Clemson has looked much more like itself over the past three weeks, but Dabo Swinney knows Saturday night will demand another level.
No. 4 Miami comes to Death Valley at 4-0 and averaging close to 52 points and 600 yards per game. Clemson is 3-1, and both teams enter the matchup 2-0 in ACC play.
After watching the Hurricanes on film, Swinney came away struggling to identify an obvious flaw.
“This is a team that, in my opinion, really don’t have any weaknesses,” Swinney said Tuesday. “It’s a really, really talented football team across the board.”
Miami quarterback Darian Mensah has been one of the biggest reasons why. His accuracy has jumped off the screen for Swinney, who noted that Mensah is completing passes at a rate approaching 90 percent.
“He’s 85, almost 90% completion,” Swinney said. “It’s hard to do that on air. I mean, we don’t have many days that we’re 90% completion on air.”
The Tigers will also have to deal with Miami’s physical running game, RPO package and deep collection of skill players.
“They want to be physical, want to run the ball,” Swinney said. “And then they just equip the quarterback through the run game. You know, got a million RPOs, you know, screen game.”
Swinney has been equally impressed with Mensah’s poise.
“He’s incredibly smart. He’s unbelievably accurate. He is very poised,” Swinney said. “He don’t get rattled. It doesn’t matter what you do, whether you blitz him or whatever, he don’t get rattled. He knows where everybody on the field is.”
The matchup also presents a major challenge for Clemson’s offense. Swinney described Miami as an aggressive pressure defense with NFL-caliber talent up front and plenty of speed in the secondary.
“They’re a pressure defense, four down, you know, bring lots of different types of pressure to force the issue, not let you have a lot of time, make you have to really communicate well,” he said. “And got a bunch of guys that can run on the back end.”
Clemson’s Dabo Swinney shares injury update on starting CB ahead of Miami
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Clemson’s defense has rebounded well since giving up 51 points in the opener at LSU, allowing just 12.3 points per game during its current three-game winning streak. That improvement will now be measured against one of the most productive offenses in the country.
Saturday’s game kicks off at 7:30 p.m. on ABC, and Swinney wants Death Valley at full volume.
“Show up early and let’s get loud in the Valley, man,” he said. “We got some work to do against these boys.”
His final assessment of Miami summed up the challenge.
“They might be the best team in the country,” Swinney said. “Time will tell, but I mean, there’s really not any weaknesses within their team.”
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This article originally appeared on Clemson Wire: Dabo Swinney on ‘video game’ like Miami, Clemson looking for weaknesses
