Did the Bye Week Lead to Change?It has been a difficult two weeks for Clemson fans facing the very real possibility that this 2025 team might not just be a little short of lofty expectations, but a team that could even miss a bowl game. The Syracuse performance was abysmal in every respect. Clemson, once again, was reacting to getting punched in the face right out of the gate. They recovered enough to beat Troy, but obviously fell just short of doing so at Georgia Tech. With Syracuse, the Tigers never really threatened to get back into that game and lost one of the worst games in Death Valley in a decade or more akin to that Louisville game last year. Now the Tigers are in the ACC basement, and Dabo Swinney has had to dig very deeply for answers amid a hailstorm of has its own problems, as we will get into, but expectations were much more tame for that program, which is under new leadership and has an almost entirely new roster. Simply put Bryan Bresee Jersey, Clemson not being able to put this Tarheel team away, even on the road, will be even more of an indictment on the quality of the 2025 team. This game has to be about creating some feeling of good, some feeling of accomplishment, and some feeling of positive momentum for the middle part of the season and Swinney firmly pointed the finger and himself and his staff for the failures so far. He is standing firm that this team has the talent and ability that had so many feeling it would be a championship contender. If that is truly the case, then it is surely a coaching failure not to get the players performing more closely to that potential. Now we wait to see how those players and coaches adjust to get over the mental blocks that have clearly surfaced on game days in 2025. As I wrote last week, this team could tank like 1998's team did or perhaps become something to be proud of the way 2003's team did after its shocking blowout loss to Wake Defense vs. UNC Offense: I'm starting on this side of the ball because Clemson's defense came out so horribly flat and unprepared against Syracuse that the game was essentially decided by the half. Other sites have pointed out how poorly this year's defense has been on initial opponent drives this season, which certainly has to be corrected. Teams almost always work off a script of 1520 plays to start a game offensively, and the initial success shows those scripts have been spot on at attacking Clemson's anticipated looks. Clemson has almost always looked like the team being surprised versus the other way around, and that does not reflect well on the minds putting the game plans together. This can happen when your limitations prevent you from doing more than one or two things, or your hangeup gets exposed and you don't have another. This would be similar to Clemson's 2000 defense, which had risen to a top 5 unit by October of that year. However, NCSU and the remaining opponents recognized that Clemson had just one way to be really successful on defense: blitzing heavily. As a result, they began scheming how to make the Tigers pay for it. NCSU, GT, and FSU, in particular, put up gaudy passing numbers, burning those blitzes time after , Tom Allen and his staff have figured out some better ways to offset what teams are doing to have early success. GT anticipated heavy run defense and so countered early with intermediate passing. Syracuse anticipated Clemson focusing on coverage and countered by running right at the Tigers to begin the game. Ideally, Clemson's front seven should be strong enough to handle most running attacks without exposing its secondary as much, but that has not proven to be the case. Clemson's LB's, in particular Wade Woodaz, have struggled to diagnose things quickly and get into proper gaps ahead of the blocking schemes. Clemson's DL have actually done better than it seems, but even then, it has not destroyed plays to the point that the LB play hasn't mattered as much. Clemson's tackling has improved substantially statistically https://www.clemsontigersfansshop.com/264-Kylon_Griffin_Jersey, but when Clemson misses and especially WHO is missing the tackle has led to some huge swings in the games. It's one thing for a backup corner like Branden Strozier to miss a tackle on the perimeter; it is another when a potential AllAmerican like T.J. Parker is the one not finishing a TFL. Clemson's Alphas have to play like Alphas!UNC boughtbrought in former South Alabama QB Gio Lopez to be their guy under new coach Bill Belichick, but he has struggled mightily and also battled injury so far this season. Veteran journeyman Max Johnson, who was UNC's starter to begin last year before a seasonending injury in the first game, is the guy I expect Clemson to see more of on Saturday. Johnson is not as twitchy a runner as Lopez, but he is a bigger body and athletic enough to get something with his legs here and there. Clemson's front simply has to dominate this UNC OL that has been largely ineffective vs. power conference competition. The Heels looked like they might be something in their first action against TCU when they took the opening drive and easily marched for a TD. However, they went about an hour before they were able to even complete a pass after that, en route to a 4814 loss.I expect UNC to make some improvements over time and be a little more together than they were then, but I also expect that of Clemson, even though we really haven't seen much improvement overall. This game still comes down to one guy beating another guy in some way, and talent matters, so there is really no excuse for Clemson not to get a handle on UNC's plan and squeeze the life out of it the way TCU and UCF did.I was impressed with Peter Woods during his interview last week. He certainly appears to have his head in the right place to help get this defense and this team going the right way. However, talk is cheap if actions don't back it up, so I am anxious to see if actions can indeed support the talk. Fans are longing for more passion plays like we saw from Will Heldt against Syracuse, when he quickly got up from basically being tackled by a blocker to hawk down the QB from behind. Those types of plays have just been too far and between from too few guys to this point of the season. The fact that I'm highlighting a transfer is another red flag, considering the wealth of experience this defense and team has had a serious issue at its Tiger position to this point in the season. Allen has either had to sacrifice run stoppage or coverage, depending on who he has used if not both. Clemson's safety play as a whole has been very spotty as well. I almost wonder if it would be best to move Wade Woodaz outside and use someone else inside at LB, like Jerry Alexander or Kobe McCloud. Woodaz has put up as good or better coverage grades than any of the traditional nickel players and should be a better option against the run game and outside screen game. Clemson has suffered the last two years having to use nontraditional inside LB's at Mike after Jeremiah Trotter, Jr. departed for the NFL. We will see if any real shuffling will be done or just hope that the current lineups play X Factor on defense is indeed Wade Woodaz Logan Anderson Jersey, from whom Clemson needs another level of performance. It is puzzling that his PFF grades are worse this year than last, considering he is a veteran, but perhaps the scheme change is a contributing factor to that.