Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images
By Hunt Palmer
After Texas and Ohio State duel in the Horseshoe, the eyes of college football will turn to Clemson for the battle of top 10 Tigers.
It’s the premier matchup in primetime, and the winner will emerge as a College Football Playoff favorite. The loser will have some soul searching to do and a bit of a high wire act to follow for an at-large bid.
It’s high stakes.
This game has been dissected every which way. That’s what happens with openers. Clemson features a load of returning talent that feels fairly straightforward to analyze, however, a coordinator change on defense does add a variable. LSU returns its coordinators, but a revamped offensive line and a slew of transfers on both sides of the ball make the visiting Tigers something of an unknown.
The point spread has hovered around 3.5, the general amount for a home edge in college football, for months. That indicates Las Vegas feels like the sides are evenly matched. I feel the same way.
Here are three matchups to watch in this massive season opener.
CLEMSON DL vs LSU OL
This one has been talked about ad nauseam, but I can’t find a more impactful matchup on the field. Dismissing it would be disingenuous.
Peter Woods and T.J. Parker have first round mock draft grades at this point, and Will Heldt was extremely productive at Purdue last season. Those three headline Clemson’s group, and it sounds like DeMonte Capehart will be the fourth starter as a super senior.
Woods is 6-foot-3, 310 pounds, and he’s very quick for his size. Last year, out of necessity, Clemson played him at defensive end a good bit. That’s not his ideal spot, but he played it admirably. He’s got 11 tackles for loss and three sacks over two seasons. Those aren’t game-wrecking numbers, but his talent is obvious. That’s why NFL scouts are on him.
Yeah, this Peter Woods guy is a terror. Good lord. pic.twitter.com/QwC8skVzA8
— Jon Helmkamp (@JonHelmkamp) August 22, 2025
Parker is a game wrecker. He had 19 tackles for loss and 11 sacks last year from his edge spot. Those tackles for loss ranked him fifth in the country. He’s 6-foot-3, 280 pounds and can really move. He wins with his get off, hands, bull rush and speed. It’s the complete package. Pittsburgh simply couldn’t block him last season. He finished that game with five tackles for loss including four sacks. That’s wrecking a game.
TJ Parker days until kickoff pic.twitter.com/mwYJJVlYAs
— Spammy Watkins (@SpammyWatkins) August 27, 2025
Heldt had 10 tackles for loss and five sacks at Purdue last year before hopping in the transfer portal. Dabo Swinney hasn’t made a habit of dipping into the portal, but he made an exception for Heldt, the 6-foot-6 edge from the Big Ten.
By now, you know about LSU’s offensive line question marks.
With Carius Curne held out of some practice last week, the tackles very much figure to be Tyree Adams and Weston Davis. They’ll have to handle Heldt and Parker, and that’s 41 games and 29 starts against 13 games and two starts.
Adams and Davis have seen talented, old edge players all spring and summer with Jack Pyburn, Jimari Butler, Patrick Payton and Gabriel Reliford rushing them daily. I think they’ve handled themselves admirably, but the edges have had their share of wins.
Asking the new tackles to silence these two ends is wishful. Demanding that they keep the two ends from destroying LSU’s passing game is essential. One of LSU’s advantages is the speed on the outside. Those routes take some time to get down the field. Adams and Davis must show some resistance to Parker and Heldt at the line of scrimmage to let LSU’s receivers win down the field.
On the interior, LSU’s offensive line has struggled in camp. DJ Chester, Paul Mubenga and Coen Echols have played musical chairs at guard with Josh Thompson anchoring the other side. Braelin Moore has been good. But he can’t do everything in there.
Woods is handful, and someone is going to have to deal with him. Capehart hasn’t been massively productive in four years, but he’s another 315 pound load that will take some space up.
If LSU’s guards can’t keep the pocket clean for Garrett Nussmeier, he can’t be effective. Nussmeier can’t make a living evading the rush all night and throwing on the run. The pass rush is the chief concern for Joe Sloan and the LSU offense.
Conversely, this is a lot of the same cast of Clemson characters that was atrocious against the run last year. Stanford ran for 236, Louisville ran for 210, The Citadel ran for 288 and South Carolina ran for 267 before Texas ran Clemson right out of the playoffs with 292 on the ground.
Right now, Clemson’s front isn’t the Steel Curtain, but it is a collection of monster talent lining up across from a completely untested LSU front.
I think it’s fair to say the outcome of this matchup will go a very long way in deciding how the game plays out. LSU doesn’t have to dominate, but the Tigers must hold the line of scrimmage.
CLEMSON WIDE RECEIVERS vs. LSU DEFENSIVE BACKS
LSU secondary has been scorched in the three Brain Kelly openers. If that happens again, LSU is in trouble. Like Jordan Travis, Keon Coleman and Johnny Wilson who came before Miller Moss throwing to Zachariah Branch, Ja’Kobi Lane and Malachi Lemon, this is another big-time group of skill players facing the Tigers in game one.
Antonio Williams is back from a 904-yard season that included an ACC-best 11 touchdown catches. He’s lightning quick and always seems to be open. He’s great around the line of scrimmage, and he can make big plays down the field, thanks to precise route running.
WR Antonio Williams – Clemson
The third element of Clemson’s anticipated offense to complement their sophomore star duo. A smooth slot operator with ball skills, who can win in multiple directions before and after the catch. pic.twitter.com/9JhsfLVyz4
— Rohan (@RK_DRAFT) August 25, 2025
Williams’s partners in crime are now sophomores after fantastic freshman campaigns.
TJ Moore is 6-foot-3 and had 651 yards receiving last year. He’s the physical presence in the group that tends to make more contested catches. Moore is a long strider who is faster than he looks because he covers so much ground. Bryant Wesco Jr. evolved into Clemson’s deep threat a year ago and averaged a team-high 17.3 yards per catch.
It’s as talented a top three as there is in college football.
The LSU’s secondaries of the last two seasons would not have been able to keep up. The 2023 unit ranked 118th in passing defense, and the 2024 group finished 76th. That number dipped to 93rd in terms of yards per attempt.
Those groups also didn’t put up much of a fight in fall camp. The 2025 group absolutely did.
Mansoor Delane has been steady. Ashton Stamps and PJ Woodland have another year under Corey Raymond’s tutelage, and DJ Pickett is the biggest talent of them all. Cade Klubnik is going to find some open receivers, but LSU will make some plays on the ball, too. Assuming LSU’s front can handle its business against a veteran Clemson offensive line with an unproven stable of running backs, Clemson will need to lean on this gifted group on the outside. That’s where this matchup takes center stage.
Based on previous production, this looks like a Clemson edge on paper. I’m just not so sure the edge is big. I’m bullish on the LSU secondary for the first time in five years. We’ll see if that manifests itself on Saturday night.
SPECIAL TEAMS
LSU brought in Aman Anand from Grambling to run the special teams, and they’ve worked it hard in fall camp. The specialists should be a strength.
Damian Ramos is back for his fourth year as the starting kicker. He’s been in that role since Brian Kelly took over. He’s made 77 percent of his kicks which is seventh all-time at LSU.
Grant Chadwick was all-CUSA last year as a freshman at Middle Tennessee State and should be a huge upgrade at punter for an LSU unit that was awful last year.
Barion Brown and Zavion Thomas are record-setting return men who might be the best two in the SEC. It appears Brown, who has five career kickoff return touchdowns, will handle those duties. Thomas will return punts. He’s got a punt return touchdown and two kickoff return scores to his name over three seasons.
BARION BROWN 🔥
Kickoff return touchdown for Brown in back-to-back games.
— Brendan Moore (@bmoorecfb) December 29, 2023
Plus, Aeron Burrell is an automatic kickoff touchback.
Clemson has had significant issues on special teams.
The Tigers had six field goals blocked a season ago. That was worst in the country. When Nolan Hauser‘s kicks got airborne, he was damn good as a freshman. The highlight was the 56-yarder than won the ACC Championship Game. Hauser set the national record for high school field goals and can be relied on to knock it through the uprights, but what about the blocks?
Dabo Swinney said this week that he’s not sure who the punter will be and that he may have to watch pregame warmups to figure it out. Three punters are in the running, and Swinney said, “they’ve all been really good, and they’ve all been just OK.”
In a game Vegas has separated by a field goal, a shanked punt or a blocked kick could swing things. That’s not to mention a huge return of some kind.
The specialists aren’t the Heisman hopefuls or sure-fire first rounders, but they play a huge role. It feels like this leans LSU’s way.
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