“Here’s the thing, the biggest, when you take these and you go play at Clemson or you go play some of these type games: You can not replicate – you don’t replicate it in practice”.
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Then again, with an offense led by Heisman Trophy candidate quarterback Deshaun Watson and featuring an assortment of talented skill players, there was a sense that Clemson didn’t need much defense anyway. The Tigers had come off their last losing season, 6-7 in 2010, and trailed Troy 16-14 at halftime with some disgruntled fans at Death Valley booing Swinney and the Tigers.
Against Auburn, it was the new-look, fresh-faced defense that saved the Tigers.
“If we had Deshaun Watson, he would be playing, he wouldn’t be on a scout team”, Brown said. Clemson vs. Troy Game Preview The Trojans opened the new season with a dominating 57-17 win over Austin Peay behind the arm of Brandon Silvers, who threw for 229 yards and two touchdowns, and the legs of Jordan Chunn, who rushed for 161 yards and one score. “Supporting our offense and getting a win”. I know he’s excited about putting on the No. 4 and running around and being Deshaun Watson on our scout team. The Tigers were No. 1 in the country in 2014 in fewest yards allowed and were 10th overall in last year’s run to the national championship game.
In his first significant of his college career, Davis had five tackles, 0.5 tackles for loss and two quarterback hurries as the 239-pounder was able to run sideline-to-sideline to create havoc throughout his first career start.
“Coming into the season, even before camp started, we had a really big chip on our shoulders”, Ferrell said. That represented a culture change and proved that solid play can act as the disinfectant to most of the ills surrounding a college football program. And he was happy with the results in game one. It was coach Frank Howard who in 1966 put the rock on a pedestal at the stadium, telling players if they weren’t willing to give maximum effort they should “keep their filthy hands off of my rock”. This time, it’s Vic Koenning, who led Clemson’s defense for four seasons.
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Ferrell said the showing at Auburn is a strong, early statement that there will be no defensive drop off at Clemson. However, for Troy the best thing that they can do to help their defense is talk about what they want to do against him – a lot.
