Clemson will be coming into their second home game of the 2023 season likely at 2-0 (1-0) when they will welcome the Florida Atlantic Owls to Death Valley on September 16th at 8:00 pm. This will be the first game that Clemson has played against the Owls since 2006 where the Tigers earned the victory 54-6.
DID YOU KNOW: A fun piece of history between Clemson and Florida Atlantic; in 2019 when Clemson was hosting Charlotte, Walt Disney Pictures was filming for the movie “Safety” where they shot that 2006 matchup at halftime of the game.
Florida Atlantic Welcoming New Coach:
Florida Atlantic hired a big name head coach in December of 2022 when they brought in former Texas coach, Tom Herman. Herman was the coach at Texas from 2017-2020 where he amassed a record of 32-18. Herman is the 6th head coach in the history of the program at Florida Atlantic.
Florida Atlantic By The Numbers:
Florida Atlantic had the 47th overall offense in the 2022 season which is one spot higher than where Clemson finished (48th). The Owls will also be breaking in a new quarterback this fall, the projected starter is redshirt sophomore Tyriq Starks. Starks will be taking over for Miami transfer N’Kosi Perry, who last year went 215-371 for 25 touchdowns and 5 interceptions. Florida Atlantic will return a 1,000 yard rusher with Larry McCammon III, who had 194 rushes for 1,022 yards, averaging 5.2 yards per attempt.
Florida Atlantic is returning the third most production in the nation from a season ago, with 83% production returning. The Owls return 68% of offensive production, 59th overall and 99% of their defensive production which ranks first overall.
While they are bringing back 99% of their defensive production, their defense ranked 107th overall in total defense; giving up 6.03 yards per play 424.8 yards per game, but finished at 64th overall in scoring defense allowing only 26.58 points per game. On paper, Clemson should be able to move the ball but will obviously have to be better than they were under the previous offensive coordinator, Brandon Streeter, once in the red zone.
What Will The Game Look Like?
Florida Atlantic has plenty of veterans on this team and will be excited for the opportunity to come in and play against one of the nations elite programs, in a night game at Death Valley. Excitement however will not be enough to surpass the talent, depth, and coaching edge that Clemson will have coming into this game.
Clemson will be coming into this contest off of games at Duke, and at home against Charleston Southern, so they should have had a good amount of opportunities to work out any early season kinks. The Owls gave up 245.8 passing yards per game last season so this should be another good opportunity for sophomore QB Cade Klubnik to continue to grow in the passing game, and become more comfortable inside of the pocket.
Florida Atlantic gave up 179 yards per game last season on the ground, which means we should see Will Shipley and Phil Mafah feast on the ground. This will be the last “tune-up” game before Clemson plays Florida State so we should not expect to see too much put on tape in this game, but Clemson should still have plenty of firepower to win this one comfortably and make sure everyone is healthy and ready for the full conference slate.
