A good start for Clemson

CLEMSON, SC — Dabo Swinney made it down the hill without embarrassment.

His team, as one might expect, followed his lead.

Swinney and his new Clemson squad made a solid first impression Saturday night, executing in all three phases of the game for a 37-14 blowout of Middle Tennessee before 75,000 inside Memorial Stadium in both teams’ season opener.

Sure, this evening had its share of mistakes, as all openers do. But the Tigers returned a punt and kick for touchdowns, Richard Jackson made three of four field goals (including a 44-yarder), the defense forced three turnovers, and redshirt freshman Kyle Parker was efficient in his first collegiate start, completing nine of 20 passes for 159 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions.

All in all, it was a workmanlike, solid start to Swinney’s first full season as Clemson head coach.

“Our No.1 goal is to win the opener, and that’s what we got accomplished today. We can check that one off,” said Swinney, who joked this week that his No.1 thought before leading his team down the hill and onto the field was ‘Don’t fall.’ “Every time we line up to play, we’ve got one goal — find a way to win. That’s what this team did today. I’m really proud of the effort. We’ve got a lot of things we can teach from on this film but we did a lot of good things.”

C.J. Spiller set the perfect tone for the evening by taking the opening kickoff 96 yards from the left corner of the field, cutting right and turning on the jets for a 7-0 Clemson lead 14 seconds into the game.

It marked the first time Clemson had opened the season with a kickoff return score since 1971.

Parker did nothing to disappoint Swinney and Billy Napier, who anointed him the starting quarterback two weeks ago following a pitched spring and summer-long battle with sophomore Willy Korn.

He completed only two of his first eight passes for nine yards (Swinney said four were dropped, three by Jacoby Ford), but warmed up in the second quarter.

Two Richard Jackson field goals and Ford’s 61-yard punt return score staked him to a 20-7 lead, and after a 13-yard Spiller return gave Clemson possession at the Blue Raiders’ 43, Parker executed the shortest, best drive of the night.

He found Ford crouching in the middle flat; Ford sprung up and raced untouched to the end zone for a 43-yard touchdown, the first of Parker’s college career.

With 9:04 left in the third quarter, he found sophomore Marquan Jones streaking over the middle for a 33-yard touchdown, the first of Jones’ college career.

After the first quarter, Parker completed seven of 12 passes for 151 yards and two touchdowns, and was sacked only once, adding seven carries for 25 yards.

“I’m very proud of Kyle Parker,” Swinney said. “Here’s a guy playing in his first college game, and got a lot of eyes on him. He missed one throw all night, and that was the very first throw (to a wide-open Terrance Ashe). After that he was on the money all night long and showed what he can do with his feet and his arm.”

Meanwhile, Korn didn’t fare nearly as well. On his first series early in the second quarter, the ball slipped out of his hands on a safety blitz, and Chris McCoy scooped it up for a 68-yard touchdown.

He opened the second half, and his first pass was intercepted by Middle Tennessee corner Marcus Udell.

But after McCoy’s score cut the lead to 10-7, Clemson scored the final 20 points of the first half, taking a 30-7 lead into the locker room.

On this night, the biggest concern was Spiller’s health. He pulled up short on a punt return midway through the second quarter and didn’t return. Spiller said he tweaked his hamstring (Swinney referred to the injury as a jammed toe that affected the muscle), but both said he would be ready for Thursday’s nationally-televised visit to Georgia Tech.

“You always want to get back in there, but it was for the best,” he said. “We pulled a lot of our starters out. We understand that we’ve got such a short turnaround that we need everyone focused and healthy as possible, especially when the game is in control.”

Defensively, Clemson was solid, although new defensive coordinator Kevin Steele was agitated following the Blue Raiders’ first drive of the second half, a seven-play, 85-yard march that produced their only offensive score.

Steele felt his defense left sacks and turnovers on the field (MT fumbled six times and recovered all of them), but was pleased with the evening’s effort as a starting point, especially against a spread offense that left Clemson in nickel and dime formations much of the evening.

“He just basically came over and told us (after the scoring drive) that this wasn’t going to happen, that we’re a better defense than that,” said sophomore defensive end Da’Quan Bowers. “We knew what we had to do. We had to get control of the running quarterback and everything would play itself out.”

Now comes the toughest transition of the year: four days of preparation for the Yellow Jackets’ bruising option offense.

“It’s going to be tough,” Bowers said. “We’re going to have to get in tomorrow, do a lot of work, watch a lot of film, get prepared for Georgia Tech. We’re going to have to be disciplined this week.”