An extended offseason loaded with drama is reaching its end.
In five days’ time, it will be Saturday Night in Death Valley. That will be a first for Lane Kiffin in purple and gold and a first for Clemson’s program which has never played at LSU. The eyes of the nation will be watching.
This piece will run weekly on Mondays during the season and will focus on the numbers of LSU’s opponents. Considering Clemson lost its quarterback, four offensive linemen, its starting running back, top receiver and changed offensive coordinators, rattling off stats from last year’s offensive unit wouldn’t matter much. The defense was overhauled, too. LSU has more than 50 new players. The 2025 season won’t impact Saturday, so why write much about it. It doesn’t matter.
Let’s stick to some of the numbers that do.
144 – Christopher Vizzina’s offensive snap count over a three-year career. He’s 45-for-71 (63%) passing with four touchdowns and one interception.
317 – Yards passing by Vizzina in his only career start last season versus SMU
17.2– Bryant Wesco Jr’s yards per catch average as Clemson Tiger. He missed six games last season because of injury, but he was on pace for an All-American season. He’s the fourth player in Clemson history to reach 1,000 yards in 15 games and has 11 touchdown catches in 19 career games played. He led Clemson in receiver versus LSU last year.
6 – Years since Chad Morris called a college offense. He was Guz Malzahn’s final offensive coordinator at Auburn. Since then, he’s been the head coach at Allen High School in Texas, worked as an analyst at South Florida and Clemson, and worked as the passing game coordinator at Texas State before taking a year off to watch his son play last fall.
505 – Career tackles from Whit Weeks, TJ Dottery and Davhon Keys.
88 – The yards per game average improvement for LSU’s defense in two years under Blake Baker. LSU allowed 416.6 yards per game in 2023 as the 108th total defense in the country prior to Baker’s arrival. He improved that to 364.4 yards (61st) in 2024, and last year LSU allowed 328.6 yards per game, 27th nationally.
16 – Sam Leavitt wins in 20 starts for Arizona State
55 – Clemson’s national ranking in scoring defense. In his first season at Clemson, Tom Allen’s defense allowed 356.7 yards per game for 55th in the country. That ranked 8th in the ACC.
17.1 – The average yards per reception last season for Jayce Brown (17.3), Jackson Harris (19.6) and Winnie Watkins (14.3). All three made a lot of big plays, and they’ll be asked to do so for a head coach and offensive coordinator who led the SEC in total offense, 20-yard passes and 30-yard passes last year.
15.5 – Tackles for loss by Clemson DE Will Heldt last season. That was fifth in the ACC and tied with Miami’s Reuben Bain who played three more games.
106 – Tackles by Clemson linebacker Sammy Brown last year which was the second most in the ACC.
7 – Touchdown catches by Trey’Dez Green last season. That’s the most by a tight end in LSU history. His 11 career touchdown catches are the most in the program’s history, too.
4 – The number of sacks Jordan Seaton allowed in 1,370 offensive snaps at Colorado.
8 – Clemson returning starts, four on offense and four on defense
65 – Clemson’s winning percentage over the last four seasons. That number dips to 63% in conference games. Dabo Sweeney is 187-53 overall at Clemson. That’s 78%. The last three years have been below the standard.
