Josh Pate came out of Saturday night’s LSU-Clemson rout with a blunt conclusion about Dabo Swinney’s program: the run that defined Clemson from 2015 to 2020 is over. LSU’s 51-10 win in Baton Rouge wasn’t just lopsided on the scoreboard. For Pate, it was the kind of performance that exposed how far Clemson has drifted from that old standard.
The deeper problem, though, wasn’t just the final margin. It was the shape of Clemson’s roster on the field and the reality that Swinney is asking a lot from players still learning on the fly.
Clemson’s senior quarterback made his first career road start after spending three seasons behind Cade Klubnik, and the night went sideways fast. He finished 10 of 16 for 83 yards with an interception, then got pulled for true freshman Tait Reynolds in the second quarter. Swinney later sent him back out in the fourth, with LSU already ahead 44-3.
Vizzina came into the season with only 238 career offensive snaps and one previous start, a 34-25 loss to SMU last year. That’s not a huge body of work to lean on, and Saturday showed what happens when that kind of inexperience gets dropped into one of the toughest environments in college football.
Quarterback wasn’t the only spot where Clemson was short on seasoned answers. Both starting safeties left through the transfer portal this offseason, and the Tigers were already thin at linebacker. That issue grew worse when a portal addition from Cal flipped his commitment to Ole Miss late in the process, leading Swinney to publicly accuse the Rebels of tampering.
LSU wasted no time making Clemson pay. Sam Leavitt threw for 230 yards and ran for 113 more, and by halftime LSU had rolled up 21 first downs while Clemson had just one. The Tigers from Baton Rouge outgained Clemson 336 to 54 in the first half, building a 31-3 lead before the game was even out of hand.
What was supposed to be an early read on whether Clemson’s disappointing 2025 season was just a one-off turned into something uglier. Clemson finished with eight first downs, its fewest in a game since 2006.
Pate didn’t frame it as a random 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 Saturday’s result to Clemson’s recent pattern at the start of seasons. “They've scored 10 points or less in five of their last six openers.”
His larger point was that last year’s 7-6 record may have been less of a fluke than Swinney has suggested, and more the product of a talent gap that showed up in full view against LSU.
At the same time, the same roster approach that made Clemson look overwhelmed in Week 1 could also make the team better as the season goes on. Swinney has long built through development rather than the transfer portal, and that means a first-time quarterback, a patchwork secondary and younger pieces at linebacker should keep growing with each snap.
Vizzina should settle in. Gideon Davidson should get more carries. The safeties and linebackers who stepped into bigger roles after portal departures won’t feel quite so new by the middle of the season.
Whether that growth is enough to rescue the year is another matter. Clemson has Georgia Southern at home next, followed by North Carolina and a trip to California, giving the Tigers a stretch to sort things out before October brings a tougher run again.
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