Clemson HC Dabo Swinney Calls Out Team for 'Poor' Effort at Halftime

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Clemson Tigers head coach Dabo Swinney talked all offseason about his record of bringing championships to the program.

On Saturday, his Tigers didn't back up that resume in the first half, taking a 31-3 deficit into halftime on the road against LSU and first-year head coach Lane Kiffin.

When speaking on the ABC broadcast at halftime, Swinney called his team for underperforming against LSU.

"We got to get something going," Swinney said. "They've really been poor on offense, just not in any type of rhythm. And then defensively, we haven't gotten close to slowing them down. 

"They're running the stretch, and then the quarterback is just running around and we're missing tackles. So really poor first half for us. Well, we see Tate Reynolds in the second half.” 

Swinney said Tait Reynolds would likely play in the second half at quarterback.

Christopher Vizzina got the start at quarterback. He went 6 of 11 passing for 51 yards and one interception. Reynolds went 1 of 2 passing for seven yards. The Tigers rushed 12 times for -4 yards. Clemson had just one first down in the first half. 

Kiffin was critical of his offense's play in the first half. Quarterback Sam Leavitt went 9 of 19 passing for 123 yards and one interception. Kiffin wasn't happy with the interception, noting that LSU's defense did the bulk of the work to put points up in the first half. 

However, the Tigers’ run game was impressive. LSU rushed 33 times for 213 yards and three touchdowns. 

"We're not hitting the fades, and so we're going to have to loosen up a little bit," Kiffin said. "But at the same time, we're running the ball well, so we're going to make adjustments. We got to play better in the second half."

Clemson will need to figure a few things out on offense. LSU won the battle in the trenches on offense and defense. Clemson's looked completely outmatched in terms of physicality in the first half.

Reynolds could provide Clemson a spark on offense, but the running game will have to be better if the team hopes to make it a competitive second half in Baton Rouge.

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