The last time the Clemson Tigers (3-1) played the California Bears (2-2) was New Year’s Day, 1992, at the Citrus Bowl. The Bears won that match 37-13. Clemson was the first team to receive and begin the work of running the ball. On their second passing attempt of the game they threw an interception to Sidney Crosby. Cal’s drive progressed for two sets of downs before JKS himself was picked off by Clemson CB Elliot Washington II.
On the next drive, Clemson QB Tait Reynolds lost the ball on a QB scramble, and redshirt sophomore Kamar Mothudi ran it in for six. The next successful Clemson drive was stymied deep in the Cal redzone, and the Tigers had to settle for a field goal to start the second quarter. Despite offensive constipation, Clemson successfully converted two fourth downs after an unsuccessful Cal effort, with a penalty bringing them to 1st and goal on the Cal one, where they punched it in, making it 10-7 in the Tigers’ favor after the successful extra point.
On the first drive of the second half, Cal showed signs of life, successfully running two trick plays before the drive sputtered at the Clemson 12. Chase Meyer sank his field goal attempt this time around to tie the game at 10 with just under ten minutes left in the third quarter. Clemson and Cal traded ineffective turns on offense, before a shallow Cal punt gave Clemson a short field which they returned for a touchdown bringing the score to 17-10 in favor of the Tigers with 3:57 left in the third quarter.
The fourth quarter played out with the teams trading off ineffective possessions, however Clemson took vastly more time off the clock. Cal cleaned up their punting, forcing the Tigers to start drives from inside their own five yard line on two consecutive drives, failing to contain them either time. On yet another 3rd and short for Clemson, their back Gideon Davidson took the ball 75 yards to the house, making the score 24-10. The next Cal possession ended in an interception. With less than two minutes of game time, the stands began to empty. By the end of the game, Clemson outstripped Cal in time of possession by more than six minutes. Next week Cal will travel to Las Vegas to play the UNLV Rebels.
Fire Summerville tonight. No need to wait, do it now.
Somerville is completely lost. He’s drawing up plays that literally have no chance of working. The 4th and 2 rollout in 1H to the short side of the field is just one example….that play never had a chance. The QB keep with Ingrassia a 2nd time… against Dabo? That’s laughable. What are we even doing here?
And they paid a lot of money for Ian Strong and he’s been borderline useless. The final flag was weak, and clearly ACC protecting their bigger brands, as they do, but he’s been by far the biggest disappointment on the roster.
Not sure where they go from here, TBH. It’s one thing to lament the Wilcox teams given all the tired excuses they threw out explaining away his mediocrity. Investing millions in players who perform this poorly and make this many mistakes is another thing entirely.