ESPN’s Kirk Herbstreit on Clemson: ‘I’m blown away by what they’ve done’
CHARLOTTE, N.C. Clemson coach Dabo Swinney has referenced several times over the past couple of weeks that not many people expected the Tigers to be in the ACC championship game for the third consecutive season.
ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit is one of many that did not think Clemson would be No. 1 and playing for another College Football Playoff berth Saturday against the Hurricanes.
“We walked out of that national championship in Tampa… And you think about some of those players that walked off that field, and you’ll never see them in a Clemson uniform again, led by Deshaun Watson,” Herbstreit said. “Then with Florida State having the team that they had coming back on paper, I think everybody, unless you’re a Clemson fan, thought that Florida State would be the team to beat.”
The Seminoles lost their starting quarterback for the season in the opener, but Clemson would have been tough to beat regardless with the way the Tigers have played.
Clemson is outscoring its opponents by three touchdowns per game and has four road wins over teams that were ranked in the top 25 at the time of the matchup.
“To their credit the thing that’s remarkable is they didn’t lose their edge. Sometimes when you climb the mountain, you finally get there, just human nature you lose a little bit,” Herbstreit said. “They didn’t at all, and give Kelly Bryant a lot of credit for dealing with the pressure to fill the shoes of Deshaun Watson. You can just tell when you look back at what they’ve accomplished this year, who knows what’s ahead of them, but up to this point I think as an outsider I’m blown away by what they’ve done.”
WILL EXPERIENCE PAY OFF?
Clemson has played in numerous big games over the past several years, including the ACC championship game back-to-back seasons.
Herbstreit expects that experience to pay off for the Tigers against Miami. This will be the first ACC championship game for the Hurricanes in program history.
“They’ve kind of been there and done that so I think that helps them,” Herbstreit said of Clemson. “I think coming in they know how to process that. The other thing is I think they’re just a great team. I think coming off the game they played last week they’re dangerous for anybody to play. You have to say they have an edge coming in.”
HURRICANES READY
Miami struggled in its last outing, losing 24-14 at Pittsburgh, but the Hurricanes also have wins by double digits over Virginia Tech and Notre Dame.
Herbstreit expects the team that blew out the Hokies and Fighting Irish to show up on Saturday.
“They seem to play up or down to the opponent that they’re playing, so I’ll be shocked if they don’t come out playing the way they played at Hard Rock (Stadium), even though this is probably going to be a home-field advantage for Clemson,” Herbstreit said. “I think they’re going to come out with a chip on their shoulder. They’re going to come out and play, especially defensively, as if they’re ready to shock the world kind of attitude. We’ll see if it’s going to be good enough, but the team we all watched the day after thanksgiving, kind of lethargic and just going through the motions, will not be the team that takes the field when they take Clemson.”
This story was originally published December 1, 2017 at 2:49 PM with the headline "ESPN’s Kirk Herbstreit on Clemson: ‘I’m blown away by what they’ve done’."