemson can’t change the schedule. What it can change is how it runs the football.
The defense may be able to keep the Tigers afloat, but Herbstreit’s point was clear: they need a real rushing attack to go with it. Complementary football has to show up, and soon.
If it doesn’t improve before the Miami game, Clemson is going to be in trouble.
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Herbstreit Just Framed Clemsons Week 1 Reality In A Brutal Way
Week 1 has a way of sorting the preseason noise from the teams that look ready to matter right away, and Kirk Herbstreit wasted little time doing exactly that. In his early-season take, he put Miami, Indiana and LSU at the top of the national conversation, pointing to Miamis strong showing with new quarterback Darian Mensah, Indianas stability under its coaching continuity and Josh Hoovers four touchdown passes, and LSUs emphatic win behind Sam Leavitt and offensive coordinator Charlie Weis Jr.
For Clemson, the bigger issue is what that kind of snapshot says about the lane ahead. Herbstreit also flagged Notre Dame as a team to keep watching, which only adds to the sense that the race near the top is already taking shape, and the Tigers will have to answer quickly if they want to avoid getting left outside that first wave of contenders. [Read more 🡒]
Berkeley Just Sent Clemson Fans A Message About Regional Power
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The result also comes at a time when both teams are headed into games against ranked opponents, which only sharpens the significance of what happened here. Berkeley showed it could handle pressure against a familiar rival and do it with balance on both sides of the ball, while Summerville now has to regroup quickly after a loss that could ripple beyond one Friday night. [Read more 🡒]
Clemsons Home Opener Suddenly Carries More Pressure Than Fans Expected
Clemson heads into its Week 2 home opener against Georgia Southern with a little more urgency than anyone imagined after the opener. The Tigers will try to steady things Saturday night at 7:30 p.m. ET on the ACC Network, and while the matchup still comes with a lopsided point spread in Clemsons favor, the focus inside the building is on cleaning up the issues that showed up in the loss to LSU.
Run defense is one of the obvious areas to monitor, and the offense also has questions to answer after a shaky start in Baton Rouge. A first home game usually brings a chance to settle in and reset the tone, but this one now carries the kind of early-season pressure that can shape the conversation around Clemson if the Tigers dont look sharper against Georgia Southern. [Read more 🡒]