Perfect opener for a work-in-progress team

DeAndre McDaniel's expression and demeanor screamed 'disappointment.'

Never in his most pessimistic imagination did he think he'd been standing in the hallway outside the Clemson dressing room early Saturday evening searching for answers as to why his defense had given up 462 yards in its opener against North Texas.

It mattered, of course, that the Tigers had allowed just 10 points and had won handily against an opponent not lacking in either talent or determination.

But 462 yards? An 11-of-22 performance on third-down stops? And better than a 20-minute gap in possession time?

“We couldn't get off the field,” McDaniel lamented. “We’ve got a long road ahead of us...I didn’t expect them to get 460 yards – nobody did. But they came out and did it, though. We just have to come back next week and do what we’re supposed to do.”

If there was any doubt that Presbyterian College will get the Tigers' full attention next Saturday, it was put to rest in the aftermath of the North Texas game.

The Tigers know they have work to do.

And at the same time, they have much to build on.

The running game looks just fine. The offensive line adjusted on the fly to an onslaught of unexpected defensive looks. Kyle Parker wasn't as sharp as he will be, but his checks and adjustments repeatedly helped the Tigers make big plays. The kickers performed flawlessly. Marcus Gilchrist always seemed a step away from breaking a touchdown return. And the young group of pass-catchers showed plenty of promise.

But after the game, Dabo Swinney seemed eager to roll up his sleeves and get back to work fixing the other side of the equation.

“I didn't think we were good on third down either way, so we've got to get better on third down, defensively and offensively,” he said. “There were way too many explosive plays for the other team. And the biggest thing was time of possession. You won't win many ball games when it's that out of whack, even though I know some of that was that we had a couple of one or two-play scores.

“Another thing that was frustrating was field position. When you're not getting off the field, you're playing on a short field or a big field, depending on whichever way you want to look at it. And then we missed a lot of tackles. The defense played very hard and was flying around, but we missed a lot of tackles.”

Eleven top-tier players made their debuts, including first-year freshmen DeAndre Hopkins, Justin Parker and Martin Jenkins, and redshirt freshmen Tajh Boyd, Bryce McNeal, Rod McDowell, Quandon Christian, Spencer Shuey, Tyler Shatley, Brandon Thomas and Chandler Catanzaro.

“We had some guys playing and getting their first significant snaps today,” said Swinney. “Hopefully we'll learn from this and get better. We'll put it to bed with the team Monday morning and then see if we can do a little better job next week.”

Positives to build on and plenty to correct: all things considered, it just might have been the perfect season opener.