Coming into the season, this weekend’s North Carolina football game against Clemson had a chance to have some real juice around it, if both teams could handle their business. As it turns out, that was
a very big “if,” for both sides.
Bill Belichick’s debut season as a college coach has famously been pretty shaky to this point. After getting blown out by TCU, the Tar Heels picked up two wins, albeit in less than impressive fashion against not the stiffest competition, and then lost to UCF.
However, that was within the realm of possibility, even if you were super positive about the Belichick hire. What was far less expected is Clemson’s struggles. The Tigers had some national title buzz coming into the season, but have gone just 1-3, and their win against Troy was hardly a dominant one. Going into this year, there was an outside chance this game could’ve ended up in prime time with ESPN’s College GameDay in attendance. Instead, it’s now a nooner with both teams hoping it can be a “get right” opportunity.
If UNC is able to get this weekend’s meeting to “get right,” playing mistake-free and winning the turnover battle should be of importance.
To be frank, Clemson has done a very bad job so far this year when it comes to turnovers. In their four games so far, the Tigers have a total of seven turnovers, and have two in their three most recent games. Only their season opener against LSU featured less than two, and, in retrospect, that was probably their best performance of the year, considering they played a pretty good LSU team close.
It hasn’t been just one facet of Clemson’s offense that the turnovers have come from either. Sure, quarterback Cade Klubnik has thrown four interceptions, but they’ve also combined for three lost fumbles as well.
It should be noted that they won the turnover battle in their opening two games of the season. They forced two in that aforementioned close game against LSU, and three in their lone win over Troy. However, neither Georgia Tech or Syracuse turned it over at all in the last two games, and that’s when the frustrations surrounding the Tigers have really started to rocket up.
Outside that LSU game, Clemson’s offense has been pretty solid, yardage wise. They’ve put up over 300 total yards in all of their last three games, and have averaged over five yards per play in all of those games. However, they’ve only ended up with 21 points in both of those games. In the Syracuse game, a Klubnik interception cut short a drive that was starting to build, while a fumble came deep in their own territory, which allowed the Orange to flip the field and quickly score. Against Georgia Tech, Klubnik’s interception came on a 2nd down play with the Tigers in the red zone. Getting some amount of points there would’ve helped quite a bit considering the final three-point margin.
On the other side of things, UNC has been turnover prone themselves, committing six on the year. (Although the season-long turnover battle is actually even for the Heels.) Half of them came in the blowout loss to TCU to start the year, and three of the six are Gio Lopez interceptions, and his injury status remains up in the air.
Now, it’s hardly the deepest football insight to say “don’t turn the ball over and try to force turnovers,” but based on what’s happened so far this season, it seems that both teams will give their opponents chances to flip the field. If UNC can take those chances, they can overcome the talent gap, the way Georgia Tech and Syracuse have already.
