Can the Tigers Close Out 2025 on a High Note?
Happy Holidays STS! I hope it has been and will continue to be a blessed and joyful time for all who take the time to visit our site and make what we do possible. Bowl season is upon us (and not upon the Gamecocks!), so we get one more look at this 2025 edition of Clemson football, even if it is a modified version. If you are not that excited about it, I can understand, but I would remind you of that long stretch of time when you get to wishing you had some live football to look forward to. I’m thankful
the Tigers drew a major name for this bowl even if the Nittany Lions fired their coach already and had an even more disappointing season than Clemson did. Let’s get to the the matchups.
Clemson Defense vs. Penn State Offense: It is a lot harder to get into how these teams are going to match up because both squads are dealing with front line guys who will not be participating for one reason or another. Penn State has been less transparent on just how available some of their guys are going to be. All eyes have to be on star running back Kaytron Allen who as of this writing has not declared his playing status for the game so we have to assume he is a go. Clemson’s run defense took a big step forward in Tom Allen’s first season as we have covered in previous articles, but this defense will be without three of its four top DL as well as starting LB Wade Woodaz, corner Avieon Terrell, and safety Khalil Barnes. Presumed starter Stephiylan Green has been limited in practices, so Clemson fans will need to cross their fingers that he will be healthy enough to play because he is the lone remaining proven DT. Guys like Vic Burley, Champ Thompson, and Hevin Brown-Shuler will all get plenty of opportunities to show how much they are ready (or not) for the moment. Clemson should be much more active in the transfer portal after this game is over, but how much they need to address the DT position will likely be informed a good bit on this bowl.
Clemson’s LB corps at least has star Sammy Brown ready to go. He figures to be joined by Kobe McCloud and it will be interesting to see if Allen chooses to employ a more traditional 4-3 with three true linebackers to combat Penn State’s run game. Jeremiah Alexander figures to play a great deal and does offer a strong physical presence even if coverage is not among his strong suits. Clemson has to do whatever it can to make Penn State have to throw the ball when it doesn’t want to. If Allen gets rolling, the Tigers offense will be put under a lot of pressure to have to keep up.
Penn State lost starting QB Drew Allar earlier in the season to an ankle injury, thrusting redshirt freshman Ethan Grunkemeyer into the job. He has been an accurate thrower with a 69.4% completion rate on what is usually a steady dose of short and intermediate throws. Penn State fans have lamented their offense lacking a consistent vertical component to their passing game, but that improved a touch in their latter games when they strung wins together to get to bowl eligibility. It should be noted that they also faced three of the weaker defenses in their league while doing that, but the variable of how much the injuries and opt-outs are going to affect things on Saturday is just very hard to know.
Penn State rushed for 200 or more in their three game winning streak and Clemson certainly will be in serious trouble if that happens in this game. The silver lining here is that Grunkemeyer is not much of a threat as a runner, especially compared to Allar, and they tend to work a lot more RPO pass concepts and bootleg throws off of Allen as their counters versus zone read runs and pure QB run calls. The good news for Clemson is that Kobe McCloud is a sound assignment/alignment player, but he lacks the range and length that Wade Woodaz provided and Woodaz was playing the best football of his career down the stretch.
Most teams avoided trying to do much between the tackles against Clemson this season. However, without Peter Woods and DeMonte Capehart inside, Penn State will no doubt see if they can establish their inside runs. Clemson improved a ton against the perimeter throws down the stretch, particularly against South Carolina who was very hamstrung by not being able to use outside screens to compliment their weak traditional running game. Penn State, however, is a much stronger running attack to deal with. Ronan Hanafin will be stepping up his role with Khalil Barnes out, but thankfully his strength is more in run game support than coverage. He’s been guilty of more than a few busts this season, so Penn State will certainly look to see if they can exploit that for some explosive plays.
I predict Tom Allen will use a lot of what he did to combat Florida State’s offense. Clemson showed a ton of “mug” or bear front lo0ks and varied who they brought to muddy things for Castellanos as well as negate FSU’s primary zone run scheme. That meant taking their chances with FSU hitting explosive pass plays, and they were not able to execute those well enough even when Clemson was out of position. Grunkemeyer is a more consistent thrower than Castellanos (and certainly taller), but they do not have a guy like Duce Robinson on the outside. Their leading WRs are all smaller in stature, ranging from Trebor Pena at 5’10” to Kyron Hudson at 6’1”.
First down success will be huge thing to monitor in this game. Clemson certainly needs to keep PSU at 3 yards or less on a typical first down play, which has shown to significantly hamper their effectiveness. Penn State will be without starting OG Vega Ioene and RB2 Nick Singleton, which will put even more of a load on Kaytron Allen. Allen can no doubt take a 30+ carry workload for a single game, but sometimes these bowl games can be tricky as we have seen some players choose to limit their play and even opt out at the half in recent years. You never know if a player is under advisement to only take on a certain amount of risk in these games. Either way, Clemson has to take whatever risks necessary to load up on Allen. His last outing was a 22 carry, 226 yard explosion on Rutgers. You figure their staff will be paying attention to what Syracuse and Louisville did as they were the two teams to generate the most effective ground game on Clemson this season.
Clemson Offense vs. Penn State Defense: Clemson is in a little better shape depth wise for this game on offense, in my opinion. I am most thankful that starting OT’s Tristan Leigh and Blake Miller are playing because the team is certainly better equipped right now to supplement at guard than at tackle considering the injuries to Brayden Jacobs and Elyjah Thurmon who would be the next two up outside. Clemson also has starting QB Cade Klubnik and running back Adam Randall playing, and Garrett Riley (who very well could be coaching his final game or perhaps having to offer a job saving performance) should have his full offensive system at his disposal as a result. Penn State has a solid defense who can generate some havoc plays behind the line, and in many ways remind me of the South Carolina defense Clemson just played. They can be had with the run game and can be exploited outside, but a lot depends on how well Clemson’s front can limit the penetration and pass rush. Cade has had good break to get closer to 100% with his ankle injury, so you figure he is likely to be a bigger factor with his legs in this game than he has been able to be most of the season. UCLA’s big upset that truly sent Penn State’s season into a spiral was largely generated by the damage QB Niko Iamaleava inflicted on the ground. Cade wants to finish things on a high note and this performance could go a long way to helping his draft stock if he can flash more of the dual threat playmaking that had him so highly regarded prior to the season.
Like South Carolina, Penn State was very close to some monumental wins but could not close the deal. They lost in double OT to Oregon, then had Indiana seriously on the ropes before giving up perhaps the play of the year to lose that one. This team has had serious issues in the close games, but Clemson has had its fair share as well. Even though the players are a little different on both sides in certain places, the path to winning should remain the same. Clemson has to figure out of a way to strike first, which has been a major factor in the winning streak. Neither one of these teams has been all that good at fighting back from behind. It stands to reason that the team that can run the ball better and take care of the ball will win this game.
I do worry about Clemson’s offense when Antonio Williams is not part of it. I think Tyler Brown is a very capable player, but it is hard to deny that Klubnik has not looked the same when Williams has not been out there for whatever reason. Hopefully having a month to prepare without Williams will help in that regard. Penn State figures to play a lot of man coverage on the outside, so TJ Moore will certainly have a chance to put on a show like he did against Texas last year. I’ll be watching that LG position closely where either Gavin Blanchard or Dietrick Pennington will be getting the first major action of their careers due to the injury attrition.
Special Teams: This figures to be a pretty even matchup in this phase. Both teams have strong placekickers and have been solid with punting. Neither team has been all that dangerous in the return game. This figures to be a very even game on paper, so the third phase will loom large especially in terms of cashing in points of some description and forcing long drives. Antonio Williams being out means Clemson is down its primary punt returner. Both teams do a good job of neutralizing kick returns with long kickoffs, though Clemson has the two major breakdowns this year with giving up a surprise onside kick to Syracuse and a kick return TD to Duke.
Overall: I’ve joked with friends that you could call this this “Disappointment Bowl” considering both programs had playoff aspirations and top 5 rankings to enter 2025 and had to scrap late to even have the chance to play in this game. Both sets of fan bases will be anxious to see what changes are on the horizon, with Penn State already moving to Iowa State’s Matt Campbell as their new head coach. Interim coach Terry Smith has done a pretty admirable job of keeping the team from checking out and will be part of the new staff under Campbell. Clemson will have some staff shakeups of its own, but just how far that goes remains to be seen. Both programs banked on their returning talent and were not as active in the portal last year, but both will see a much larger influx of portal talent for 2026 comparatively.
I have fond memories of Clemson’s lone matchup with Penn State when I was a kid. Penn State was by far the much more “name” program nationally, even with Clemson’s 1981 National Title, and legendary (if not infamous) coach Joe Paterno was still operating in the prime of his career. One thing that Dabo Swinney and Danny Ford have in common, in my opinion, is maximizing the disrespect scenario when it is there. The Tigers definitely felt disrespected by Paterno and Penn State, as well as the national media at large. Ford’s Tigers threw off Penn State early with more throws than usual for those days, including a huge play to wideout Gary Cooper, then pounded Penn State into submission with the running game in route to a dominant 35-10 win in the Citrus Bowl. The dynamic is different this time around, but Swinney’s bowl preparation track record has been largely good and this is a scenario when your culture tends to be a huge factor with what many dub a “meaningless bowl.” Who knows how much longer the bowl system will survive, but games against Penn State have been and figure to be very few and far between. Hopefully the Tigers will be up to the challenge and want it more.
Clemson 29-Penn State 23
