Five things we learned from Clemson’s win against Furman

A look back at what we learned from Clemson’s 48-7 victory against Furman before the Tigers travel to face Texas A&M:

Brent Venables isn’t worried about style points

Clemson has incredibly pitched a shutout in the first half in five of its past six games. The Tigers likely could have finished off some of those shutouts had defensive coordinator Brent Venables kept his starters in the game. Instead, Venables is more concerned with getting guys experience and building depth for the future rather than putting up impressive stats. The Tigers had 29 players record a tackle against Furman as Venables substituted early and often.

“I’d rather those guys get an opportunity to play than worry about the shutout. You get to that point,” Venables said. “It’s really more important to the players than the coaches.”

Even with Furman spoiling the shutout with a touchdown in the final two minutes, Tigers coach Dabo Swinney was pleased with the way the starters and reserves played.

“We played a lot of guys. … And it was good to see guys continue to play well. We’ve got a lot of functional depth, and what I mean by that is guys that can go play winning football for us,” Swinney said. “We’ve got a lot of guys that we feel like we can play, regardless of the situation, regardless of the score.”

Clemson’s freshmen were as advertised

We heard throughout fall camp that Clemson’s 2018 recruiting class has a chance to be special. Even though it was against an FCS opponent, the group certainly looked the part on Saturday. Trevor Lawrence tossed three touchdown passes, joining former All-American Deshaun Watson as the only true freshmen quarterback in school history to do so. Lyn-J Dixon led the Tigers in rushing with 89 yards, despite receiving only six carries. Derion Kendrick made a leaping 38-yard grab, high-pointing the ball and maintaining possession as he fell to the ground. Tight end Braden Galloway tied for the team led with three receptions, including a touchdown. And Justyn Ross caught a screen pass and weaved his way through traffic for a 15-yard touchdown. Defensively, K.J. Henry forced a fumble, while Xavier Thomas showed his speed and explosiveness off the edge.

“They were awesome,” Swinney said. “It’s exciting to see a lot of those guys get their opportunity.”

Special teams appear much improved

Clemson’s special teams unit was up-and-down throughout the 2017 season, particularly after kicker Greg Huegel was lost for the year with a torn ACL. Last season, the Tigers were 7-for-14 on field goals of 30 yards or more, Ray-Ray McCloud had several bobbles as the punt returner and Clemson recorded touchbacks on less than 30 percent of its kickoffs. The Tigers looked improved in all of those areas on Saturday with Huegel going 2 for 2, connecting from 35 and 49 yards, Amari Rodgers returning two punts for 87 yards and eight of the nine kickoffs going for touchbacks between freshman B.T. Potter and walk-on Steven Sawicki.

“To me, the special teams was something that was just incredibly encouraging, and hopefully, we can build a lot of momentum there in that area,” Swinney said.

The two-QB system worked

Both quarterbacks seemed comfortable coming in and out of the game and said that the rotation did not hurt their play. The numbers were nearly identical with Trevor Lawrence completing 9 of 15 passes for 137 yards and three touchdowns and Kelly Bryant completing 10 of 16 passes for 127 yards and one score. While Lawrence had slightly better passing stats, Bryant rushed for 44 yards and a touchdown, while Lawrence had one rushing yard. Swinney thought that the two-quarterback system worked well.

“I don’t think it’s very difficult at all. We’ll go practice, and hopefully, we’ll continue to play like we did today, play well,” Swinney said. “My expectation is whoever is in the game, they play a winning performance of football.”

We will know much more about Clemson this time next week

Swinney said that several freshmen, and even some veterans, were nervous before the Tigers faced Furman on Saturday. Those nerves will be taken up a notch next week when Clemson plays at Kyle Field in front of 102,733 fans. While Lawrence and Clemson’s other newcomers performed well on Saturday, playing at Texas A&M against Jimbo Fisher’s talented Aggies squad will be a whole different animal.

“The margin for error gets much smaller … It’s almost like another opener. We watched them the other night, but you still don’t know a lot about them,” Swinney said. “But we’re excited about it. It’ll be a great early test. We’ll kind of check the oil and see where we are, but the precision and the details will have to be really sharp next week in that environment to have a chance to win the game.”

This story was originally published September 2, 2018 at 3:04 PM.