Three Major Keys for the Clemson Tigers to Beat the Virginia Tech Hokies

Clemson Tigers will continue their season with the first of two straight conference road games to round out their ACC slate as they prepare to face Virginia Tech Hokies on Saturday at Lane Stadium in Blacksburg, Virginia.

Kickoff is set for 3:30 pm ET on ESPN.

Tigers (6-2, 5-1 ACC) lose Louisvillewhich ended their hopes of reaching the ACC title game. It’s not that the Tigers can’t get into the game. It’s just going to take a lot of help to make it happen, and that won’t mean anything if Clemson doesn’t win its final two ACC games.

Luckily, the Tigers have a good history with Virginia Tech, especially as of late, as Clemson has won the last six meetings, the last of which came in 2020.

The Hokies (5-4, 3-2) suffered a loss to Syracuse that ended their three-game winning streak. Virginia Tech just needs one more win to advance to a bowl game for the second year in a row under coach Brent Pry. But honestly, the Hokies could have had more.

So how does Clemson win this game? Here are three keys to the competition.

Before Louisville In the previous three games, Clemson’s defense had done an exceptional job against the run, preventing the team from rushing for more than 100 yards. This was partly due to the fact that these games were failures. But still impressive.

Well, the Cardinals gained 210 yards on the ground Saturday, which was the most the Tigers have allowed in a game since giving up 236 rushing yards to a punter. Stanford. Louisville also had the highest average yards per carry of any opponent at 7.8 yards per carry.

That’s a significant jump and the Tigers will have to figure it out over the next few days because the Hokies come into this game with one of the most productive defenses in the ACC. Bhaishul Tuten rushed for 951 yards (6.7 yards per carry) and scored 12 touchdowns. But quarterback Kyron Drones (323 yards, six touchdowns) is also a problem.

The Tigers’ terrible offensive performance in the first half against Louisville was not an aberration. This has been an issue the last few games – even the ones they won. Against Wake Forest and Virginia, Clemson started slowly in the first quarter before they got going.

Well, against the Cardinals, the Tigers never budged. The offense stalled despite totaling over 400 yards of offense. A key factor in Clemson’s loss was yards per play. The Tigers averaged just 4.5 yards per play, by far their worst since 3.6 yards per play against Georgia. Clemson lost that game too.

Clemson can’t afford another slow start against a team as talented as Louisville.

The Clemson Tigers will need a return play from their quarterback. Cade Klubnik. There were a lot of things that went wrong against Louisville, and his performance was one of them.

One area where Klubnik didn’t excel Saturday was in the touchdown pass. In the six games the Tigers won, he threw at least two touchdowns in every game (averaging 3.3 per game during that stretch). Of the two defeats, he threw only one.

Sounds simple: throw touchdown passes and win games. But interestingly, while Klubnik’s legs are still gaining yards, he hasn’t thrown a touchdown since the Stanford game. The Tigers need him to find the end zone with his arm if they hope to win.