Josh Pate spent Sunday unpacking Clemson’s blowout loss to LSU, and he didn’t leave much room for optimism about the version of the Tigers that ruled the ACC from 2015 to 2020. After LSU rolled 51-10 in prime time, Pate made it clear he sees that era as over.
But the bigger issue for Clemson right now is more immediate than any broad judgment about the program. It’s the roster Dabo Swinney is trying to win with in the present.
The most obvious example was under center. The Clemson senior made his first career road start against LSU after three seasons behind Cade Klubnik, and the night went sideways fast. He finished 10 of 16 for 83 yards with an interception before Swinney turned to true freshman Tait Reynolds in the second quarter, then brought him back in the fourth once the game was already 44-3.
Vizzina came into the season with just 238 career offensive snaps and one start, a 34-25 loss to SMU last year. That’s a quarterback still trying to grow into the job, and he had to do it in one of the loudest settings in college football.
He wasn’t the only inexperienced player Clemson was leaning on. The Tigers lost both starting safeties to the transfer portal in the offseason and entered the year thin at linebacker. That problem got worse when a portal addition from Cal changed course and flipped to Ole Miss late in the process, leading Swinney to publicly accuse the Rebels of tampering.
LSU made Clemson pay for all of it. Sam Leavitt threw for 230 yards and ran for 113 more, while LSU had 21 first downs to Clemson’s one by halftime.
What was supposed to be the first real read on whether Clemson’s disappointing 2025 season was just a bump in the road turned into something uglier. LSU outgained Clemson 336 to 54 in a first half that ended 31-3, and Clemson finished with eight first downs overall, its fewest in a game since 2006.
Pate said this wasn’t just a one-night collapse. “They said the same thing last night that they were saying to us Friday.
That game played out exactly as they expected it to play out last night. There was very, very little surprise on the LSU side with the way it played out last night.”
He also tied the result to Clemson’s recent trend at the start of seasons. “They've scored 10 points or less in five of their last six openers.”
His takeaway was that last season’s 7-6 record wasn’t some fluky outlier, but part of a deeper issue that showed up in a hurry Saturday night.
At the same time, the way Clemson is built means the picture could shift as the season moves along. Swinney prefers development over heavy transfer-portal shopping, and a team that opened with a first-time quarterback and a patched-together secondary should improve simply by playing more football.
Vizzina will get more comfortable. Gideon Davidson should get more carries. The safeties and linebackers stepping into bigger roles won’t be new faces forever.
Whether that growth comes fast enough to rescue the season is still an open question. Clemson gets Georgia Southern at home next, followed by North Carolina and a trip to California, a stretch that gives the Tigers time to settle things before the schedule gets tougher again in October.
In Other News...
Clemson Must Fix One Ugly Problem Fast After LSU Humbling
Clemsons opener against LSU turned into the kind of night that can expose a lot more than a scoreboard. The Tigers were beaten badly in a 51-10 loss, the most lopsided defeat of the Dabo Swinney era, and the ugliest part of it came in the trenches. LSU controlled the line of scrimmage from start to finish, piling up 309 rushing yards while Clemson could manage only 40 of its own, a mismatch that made the rest of the game feel like a formality.
For Clemson, the concern now is bigger than one rough result because the issues touched both sides of the ball. Injuries thinned key defenders, the offensive line never settled in, and the staff is already weighing adjustments in strategy to get the group playing cleaner and tougher. After a loss that starkly showed how far there is to go, the Tigers are left with an early-season problem that has to be fixed quickly if the rest of the year is going to look anything like they expected. [Read more 🡒]
Clemson Just Got An Early Reality Check On Its Toughness
A long night in Baton Rouge offered Clemson an immediate measuring stick, and it was a harsh one. No. 11 LSU pushed the Tigers around from the opening series at Tiger Stadium, winning 51-10 in a game that looked lopsided on the scoreboard and even more so in the trenches. Clemson never found much rhythm on offense, and the physical gap between the two teams was obvious well before the final whistle.
Christopher Vizzinas first full-time start was part of the story for Clemson, but the bigger concern was how little the Tigers could do to sustain drives or answer LSUs pressure. Clemson managed only 145 yards and eight first downs, while LSU kept the ball for most of the night and never let the game drift into any real danger. For a team trying to prove it can handle the week-to-week grind, this was a reminder that toughness gets tested quickly against elite competition. [Read more 🡒]
Clemson Just Opened A Dabo Debate Fans Never Wanted
Clemsons long run under Dabo Swinney has been defined by stability, but the programs recent slide has nudged an uncomfortable conversation into the open. If the Tigers ever find themselves needing a new direction, the search would almost certainly start with someone who already knows the place, the expectations and the pressure that comes with them.
One name that naturally fits that profile is Tony Elliott, now at Virginia and still viewed as one of the more appealing coaching minds on Clemsons orbit. His Clemson background gives him obvious familiarity, but what makes him stand out is the way he has adjusted as a head coach, leaning into the transfer portal and showing a willingness to adapt on offense. In a moment where Clemson has to think carefully about what comes next, that combination of ties and flexibility makes Elliott a candidate worth keeping in mind. [Read more 🡒]