Count Wake Forest football coach Dave Clawson as being impressed by what he’s seen so far from the Clemson Tigers.
The Demon Deacons’ coach, now in his 11th season in Winston-Salem, offered no shortage of high praise for Dabo Swinney and his team at his weekly press conference on Tuesday.
Clawson called the Tigers a “complete football team” and “the most dominant program in the ACC over the last decade.”
“What Dabo has built at Clemson, to me the consistency of it, the championship level program that he built and has been able to maintain, is one of the most impressive coaching jobs in the whole country,” Clawson said.
Clawson pointed to quarterback Cade Klubnik and marveled at his improvement from last season. Through five games, Klubnik has thrown for 1,219 yards and 14 touchdowns to two interceptions. He’s also ran for 168 yards on 28 carries, including two long touchdown runs against NC State in Week 4 and a week later against Stanford.
“I don’t know what they did to him in the offseason down there, but he looks bigger, stronger and faster. He’s a good pocket passer, but what really scares you is some of the plays he makes with his feet,” Clawson said, highlighting Klubnik’s touchdown run against NC State on the first possession in the Tigers’ 59-35 rout of the Wolfpack.
Clawson also singled out tailback Phil Mafah, who had a season-high 154 rushing yards in last week’s 29-13 Clemson win at Florida State. “You try to arm-tackle him and it’s not going to turn out too well,” he said.
The Tigers’ wide receiver corps drew particular praise from Clawson.
“To me, they’re back to looking like Clemson,” he said while pointing out Antonio Williams, Bryant Wesco and T.J. Moore. “When I first got here, this was Wide Receiver U., and I think it kind of fell off a bit and now it looks like they’re coming back to where they were.”
On the biggest difference in what he’s seen from the Tigers so far this year, Clawson pointed to the offensive line.
“They’ve got 113 career starts. It’s a veteran group, and coaching matters,” he said. “It’s a veteran offensive line coach they hired in Matt Luke who has done a phenomenal job with them. These guys are playing physically, assertively and with confidence. The way they take the ball and point things out, the physicality that they’re playing with, and what that allows them to do is be balanced.
“This is now a football team that can run and throw the football and they can beat you either way. Those are the teams you hate playing against. So, whatever tweaking they did in the offseason with (Garrett Riley) and (Matt Luke), I think they’ve found their sweet spot.
“I’d enjoy watching it if we didn’t have to play against it,” Clawson said jokingly.
On defense, Clawson said that Clemson was “still Clemson.” He mentioned the play of defensive end T.J. Parker and called linebacker Barrett Carter “one of the best linebackers in the country.”
“It’s always one of the top units in the country,” Clawson said of the Tigers’ defense. “It starts up front for them; it always has. Every defensive lineman that starts for them is over 300 pounds and where they’re most impressive is the depth. They have nine guys that are averaging over 25 plays per game.”
Clemson and Wake Forest will kick off at noon ET Saturday in Winston-Salem. The game can be seen on ESPN. The Tigers are ranked No. 10 in this week’s AP Top 25 poll and No. 11 in the Coaches Poll.
The Tigers have won 15 straight in the series with Wake Forest dating back to 2009. Two years ago, Clemson outlasted the Deacs in a 51-45 double-overtime victory in a game that saw both teams ranked in the Top 25; the Tigers were ranked No. 5, Wake Forest No. 21.
“Always a tough matchup, but always a great challenge,” Clawson said of playing Clemson. “The last two years, it’s been a very competitive football game. We need people to show up and wear black. We had a home field advantage in this stadium two years ago and it helped, and it would be great if we had it again.