Clemson left Baton Rouge with far more questions than answers, but not every Tiger came away from the night empty-handed. In a game where LSU controlled just about everything that mattered, there were still a few individual performances worth pointing to - and a few more that only made the night uglier.
The clearest bright spot came from Ashton Hampton, who turned in the kind of outing that can steady a defense even when the rest of the unit is getting pushed around. Hampton posted the second-highest PFF grade on Clemson’s roster at 81, trailing only linebacker Sammy Brown at 83.
His first-quarter interception of Sam Leavitt was one of the game’s few clean Clemson moments, and ESPN noted on the broadcast that Hampton studied plenty of film on Leavitt and the Lane Kiffin offense before jumping the play. Nolan Hauser finished the sequence with a 49-yard field goal.
It was Hampton’s fourth career interception at Clemson, and LSU backed off throwing his way after that.
Corey Myrick also gave Clemson something to hang onto in the secondary. The Southern Miss transfer didn’t look overmatched at all in his first big stage with the Tigers, and he tied Brown for the team lead with 10 tackles, including six solo stops.
LSU still piled up 335 passing yards on 36 attempts, but Clemson’s bigger defensive issue was on the ground, where the Tigers were gashed for 309 yards on 58 carries. Even so, Myrick held up well enough to count as a positive, and so did Jerome Carter III in the back end.
Easton Ware deserves a nod too, especially considering how quickly he was thrown into the fire. He had to step in at right tackle after Collin Sadler was injured, and while Clemson’s offensive line was a mess overall, Ware was not the reason the front five fell apart.
PFF gave all five starters a 49 grade, but Ware at least handled his assignment with some competence in a brutal spot. If Sadler’s situation becomes a problem, Clemson can at least feel like Ware belongs in the conversation for the best five up front.
The other side of the ledger was uglier. Christopher Vizzina never settled in as Clemson’s Week 1 starter, finishing 10-of-16 for 83 yards with an interception.
The pick-six to Jordan Ross swung the game hard in LSU’s favor and sent it out of reach fast. Vizzina did not have much help from the run game, but the performance still fell well short of what Clemson needed.
His backup, true freshman Tait Reynolds, also was not ready for that moment.
Then there was Dabo Swinney, whose handling of the loss only added to the frustration. The source of the night’s criticism was plain: Clemson was overwhelmed, and Swinney did not exactly own it in a way that settled anybody down.
The national reaction followed quickly, and the sense around the program is that the Swinney era has already peaked. The article points to Clemson’s run from 2015 to 2020, the presence of Deshaun Watson and Trevor Lawrence, and even raises the question of whether Brent Venables was the real key all along.
Up front, Brayden Jacobs had a night to forget. His missed block on LSU linebacker Whit Weeks stood out as the most embarrassing play of the game, especially with the way Clemson had spent the offseason talking up its run game.
The Tigers finished at just 1.5 yards per carry and didn’t even record a yard on the ground until garbage time. A badly designed protection left Whit Weeks free to run through Jacobs and guard Elyjah Thurmon, and the sequence only reinforced how far Clemson’s line has to go.
That was the theme of the night overall: a few encouraging individual efforts buried inside a loss that exposed nearly every soft spot Clemson has right now. The Tigers have Georgia Southern next, and after that, ACC play arrives quickly.
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