Syracuse Football: 5 questions with Clemson PxP Don Munson

Time to understand who exactly is coming into the Carrier Dome to play the Syracuse football squad. To do that we go Behind Enemy Lines on ITLH.

The Syracuse football team has fought back to .500 on the season with their victory last week over the Pitt Panthers. It was a unique victory for the Orange, none of their previous victories have come down to the wire like this. I think it was good for the team.

Now after playing back-to-back road games will now be in the lovely confines of the dome for another ACC foe. Although this will be the best team the Orange play this season. The Clemson Tigers come into this game undefeated (6-0) and this is the third straight season they’ve started 6-0.

To learn a bit more about this team, we sat down with Play-by-Play Voice Don Munson from the Clemson Tigers. This team won the national championship last year and lost a ton of talent in this past year’s NFL Draft.

Last season things weren’t pretty, the Orange were blanked 54-0 last season in Death Valley. But according to our guest Don Munson, this year’s team is even better than last season. So how different is this year’s squad? Who are the big playmakers in this game? How does it play out? All of those questions will be answered in this thrilling interview.

Paul A. Esden Jr. (@BoyGreen25): 

Welcome to the program Don, so lets jump right in on how we got to this point. The Clemson Tigers are 6-0, how did that happen?

Don Munson (@WDonaldMunson):

Well they just come out and handle a game at a time. The Tigers just go week-to-week taking care of who is right in front of them. They don’t think ahead. Clemson doesn’t get caught peeking ahead or trap games or anything like that like the media does. A lot of us in the media do it and that’s including myself.

Head coach Dabo Swinney does a wonderful job of making sure the team is focused. It’s what he calls “windshield mentality”. Guys you just have to concentrate on what’s right in front of you. So believe me, all this week the concentration has been on Syracuse and no one else. The Tigers are hoping they can head to the Carrier Dome on Friday night and take care of some business.

Paul A. Esden Jr. (@BoyGreen25): 

This is going to say hypocritical but I hate when the media does this speculation and we all break it down. But I’m going to ask the question anyway, is there any fear within the Clemson institution that if and when Nick Saban inevitably retires from the Crimson Tide, that Dabo Swinney would head back in a, ‘mama is calling me home’ kind of situation?

Don Munson (@WDonaldMunson):

No I don’t think that’s a fear. That’s something that’ll always be stirred up. Dabo isn’t afraid to say how much he loves Alabama. He grew up right in there and it’s a part of his DNA. So he’s not going to be afraid to talk about that. But to be fearful about that? Nah.

Here’s the thing, none of us are promised tomorrow. Just enjoy what you have going on today. You add nothing to your life just worrying about things. Just attack the day and get the day taken care of. That’s the way he approaches it and I think that’s a good lesson for all of us.

Paul A. Esden Jr. (@BoyGreen25): 

Okay Don, looking forward to the rest of the Clemson schedule. The questions of could this be another undefeated team are starting to perk up. If there were a most dangerous team left on the schedule, who would it be? Who would be on Clemson’s radar that could take the team down?

Don Munson (@WDonaldMunson):

Uhm, Syracuse is the most dangerous. I know I’m starting to sound like coach Swinney and a lot of that is because I

use to work in the department with the coach for years. So yeah he has rubbed off on me. Here’s the thing, if you don’t think Syracuse can beat Clemson, then you’re crazy, because they definitely can.

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Here’s the thing I love about Syracuse. Head coach Dino Babers, much like Swinney, has a vision.

He’s beginning to establish his culture. Also continuing on that, Babers has a style, both offensively and defensively.

You can bottle up and sell that to recruits. To be perfectly honest, Syracuse hasn’t had that over

the last several years. So Dino really appears to have it all with his personality, his schematics, and his culture.

I’d imagine that Dino isn’t only persuasive and influential to recruits but more importantly to the parents of those recruits in their living room. That’s why if I’m a Syracuse fan, I’m pretty excited for the present and the future. I love his attitude and the way he handles his business.

Paul A. Esden Jr. (@BoyGreen25): 

So last season Clemson won the National Championship and they did so with NFL first round pick Deshaun Watson who is doing wonderful things in the NFL. Now this year Clemson has Kelly Bryant and they haven’t skipped a beat, can you talk about the differences between these two players?

Don Munson (@WDonaldMunson):

While so far they’ve achieved the same results, they’ve done it in completely different ways. For instance, Deshaun was a guy that blazed you with his arm and occasionally he’d tuck it and run. Obviously a couple years ago he did that in the Carrier Dome. But you wouldn’t characterize Watson as a run first quarterback.

While Kelly Bryant, through six games so far this season has very similar numbers to what Watson put up last year. The real difference is Bryant has a lot of his touchdowns on the ground as opposed to through the air.

So the biggest difference offensively is that this team isn’t airing it out. They’re grinding out games on the ground. They come in averaging a little over 233 rushing yards per game. The key is they get enough of the passing game going so that the run game can thrive.

But make no mistake about it, Bryant can throw the football. While this week he’s battling a foot injury from last week, he’s continuing to work through it. The expectation is that he’s going to play on Friday. The team is aware that they lost pieces last year. Coach Dabo loves to say it’s not about who you lost but who you have right now.

Paul A. Esden Jr. (@BoyGreen25): 

Don something I noticed when I was researching these two teams was that the leading rusher for both Clemson and Syracuse comes via their quarterback position. Everyone here in SU cringes every time Dungey takes off. So what gives?

Don Munson (@WDonaldMunson):

I think that number is a bit misleading for the Clemson side of things because the Tigers are a running back by committee. They literally have four guys back there that will all get touches. Each of them will probably get at least five carries apiece.

So because of that rotation, it kind of skews the numbers so to speak. At Clemson we just have a different thing going in our backfield as it pertains to rushing the football.

Next: Syracuse Football: Top 5 Plays of Week 6 Versus Pitt (video highlights)

Although before we close things out the golden goose is the health status of Kelly Bryant and how he’s recovering from that foot injury. He got hit low, it’s listed as an ankle sprain. So far from what I’ve seen in practice I don’t think he’ll be 100% in this game. But I do know he’ll be pretty close to that on Friday. Here’s the thing about this Clemson coaching staff, if they feel they’re going to be putting a player in jeopardy by playing him, they simply won’t play him.