Finally: football season.
The 2025 college football season dipped its toe into the shallow end with last week’s Week Zero games, but starting Thursday is when the sport takes its plunge. Week One is once again loaded with must-see matchups, and LSU will be chief among them. It’s #9 LSU vs. #4 Clemson, a rematch of the 2019 national championship game and just as we did then, we turn to our pal Ryan Kantor from our sister site Shakin’ the Southland.
1. The stakes of this LSU-Clemson game aren’t *quite*
as high as the last time these two programs got together, but this week one matchup still has plenty of juice. What kind of statement will Clemson send to the college football world if these Tigers beat our Tigers? If Clemson loses it will be four-straight losses to the SEC and will be hard to take potential upcoming wins over teams like Georgia Tech and FSU too seriously as it will just feel like ACC cannon fodder when we know we can’t beat real contenders. If Clemson wins however, it will be a proclamation that Dabo’s adjustments to use the portal to plug holes and hire elite coordinators and coaches did the trick. It would also validate his long-held model of family and retention over money and massive transfer classes. An underrated storyline here is the #1 returning production team (Clemson) vs. the #1 transfer portal class (LSU).
2. LSU has by all accounts the top transfer class coming into this season, but Clemson has the most returning production in the nation. Is that continuity reason enough for Clemson to come out on top?
If it was the most returning production with no efforts to plug glaring holes or fixing coaching woes, then no. I think having a lot of talented players who care about each other and have experience playing together is great, but it is made all the better by bringing in Tom Allen as DC to really shift the culture. Former DC Wes Goodwin was great in his analyst role because he is good at creating schemes and drawing up gameplans, but it seems he wasn’t as good at adjusting in game, motivating players, or developing them. I think the change at DC is bigger than we thought because it wasn’t really a scheme issue. It was the other things. There’s a lot of “best shape of their career” talk and I’m buying the hype even as cliche as it may sound.
3. Building off of the transfer question, I read on The Athletic that Clemson’s only had 22 players transfer to other Power 4 schools over the past three years. In this snowglobe era where teams look radically different year to year, how is Dabo Swinney able to keep his roster intact?
Even that is a little bit overstated. Clemson lost Andrew Mukuba to his home state Texas Longhorns last year. That was a legitimate loss of a player we wanted to keep. Nearly every other player we’ve lost was either someone who was decent depth but never going to make a major impact or someone who seemed unlikely to be good enough to ever play meaningful snaps at Clemson and it was bluntly a win-win they left.
This probably ties into Coach Swinney not taking a lot of transfers into Clemson. Players see he isn’t constantly trying to replace them and instead is committing to developing them. I hated it when Coach Swinney and staff were too dogmatic to use it even to fix glaring holes, but if he can settle into this sweet spot of taking 3-4 guys to fix very obvious needs, it is great. The Tigers invest their money in retention, rather than super expensive Bryce Underwood-type freshmen or Darien Mensah-type transfers. That obviously helps too.
4. I am very concerned about this new-look LSU offensive line going up against Clemson’s defensive front. How is a brand new offensive line supposed to slow down projected top-10 picks Peter Woods and TJ Parker?
Woods and Parker weren’t overly dominant last year so I think you have to hope the issue wasn’t the coaching or Woods playing out of position at DE, but them actually being overrated. I don’t think that’s the case, but you’ve have to cling to that as an LSU fan. If Woods has transformed his body, found new motivation, and really is poised for a breakout campaign, then I don’t know how the new LSU O-line stops him consistently. TJ Parker also battled migraines early in the season last year which held him back for a chunk of the season. He should be improved as well.
5. Speaking of offensive line, can we get a ruling on the status of sixth-year guard Walker Parks? Will he play Saturday night, and if not who would be the next man up?
Parks is rightfully very well-respected, but he posted the lowest PFF grade of Clemson’s five O-line starters last year. If he is out, I don’t think there is any drop off to his replacement. Coach Swinney said there are essentially seven O-line starters who could start any given game. Collin Sadler and Harris Sewell have been battling for the LG spot so if Parks is out, I’d expect whoever didn’t secure the start there to shift over and play RG. You also have second-year player Elyjah Thurmon who I’m fairly high on. None of the options at guard are stars, but all have a decent floor and make a potential Parks injury navigable.
6. I realize this is an LSU website and I’m supposed to always pick LSU every week no matter the opponent, but I’m going to pick Clemson to win this game. If LSU were able to beat Clemson, what would that game look like?
I think it is simple. LSU wins if I’m wrong about the battle in the trenches. In particular, if Nussmeier stays upright and LSU establishes the run with Caden Durham, Clemson could really be in trouble. Clemson absolutely stunk against the run last year. It’s not unthinkable that it isn’t fixed. If LSU is successfully leaning on the run and as a result Clemson can’t pin their ears back and get to Nussmeier, things could get sideways. Nothing quiets a crowd like a long, slow, boring, 12-play TD drive.
