Our defense vs. their offense: Clemson Tigers

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After kicking off the 2025 college football season against one another in South Carolina, the LSU Tigers and Clemson Tigers are set to square off once more to open the 2026 campaign. Baton Rouge will play host to Dabo Swinney and the Tigers just over a year since the teams’ previous contest. While a lot has changed for both schools since then, one thing that remained in place for LSU is defensive coordinator Blake Baker. Ahead of Saturday’s matchup, let’s take a look at the defensive overview.

Clemson ranked in the back half of the country last year when it came to scoring production. As they averaged just over 27 points per game, the Tigers did most of their damage through the air. Clemson passed for nearly 268 yards per game, ranking 24th nationwide. Running the football came more as a struggle, however. The Tigers rushed for just 124.5 YPG as they slotted at 105th overall in the statistic.

In last year’s game, LSU limited Clemson to just ten points scored. Although there was heavy interest from other teams in LSU’s Blake Baker for open head coaching positions, Lane Kiffin managed to retain the elite coordinator as an anchor piece to ushering in this new phase of football in Louisiana.

The Tigers held opponents to less than 20 points per game last season and will likely be at the front of the pack once more with returning players like Whit Weeks and DJ Pickett as well as newcomers like Lamar Brown and Princewill Umanmielen.

Now, without Kade Clubnik at the helm, Clemson will need to find new ways to attack an LSU defense that is stout and aggressive. Inside of a hostile environment, things will only get increasingly difficult for the Tigers to pull an upset bid in Kiffin’s debut with LSU.

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