Kelly Bryant’s health and more storylines for Clemson-Georgia Tech
Clemson will face Georgia Tech in its ACC opener on Saturday, Sept. 22, 2018. Here are five storylines to watch for the matchup:
1. Is Kelly Bryant fully healthy?
Clemson’s starting quarterback was banged up last week against Georgia Southern, suffering a chest bruise, and while Bryant and Dabo Swinney have insisted the senior is healthy, we won’t fully know until the game begins Saturday afternoon. When Bryant was dealing with an injury prior to last year’s game against Syracuse, Swinney said leading up to the game that the quarterback was able to practice and “moved around well.” But when the game started it was evident that Bryant was less than 100 percent. He did not make it through the game and Clemson suffered its only loss of the 2017 regular season.
Even if Bryant feels fine leading up to this week’s game, it will be interesting to see how he reacts after he gets hit for the first time. The positive news for Clemson is that even if Bryant is slowed the Tigers have more experience and talent at backup quarterback this season with freshman Trevor Lawrence, who has split time with Bryant through the first three games of the season.
2. Can Clemson slow down TaQuon Marshall?
Georgia Tech’s quarterback is the most dangerous playmaker for the Yellow Jackets, particularly with running back KirVonte Benson out for the year. Marshall leads Georgia Tech with 293 rushing yards and four touchdowns and is averaging nearly 100 rushing yards per game. Tigers defensive end Austin Bryant faced Marshall in high school and was teammates with Marshall in an all-star game their senior years. Bryant knows all too well what Marshall is capable of.
“He’s a friend of mine. He’s a really good player. He’s improved each year that he’s been there. He’s really fast, hard to contain. We’ve got to make sure that we’ve got dibs on him first of all, because they want to get him the ball,” Bryant said. “I’ve been to Atlanta a few times and hung out with him. He’s been up here. So we have a good relationship.”
3. Ball security
Clemson didn’t have a turnover in its first two games of the season before things unraveled a bit last week against Georgia Southern. The Tigers turned the ball over three times against the Eagles with Bryant and Lawrence each throwing an interception and running back Adam Choice fumbling.
Georgia Tech will try to eat up clock and keep Clemson’s offense off the field. With limited possessions the Tigers can’t afford to have turnovers.
“We gotta take care of the ball. If we do a good job of that and win the margin… We might have a turnover somewhere but let’s win the margin.” Swinney said. “When we do good things usually happen for us.”
4. Will Clemson’s dominance continue?
No one has shut down Paul Johnson’s Georgia Tech offense quite like Brent Venables and the Clemson defense over the past few years. Venables consistently has his defenders in the right place at the right time, and with Clemson’s talent on defense, that has kept the Yellow Jackets from gaining any kind of offensive momentum. The Tigers have held Georgia Tech to 230 yards of total offense or less each of the past three years while earning three consecutive victories. Clemson once again has a talented defense in 2018, led by four All-Americans up front.
“The games are always tough. I wouldn’t say we’ve shut them down. They’ve hit some big plays on us. I just think we’ve been better that day,” Swinney said. “We’ve done the things that we needed to do on that particular day to win the game, whether it be turnover margin, penalties, out-big playing them, being fundamentally sound, physical at the line of scrimmage. Those are the type of things that you’ve got to do to have a chance to win this game.”
5. Is Georgia Tech really better than its record?
The Yellow Jackets enter this week’s matchup 1-2 after suffering back-to-back losses to USF and Pitt, and while Georgia Tech wasn’t particularly impressive in either game, Swinney still expects a tough challenge this week. Georgia Tech is averaging nearly 400 rushing yards per game and has outgained its opponents by an average of 510 yards to 302. Clemson has also earned only one win in Atlanta since 2003.
“Georgia Tech is a good football team. I know they’re 1-2 and a lot of times that’s where people make a mistake where you just kind of look on a piece of paper and they see a record and they see, ‘OK, well’ … And it just doesn’t work that way,” Swinney said. “There are no easy outs and Georgia Tech is one of the most difficult teams that you will play.”
Game info
Who: No. 3 Clemson (3-0) at Georgia Tech (1-2)
When: 3:30 p.m. Saturday
Where: Bobby Dodd Stadium (55,000), Atlanta
TV: ABC
Radio: 93.1 FM in Columbia area
Satellite radio: Sirius 94/XM 193