What happened to LSU Football and Clemson Football?

Before the season began, both LSU football and Clemson football programs were ranked in the top 10. Both looked to be amazing football teams in the 2023 season, and both looked absolutely horrible in week 1.

Let’s start with Clemson Football and Dabo Swinney. The Tigers lost DJ Uiagalelei to the transfer portal, and many thought he was the problem, but he absolutely tore it up for Oregon State this past weekend. DJ was not the problem, and after watching Clemson, they have a lot more problems that we initially thought.

To be honest, I am not sure how Dabo and company will even respond after the uppercut they received last night from Duke. Duke won their first major football game against a ranked opponent since 1989, and they looked amazing. They were punching Clemson in the mouth the entire night and finished winning 28-7.

Swinney praised his young quarterback Cade Klubnik for his poise and bounce back ability, but how will he bounce back from the Labor Day letdown? Clemson’s longest play from scrimmage was just 21 yards.

Klubnik was intercepted once, but they did not look like the powerhouse team they have always looked.

It was an ugly effort in every regard on behalf of the Tigers. They are not the only team that looked horrible this weekend. LSU Tigers also looked horrid.

Brian Kelly was supposed to turn this program around and Jayden Daniels had all the hype leading into the season for LSU football. Well, that hype stopped in Orlando, Florida when Florida State beat the breaks off the Tigers.

Even head coach Brian Kelly said it was a total failure.

“This is a total failure from a coaching standpoint and a player standpoint that we have to obviously address and we have to own,” Kelly said. “I know adversity is always going to strike at some time in this game, and this is our first real piece of adversity that we have to address. I’m confident our guys and our coaches will rally in the manner that they need to.”

LSU was ranked 5th in the polls and had hopes of getting to the National Championship game this year. Well, they are going to have to overcome quite a bit now because it was such a lopsided loss to Florida State.

The loss marked LSU’s largest defeat as a ranked team in a season opener in the AP poll era (since 1936).

This comes after head coach Brian Kelly made headlines when he said on his opening radio show of the season, “We’re gonna go beat the heck out of Florida State.” 

Well, as of right now, LSU and Clemson are not who they thought they were. Both in my opinion do not deserve to be in the Top 10. So it will be interesting to see what they do in the weeks to come.