After a disappointing loss last week to LSU, Clemson welcomed Troy to Death Valley hoping to get back on track against the Trojans. I know a lot of you expressed some pretty negative opinions about the state of the team, but I don’t see things as being quite so dire. Despite some clearly poor elements like the offensive line play, Clemson went down to the wire with a very good LSU team 3rd or 4th in the nation now. The Tigers are very talented and it’s a long season.
That was my thinking before the
game. The 1st half had me beginning to wonder if Clemson might be the 2025 version of of 2024 FSU, a talented team with high expectations who just fell apart. Fortunately the Tigers came out in the second half having decided that they wanted to win the game. They weren’t quite as dominant as they should have been, but they played pretty effectively.
Clemson won the opening toss and deferred. Troy started off with a very effective drive, hitting several nicely blocked bubble screens, and ended it with a 44-yard TD pass down the sideline to shock the Death Valley crowd and take the lead 7-0 with just over 12 minutes left in the quarter. After covering a squibbed kickoff, the Tigers started at their 13. They didn’t start very well, going 3 and out when Cade Klubnik couldn’t connect with T.J. Moore on 3rd down. Mother Nature decided to give the Tigers a chance to go in and regroup when lightning was detected in the area, sending everyone back to the locker room.
Over an hour and a half later, the game resumed with the Troy offense at their 32. They got a 1st down but a subsequent sack doomed their drive and the Trojans punted. The Tiger offense sputtered their way to midfield and then stalled, with the offensive line woes in pass protection continuing. They had to punt. Troy fielded it at their 8.
The Tiger defense responded with an interception on a tipped pass and the offense got the ball at the Trojan 30. The Tigers started moving but got to 3rd & 2 and brought in Chris Vizzina to execute a designed QB run in what struck me as a rather dumb decision. It failed. They went for it on 4th down and it looked like Adam Randall had it but the ball popped out and Troy picked it up and ran it back to the Tiger 32. The Tiger defense bent a bit but eventually forced a FG attempt from 37 yards that was good. With 12:38 to go in the 1st half, Troy led 10-0.
The next Tiger drive started with a holding penalty but Tyler Brown followed it with a 23-yard catch and run. Then the offense went back to its anemic self and had to punt. The offensive line, which was supposed to be a strong point this year, looked like a bunch of 8th graders out there. Troy rushers were being double-teamed and still got through. Troy’s drive started ok but the Tiger defense forced them to punt.
Deep in their territory, the Tigers had a pass tipped and Troy intercepted it and scored. With 6:58 left, Clemson was behind 16-0 after the extra point sailed wide. The Tiger offense seemed to come alive a little bit and they were helped by some Troy penalties, including a targeting call against their best cover guy. They appeared to get into the end zone with a 6-yard catch by Tristan Smith but his knee was down at the 8 yard line when he caught it. They settled for a 25-yard FG to make the score 16-3 with about 4 minutes left.
The defense then decided to get inept like the offense and gave up a 28-yard run to the Tiger 47. A couple of plays later on 3rd & 7, they gave up 11 yards. Troy continued moving down the field and the only thing stopped them was themselves with a personal foul penalty. With 4 seconds left, the Trojans tried a 51-yard FG but it went wide right. It was Troy 16-3 at halftime.
Clemson got the ball first in the 2nd half. Adam Randall ripped off a 36-yard run behind some (finally) good blocking. He had another nice run for 10 yards down to the Troy 25. A few plays later he followed an 11-yard run with a 1-yard score to make it 16-10 with 11:05 left in the 3rd quarter. The defense came out on fire too with an interception at the Troy 26. Klubnik hit a wide-open Bryant Wesco Jr. on the next play for the TD. With the extra point, Clemson was finally in the lead 17-16 with a bit over 10 minutes left in the quarter.
Troy started at the 25 after the touchback but were mostly going backwards due to penalties and then threw an interception to Ronan Hanifan which he returned to the Troy 28. Clemson moved down to the 12 but had to settle for a Nolan Houser FG from 30 yards out. The Tigers led 20-16 with just under 6 minutes left in the quarter.
Troy moved out near midfield with some timely 3rd down plays, including a 3rd and 15, to move the sticks. The Tiger defense eventually slowed them down and Troy set up for a FG but ran a fake. Aveion Terrell wasn’t fooled and Clemson got the ball at the Tiger 34. A couple of tough runs by Randall and a couple of catches by Brown got the Tiger offense to the Trojan 41. A couple of plays later, Klubnik found Wesco behind the defense in the end zone. Clemson led 27-16 with just under 10 minutes left.
Troy moved into Tiger territory but then the Tiger defense made some big plays and forced the Trojans into 4th & 26. They punted and it went into the end zone. The Tigers took over at their 20 with 4:24 left. They went to the run game with Randall to chew the clock up and executed like they needed to. The game ended at 27-16.
So, it was a tale of two halves, with the Tigers, seemingly asleep at the wheel in the 1st half, waking up to score 24 points in the 2nd half to get the win. Clemson certainly has plenty to work on, especially with the offensive line, but it was good to see Adam Randall get 112 yards on 21 carries. The offensive line seems to be lacking in the desire to plant their guy into the ground. That’s what you need for an effective run game. What are your thoughts on today’s game? Let us know in the comments below. Thank you for stopping by and we’ll see you next week for the Georgia Tech game in Atlanta. Get those $2 bills out.
