Booger McFarland Sounds off on Clemson’s CFP Loss to Texas

Following the first-round College Football Playoff game between Clemson and Texas this past Saturday, ESPN’s Booger McFarland gave his reaction to the fifth-seeded Longhorns’ 38-24 victory over the No. 12 seed Tigers at DKR-Texas Memorial Stadium in Austin, Texas.

McFarland credited the Texas offensive line for its performance that helped produce four rushing touchdowns and a season-high 292 rushing yards – nearly twice the number of rushing yards Clemson allowed on average this season entering the CFP game.

Clemson came into the game allowing 150.5 rushing yards per contest, 74th nationally, and Texas nearly matched that total with 148 rushing yards in the first half alone. Entering the game, the Tigers were tied for 90th nationally allowing 4.56 yards per carry, and the Longhorns easily surpassed that number with 6.1 yards per carry in the contest.

“All these teams in this tournament have flaws. You have to make them play to their flaws,” McFarland said. “If you look at Texas, their flaw in the end is when they can’t run the football, but you have to take it away, and Clemson couldn’t take it away. It wasn’t even about one back, it was all of them. Downhill — whether it was (Jaydon) Blue, (Quintrevion) Wisner – left, right, inside, outside. It was like Burger King – have it any way you want to. They had it that way today.”

Wisner tallied 110 yards and two scores on 15 rushing attempts, while Blue led the Longhorns with 146 yards and two touchdowns on 14 carries, including a backbreaking 77-yard touchdown with 10:48 left in the fourth quarter — two plays after the Tigers had rallied from 21 points down to cut their deficit to 31-24.

“It was almost as if the Clemson defenders didn’t understand how fast he was,” McFarland said of Blue. “They took bad angles, they did not know how to tackle him, and early on, you just saw Sark (Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian) calling really good plays. … The dominance up front was established early on.”

“Clemson had cut it to seven points. They came out, run the football. When in trouble, let’s go to what we do best. Texas went to the run game,” McFarland added of Blue’s 77-yard score.

After that, the Tigers saw two fourth-quarter drives stall as they attempted to cut into the lead again, including a fourth-down stop against running back Keith Adams Jr. on the 1-yard line.

“Fourth-and-goal, you’re going to run the football at maybe the strength of the Texas defense, those two defensive tackles,” McFarland said. “Not a smart call in my opinion by Dabo.”

In stark contrast to Texas, Clemson struggled to get its running game going while rushing for just 76 yards on 24 carries (3.2 average). Phil Mafah, plagued by a nagging shoulder injury, had just 9 yards on two carries.

“Understand this, Clemson is a good football team, and so I’m not going to take anything away from them,” McFarland said. “They gave up some yards, but in the end, the fourth-down stop on the goal line, (Texas’s) ability to take the run game away. Good defenses take away what you want to do.

“Clemson wanted to run the football with Phil Mafah. The Texas defense took that away. I’m going to make you play with one hand tied behind your back. … Texas, even though they gave up yards, they did a good job of taking away what Clemson wanted to do, which was run the football — and I know Phil Mafah was banged up — they took away the run game all throughout the game.”

Clemson quarterback Cade Klubnik did his best to will the Tigers to a come-from-behind win. The junior from Austin completed 26-of-43 passes for 336 yards and three touchdowns with one interception, but his admirable efforts weren’t enough as the comeback bid fell short.

“He played well, but they put too much on him,” McFarland said of Klubnik. “Clemson couldn’t run the football. Only 76 yards rushing for Clemson, and now you put everything on Cade Klubnik. His stats will say he had a really good game. But when they needed him to make plays throughout the game to keep drives alive, third downs, he just could not do it. And Clemson’s gonna rue their inability to run the football in this game.”

–Photo courtesy Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

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