In what could be their most challenging game yet, the Miami Hurricanes will travel up to Death Valley to take on the Clemson Tigers in Week 5.
Clemson was dominated by LSU in its season opener, losing 51-10. Since then, the Tigers have won three straight games, most recently a 24-10 road win over California last Friday.
Head coach Dabo Swinney may not have the championship-caliber roster that he had in previous years, but the Tigers are still loaded with NFL talent. Cornerback Ashton Hampton has allowed just nine completions on 26 targets this season, while edge rusher Will Heldt leads the team with four sacks. Both players are projected first-round picks in CBS Sports’ latest 2027 NFL Mock Draft.
“They look the part. They have probably a handful of first, second-round players. When you look at the skill set of defenses, when they have that many NFL players, typically they’re pretty good,” Miami offensive coordinator Shannon Dawson told reporters on Monday. “The way I look at them is simple. They're hard to beat in general. I don’t know if they’ve gotten beat at their place a ton over the last decade. That place is tough to play.”
Dawson is expecting Clemson’s “very best” on Saturday night.
“They’re getting better every week,” he said. “I know everybody looks at the first game. Georgia beat them by a lot a few years ago too in the first game and they went to the college playoffs. We know they’re a good team. We know that they're well-coached. They have a lot of pride. We know a lot about those guys. We expect their very best.”
As for the Tigers’ offense, a breakout star has emerged in their backfield: sophomore running back Gideon Davidson.
Through four games, Davidson has rushed for 346 yards and three touchdowns on 59 carries. Against Cal, he totaled a career-high 159 rushing yards and two touchdowns.
“Tremendous contact balance. He can accelerate. He runs behind his pads, runs through tackles, rarely gets tackled by the first guy, explosive,” Hurricanes head coach Mario Cristobal said about Davidson. “This past week, they ran sprint draw on third-and-long, and he just finds a crease, gets a good wall block right there by a couple linemen, takes off and nobody catches him … [Davidson] presents a tremendous threat on any given touch to take it to the house. He did it against North Carolina. He did it against Cal this past week, just a really impressive player.”
Tait Reynolds will be leading the Clemson offense behind center. He’s thrown for 521 yards, a touchdown and two interceptions this season. Cristobal was very complimentary of Reynolds when asked about the true freshman quarterback.
“Great player. Ultra, ultra-competitive,” Cristobal said. “His nature, his demeanor, a guy that has already mastered the offense in a short amount of time. Great arm, extremely accurate, great feet, tough, physical – an absolute specimen of a player, an athlete. And a guy that just finds ways to win, but he can do it all. And he’s complemented by some great weapons and a very big, physical offensive line and a tight end crew. He’s a guy that certainly has went in there, has not flinched and has played great for them.”
Reynolds is also a threat to make plays with his legs. Because of this ability, UM defensive coordinator Corey Hetherman is preaching discipline to his defense in preparation for the game.
“We got to hit the quarterback. We got to get after him. We got to try to collapse the pocket. We got to be really detailed in our rush lanes. We got to be really detailed in our blitz plan, depending whether or not that’s what we’re doing this week – coming after him or not … he does a really good job of moving out of the pocket, keeping things alive,” Hethermen said.
