Danny Ford doesn’t need a map to understand what Clemson is walking into on Sept. 5.
The former Tigers coach knows exactly how hard a night game at LSU can be, and he’s already flagged Clemson’s season opener in Baton Rouge as a serious early test. With Clemson set to start a new quarterback in either redshirt junior Christopher Vizzina or true freshman Tait Reynolds, Ford said the assignment is about as tough as it gets.
"This first ball game in Baton Rouge with a quarterback who's never started, man, you're asking a lot for anybody," said Ford, who coached Clemson to the 1981 national championship. "I played football in Baton Rouge as a player (for Alabama), I coached there as a coach, and there's a whole lot different in nighttime and daytime in Baton Rouge."
Ford, who coached Clemson from 1978-1989, joined SportsTalkSC on July 1 and said the Tigers’ Week 1 trip to LSU will tell a lot about what kind of team Clemson is in 2026. The matchup is set for Sept. 5 at 7:30 p.m. ET on ABC.
LSU also adds another layer of difficulty because it will be Lane Kiffin’s first game as the Tigers’ coach. Ford suggested Kiffin may want to make an early splash.
Ford said Kiffin might be looking to "show out on TV and run (the score) up."
Clemson is trying to rebound from a 7-6 season, its worst finish since going 6-7 in 2010. Even so, Ford made it clear he still believes Dabo Swinney can steady things and push the program forward.
"I'm a Dabo Swinney man," Ford said. "I think he has the ability to do whatever they want to do. ...
I am a fan of Dabo's. I pull for him, and I have respect that he can get the job done."
Ford also took aim at the broader direction of college football, especially the impact of NIL and the transfer portal. In his view, the money flowing to players has changed the sport in ways that won’t hold up forever.
"What these college players are making now is quite unbelievable," Ford said. "It can't continue.
People's going to get tired of it. ... It's tough to survive, and right now, if they keep it up, it's going to be a big 24, 25 schools and everybody else playing intramural football."
He tied that to the way practice rules have changed since his coaching days, arguing that less practice time makes it harder to clean up mistakes. He also said the transfer portal and larger NIL budgets naturally tilt the sport toward the programs with the most resources.
"How do you get better or eliminate mistakes if you can't practice?" Ford said.
"And if you cut practice back, well, naturally, you won't see as many upsets. The better people that's got the bigger NIL or payroll, they're going to naturally get a better player if they can transfer from one school to the next so many times."
Ford added that too many people claim to have the answer to fixing college sports only if the changes don’t touch their own program. In the end, he laid the blame at the NCAA’s feet and said the balance of power has shifted away from the people running the system.
"There was a saying that the prisoners run the prison, not the warden because they do what they want to, and they don't have any control over them," Ford said. "And once that happens, when you don't have any control over anybody that works under you or for you, then you've got no system."
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