Game 3 Preview: Clemson Hosts UNC to Start ACC Play
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The Tait Reynolds Era Begins in Earnest
Greetings STS readers. Thankfully this is coming off a win, albeit it not a pretty one, last week vs. Georgia Southern. A loss there would have been catastrophic, but there are plenty of questions surrounding this year’s Tigers heading into the ACC opener. This is also family weekend at Clemson which happened to be the scene of what I think was the biggest calamity of the ill-fated 2025 campaign when Syracuse came in and delivered a humiliating defeat. Clemson was not ready to play that day and you just have to hope this year’s team will be.
Dabo Swinney has made the decision to turn to freshman Tait Reynolds and I am in favor of the move. There is little question having seen him and Chris Vizzina in action that Reynolds possesses superior physical tools and a higher ceiling. I believe the question for the staff is how Reynolds would handle the ups and especially the downs of live action. Clemson has learned the hard way that some of the recent quarterbacks had a very hard time recovering from bad moments once they happened. Both DJU and Cade Klubnik experienced little, if any, failure before they became the starter and the setbacks resulted in some serious mental struggles for both over their tenures. What you hope is that your quarterback can flush the bad moments quickly and not lose confidence or aggressiveness going forward. All of Clemson’s best quarterbacks had this trait in spades. The last two starters struggled when things got sticky. The sample size for Reynolds is still pretty small, but both the LSU outing and last week’s heavy snap load for the Ga. Southern game had a lot more adverse moments than ideal and you have to think both Chad Morris and Dabo Swinney feel that Reynolds has the proper mindset to advance even when some things inevitably go sideways. Until Clemson gets better OL play, the chances of sub-optimal scenarios for the QB are going to be pretty high. There is no more time to have to try to rebuild broken QBs in this modern era. Portal decisions are going to have to be driven by how quickly you can get a productive player in each position.
This UNC team coming to town is a lot better product than the mess Clemson got to feast on last year in Chapel Hill. Despite a seemingly constant firestorm of controversies surround Bill Belichick since he took over the Tarheels, they managed to make vast improvements to their defense last season and now have Bobby Petrino to run their offense. This might have seemed like an easier game on the initial schedule, but both teams have put data out there that points to a highly contested matchup. Things are feeling more and more like the majority of the 1990s when nearly every ACC foe was no game you could take for granted. Clemson must continue to improve, especially on offense, and will certainly be in big trouble Saturday if that isn’t the case.
Clemson Offense vs. UNC Defense: I feel I have to start on this side of the ball because it has been the biggest problem for the 2026 Tigers. UNC won’t have LSU’s overall defensive talent or that home field advantage, but they are certainly more capable than the Ga. Southern unit that put together 11 TFLs and 2 sacks last week. The Tiger WR corps is the only unit that has come close to producing at any consistent level, but the Chad Morris offense can’t get its explosiveness going until the run game can be established with some reasonable consistency. The lack of running game is a big factor in the lack of TE production in the passing game because that typically is a byproduct of effective play action. UNC will likely try to handle Clemson’s run game with as light a box as they can manage to help with T.J. Moore and Bryant Wesco on the outside. Teams are staying over the top on Wesco in particular knowing that if you can just keep Clemson from going over your head, its offense will malfunction within a 5-8 play sequence.
Reynolds presents a QB run threat that you would have to account for defensively. It will certainly help if Reynolds can improve his decision making in the run game which drew a lot of ire from Dabo Swinney after last week’s game. I actually take it as a good sign that Swinney was willing to go that hard on Reynolds in the press because it shows he thinks Reynolds can handle it. There was way too much kid glove treatment for DJU and Klubnik over the course of their careers, likely due to some mental fragility the coaches feared. We should know pretty quickly on Saturday how much Reynolds has been able to take from last week and apply. Swinney is right that the vast majority of us on the outside aren’t privy to exactly what each player is supposed to be doing on every play. This leads to thinking one guy made a huge mistake when it actually was someone else’s fault. Of course, what isn’t up for debate is the mistakes that are being made and how much Clemson is still losing to Clemson. The defense and special teams have cut way down on this but the offense has not. Perhaps this is the week fans can get some hope.
I had a lot of hope that the synchronicity of Dabo and Morris would immediately pay dividends with the execution on offense. Clearly that has not been the case to this stage. The Tarheels have played very good defense so far this season and essentially shut down what has traditionally been a potent TCU attack in their week 0 matchup in Ireland. The biggest worry here is that their major strength is DL which aligns with Clemson’s biggest weakness. Clemson has lived in third and long situations all season long which just opens the door to defensive coordinators getting to use all their exotic calls and coverages. The book right now is to keep Clemson in front of you on first and second down, then really get after the QB on third. The Tigers simply have to get more efficient to get to manageable third downs and convert them. Doing that will then make defenses have to get more aggressive in predictable ways you can attack for explosives. We saw how LSU did this to Clemson in the first game, turning body blows into even bigger plays when Clemson got desperate to account for them. Reynolds also provides much more of an ability to extend and create with this athleticism, which we also saw Sam Leavitt do repeatedly to Clemson which took initially good defensive calls and execution and ruined them.
The main thing is still the main thing with me: Clemson has to get at least 2 or 3 key runs they can reasonably expect to execute at an acceptable level. Without that baseline, the rest of the offense is almost completely hamstrung. Count me among the many skeptical that this OL will allow for that, but I will say I was very skeptical back in 2023 when Notre Dame came to town and that OL performance came out of nowhere to help spring that upset. I thought the 1998 OL was maybe the worst I had ever seen early that season but they gained some functionality as the season went along. That season was a disaster but the culprit became moreso turnovers than OL ineptitude as things progressed. That team had a fraction of the offensive talent this team has if the OL can just get functional. Very big ifs right now.
Clemson Defense vs. UNC Offense: Just when we thought he was out, they pulled him back in! Bobby Petrino is back in the ACC, this time running the UNC offense. His last stint at Arkansas did not go well but offense wasn’t really the issue with them. Clemson knows that he is going to test the manhood of Clemson’s front seven before he takes his chances with the Tigers secondary, which has been one of the strengths of the team. Clemson was much better last week against the run and shut that part of the Ga. Southern offense down. Holding a team to under 2 yards per carry without the benefit of a lot of TFLs is actually pretty notable.
Clemson’s defense also has to know they don’t have an offense who can bail them out right now. I think that was a big part of last year’s awful Syracuse performance on defense. They might have assumed the Tigers could score at will on what was a bad Orange defense. They also clearly didn’t think Syracuse would test their front with downhill running. By the time they knew they were in a fight, the Orange had a double digit lead and began attacking the leaky Clemson secondary. Clemson should be able to match up on the outside with UNC’s WR, but Petrino has always made great use of his tight ends in the passing game and that will be something to watch. Stopping the run is the main priority and you have to take your chances with Billy Edwards having to throw the ball a lot for them to win. I respect Jordan Shipp on the outside and he could make a play or two but making sure the trio of UNC backs aren’t keeping them ahead of the chains is paramount.
Clemson had a chance to turn Ga. Southern and LSU over more than they did in those two games. Turnovers are going to be even bigger in what looks to be a mostly even matchup coming in. Clemson’s offense needs all the help it can get so paying off those moments the defense when they get their hands on the ball is huge.
Clemson will have Vic Burley available for this game after his suspension, but it remains to be seen if he can actually make an impact. Transfer Devarrick Woods has started to come on and wasn’t really a guy many expected much from, but both he and Champ Thompson have become more important thanks to injuries to Kortney Kelly and Markus Strong. I’ve liked what I have seen from London Merritt who drew some holding calls last week whipping the OT off the edge. Will Heldt had a much better game last week and hopefully will be the impact guy folks are expecting (and Clemson is paying) him to be. Getting UNC into predictable pass scenarios would certainly help those guys out. Clemson got 74 plays last week which also helped the defense not get gassed like we saw in Baton Rouge. The big question for this week is the defense more like the group against Ga. Southern or closer to what happened at LSU once the talent level goes up on the other side?
I don’t think UNC is elite on offense, but they have pieces to hurt the Tigers if the front isn’t sound against the run. The Tigers have had to depend a great deal on their top end guys like Sammy Brown, Ashton Hampton, and Elliot Washington who have all logged heavy snap loads to this point. Last week didn’t afford the coaches to substitute more liberally because the offense could not put the game away.
Special Teams: Hey! Clemson got some really good special teams play last week and certainly needed it. No big mistakes and terrific kicking from Nolan Hauser (with help from the operations on that unit). Clemson’s lone TD came off a turnover gained from the punt coverage unit. I mentioned last week that this phase may very well be the reason Clemson can surpass last year’s win total. A lot of these league games figure to be tightly contested where the kicking game can really tip the scales. So far it looks like Rich Bisaccia was well worth the money to bring him in and lead this unit. So far so good here but it is still early and a lot more football left to play.
Overall: ACC play is here and this game is massive. The Tigers stumbled out to an 0-2 start to league play last year and the season was essentially dead in the water. Duke won the league last year despite being poor in their out of conference games. UNC thinks they might be pretty good coming in at 2-0. Clemson is looking for a reason to think it is good. New QBs always bring a certain level of buzz when those changes happen. It certainly isn’t lost on me that DeShaun Watson’s true coming out party was an evisceration of a UNC defense in his first start. I’m not expecting that level of pyrotechnics but Reynolds makes me feel better about things turning around some for the offense. Hopefully he can stay healthy and the team can gain some chemistry and belief on that side of the ball. Meanwhile, Clemson’s defense and special teams need to deliver like they did last week. Clemson won 10 games in 2021 with an awful offense because the defense and special teams held the line. Right now just getting win #2 feels as big as a major bowl game.
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