Orange Crush Podcast: The Aftermath - Clemson crushes App State | Postgame breakdown & more!

welcome everybody to our aftermath edition of the orange crush podcast my name is Grayson man alongside David Hood before we get into an absolute firework show from the Clemson offense we want to thank our friends and our sponsors for this podcast starting with Chick-fil-A Clemson senica for all your catering needs shout out to our guy herb Tyler and also we want to thank n accounting over in Greenville South Carolina we want to thank our sponsors for today's aftermath Edition David explosions records so many big things happened today let's start with the first third Play Rather Bryant Wesco Jr made quite the Splash in his home debut and you know the first two plays were kind of watching it out there and the first two plays and had a negative one yard and you I could I was kind of watching the fans down in front of me and you could see the head shaking and the murmuring starting and one of the guys down below me said well it's third and 11 here comes a screen pass guess what wasn't a screen pass uh Tigers take the shot deep hit West CO over the top what a beginning for that kid uh big time 76 yard touchdown pass from from Kade kumnick and you know he just kind of broke out into the open nobody was going to catch him at that point I watched the appstate defender just kind of give up and um you I have uh you know have a hood calling it I said first play but it was the third play I said let's go for a deep shot there but uh a lot of fun and it was just beginning 35 points in the first quarter the most Under head coach D Sweeny yeah and we we we all can't be perfect David getting on the first or the third place but talking of Fout perfect I I think we should just immediately segue to Kate kumnick and just the night that he had I think it's easy to say that the Georgia matchup it was a shaky performance and Sweeney told us all week that there were some bright spots and you'll have to just be a little patient to see them and boy did he come out swinging it felt like he was in command he had time to make his throws he was I think nine different targets in the first quarter alone he was really spreading the ball out well 24 of 26 and seven total touchdowns easily his best career performance and it took him two quarters 378 yards breaks the 320 that he set when he threw that against North Carolina in the ACC Championship game in 2022 five touchdowns the career high and then the great stat for me is that like you said 24 for 26 unbelievable 92 percentage 92% uh first player since 1999 to have five passing touchdowns two rushing touchdowns and throw for over 90% in a game so a lot of games been played and a lot of great quarterbacks since then and uh those are pretty good numbers and he was all smiles he went to do the ACCC huddle you know show postgame show all smiles came into the interview room laughing ask him where his table was a kid that looked to be happy and in his element absolutely and I think it's easy to be in your element when the offensive line plays like it did I think another solid performance from them just taking it to another level Tonight Phil mafa got involved he was a 100 yard rusher tonight uh the Matt Luke effect David it it feels like to me it's one of those hires that you bring in to really affect change and make a difference and it it really been two games even with some rotations Marcus Tate didn't play tonight but no drop off with Colin Sadler coming in I think I would love to pose this question to you especially heading into this by week how crucial are these two weeks of film for this line going hey heading into ACC play we're pretty darn good yeah they're doing great and you know watch Kristen Lee the left tackle in pregame and uh dbo stayed away from that uh uh portion of it Tristan Lee was down there had the entire team gathered around him uh you know what do they call it a Haka uh when the Polynesians get together and they kind of have that pregame chant you know and all that going on and that's what it looked like Tristan Lee was down there doing and he was he was howling like a wolf and getting those guys fired up and it's good to see somebody on that offensive line not only play well but take leadership absolutely you you saw Tristan lean I think you you and I both agree he was our favorite press conference from the week talking about saying hey I have more confidence in this team after watching the film and maybe Clemson fans May scratch their heads going it was a three-point performance but I think having a guy like him who the story is incredible and I apologize if you hear a truck backing up in the background but you have this level of Confidence from a guy that's really gone from one point and really had a journey I wrote about it on tiger that he appreciates every moment and so even if it's 34 to3 or 66 to 20 he's along for the ride and just taking it all in that's the valuable leadership that this offense has it's Club it's Lee it's guys like Antonio Williams having a bounce back here bring having a good start there's a lot of pieces that are coming together through this group David and I think that continuity is already starting to pay off it is and I maybe the funny funny moment for the night was uh one of the ESPN guys at halftime I kind of looked at him and I raised my eyebrows as he walked by and he said you know well who knew that K kumnick was going to turn into effing Joe namoth uh tonight in this game and I thought that that was just absolutely hilarious and just kind of the way that the entire night went and you know not only did Tristan Lee get to play and play well but they got to rotate a lot of guys in on that offensive line I looked out there big dietr Pennington who's been working hard man he's rolling in there at left guard they had some guys get in that you know got some valuable playing time Christopher VZ we get to see him his first extended action as a as a tiger and he scored a touchdown wasn't bad we got to see Jay Haynes got to see some of those running backs roll through uh TJ Moore caught a touchdown pass 29 yards or or something like that uh just a really a great night when you can not only win win convincingly against a really good program but play a lot of kids yeah and Sweeney said it tonight I think this is the sixth winningest program since I think 2016 that may be the the year so this is an app State team a lot of Clemson fans talking to me before the game being like I'm really nervous this is a team that has history of coming into big spots on the road they smell blood in the water and for Clemson it certainly was if you have a cut in your arm it was certainly pouring out the Sharks were circling and they came out and I think the urgency and Sweeney I think said on the broadcast I'm gonna give you the I'm gonna give the offense the ball every freaking time to yall grow up and boy did they grow up tonight I I I I don't think and I know David you've been around here a while you've seen the good old days from back when Clemson was throwing these points around like it was nothing but for me this is my third year doing this I haven't seen a performance like this and for Clemson fans watching David I'm going to let the the wiser more seasoned veteran here have the Nuance take here how should Clemson fans react to these first two weeks because certainly it's two very different results 63 points worth for sure two two very different results and and you know that but that's what happens when your quarterback comes out with some confidence I I almost believe that when Kade missed that first pass against George that passed him off in the flat when he missed it it shook him a little bit and and then George is just so good come on now that's you know if not the top defense in the country it's one of the top and uh but but he came out tonight and it was firing and you know I love the game plan to go ahead and get him a deep shot early to try and get that confidence going that's really the difference and that you know the wide receivers are running open Antonio Williams that throw to him was beautiful it was gorgeous he's running wild in the back of the end zone you didn't see that kind of Separation last week so now you you kind of take both of these games and you say okay so NC State's coming up next they're good they're not Georgia good better than AB State probably even though they got beat 51 to 10 tonight they've got Louisiana Tech next week at home and uh so they they should be you know a twoin one team coming into Death Valley in two weeks and so you just are hoping that you can kind of find a happy medium between what you saw well you'd love to have what you had tonight against Dy State find a happy medium between the two and I always thought David you can tell me if this feels crazy I felt if Clemson was two- one after three games that they'd be in a good position moving forward and I know the Georgia result speaks a drastically different tale but I think for Clemson it was always hey if they can start ACC play off the right foot with especially how the playoff format has changed you win the ACC and you go 11 and one it's likely that you're not only in the playoff you're a top four seed and so for Clemson it's going to just each week it's going to get drastically more important in a night like tonight where you've sort of flipped it where Georgia put you in a bind it was clear that the talent level just I think it's fair to say what George is a lot more talented than Clemson and you say okay on paper Clemson is a lot more talented than AB State let's see what they do with that kind of discreption and they put Abate in a bind quickly and really shut it down before appstate had a chance to breathe and I think that's what fans needed to see tonight and they got in a big way they did and then not not to uh to rain on the parade but there's always something that you can take away coaching wise or you can say that wasn't good uh if you're Clemson defensively are you beginning to worry a little bit about the the pass rush I think they affected Joey aular a little bit but still one sack so now they've got one sack through two games and then the Miss tackles uh appalachin State figured out pretty fast that they were able to kind of get Clemson out on the edge with their running backs and get some chunk plays out there some Miss tackles linebackers maybe still not playing really well that's got to get cleaned up because uh NC state has a little cat by the name of David concepion who's really good he can make some plays so you know Dicky tacky stuff sure 66 to 20 but yeah I think maybe there's some things on that defense that really need to be cleaned up and I think in a way that's a healthy balance for this Clemson team because you don't want to ride it too high and I think they understand that after being on the receiving end of it you've been blown out and then you're the one that's hunting and so for Clemson it's hey we have things to correct but we also have confidence and not just it's one thing to have confidence after a result like Georgia but I think it's another thing to have a result like AB State and go okay there's proof in the pudding we can do this there's a happy medium in there for Clemson I think we'll find that out on September 21st it's September 8th right now as David and I are recording this it's about 2 o'clock in the morning and people are moving in and out of this work room David's back home uh David do we have any final thoughts before we wrap up this aftermath pod we want to thank everybody for tuning in this will drop tomorrow morning uh me and David well this morning yes that's that's true that's true no you know just uh I think this is uh you you probably after a performance like tonight you would love to play next week but with the injury to Peter Woods uh he had that nasty chop block Dabo said they're going to turn that in uh turn that film into the officials to see what that is that was nasty uh hope he's not hurt probably find out a little bit more about that tomorrow Tyler Brown has played sparingly the first couple of weeks he's been dealing with an ankle issue dab us said he rolled it so you know maybe this open date comes at a pretty good time I would say so and with ACC play coming along the way we'll have plenty of coverage for over at tigernet.com you can check Dave and i stuff out we're going to be rolling stuff out pretty much daily guys and you got it this is the best time to be tapped into what we're doing here we'll have the podcast we'll have stories notes quotes all that good stuff and once again this was Grayson M alongside David Hood in the orange crush aftermath podcast really excited to bring this to you guys have a great by week and take care