All through pre-season camp Clemson Coach Dabo Swinney referred to his players as “a bunch of nobodies.”

Last Saturday night before a national television audience the Tigers played just like that: a bunch of nobodies against an LSU team which dominated the 51-10 game from start to finish. Even a two-hour weather delay at the start could do nothing to slow down the Bayou Bengals.

Coming off a 7-6 season Clemson was looking for better things. No one remotely associated with Swinney’s Tigers, ranked No. 23 in the coaches’ pre-season poll, saw such a disaster looming.

The Tigers will be looking to rebound in a big way when they take on Georgia Southern at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Memorial Stadium, AKA Death Valley. The game will be televised on the ACC Network.

This will be the second meeting all-time between Clemson and the Eagles. In 2018 a Tigers team which went 15-0 and beat Alabama, 44-16, in the national championship game cruised to a 38-7 win.

As evidenced by last season and last Saturday night this Clemson team is a shell of what it once was.

Despite the Tigers’ most lopsided loss in Swinney’s 19 seasons oddsmakers have made Clemson a 26.5-point favorite over the Eagles (1-0) who jumped out to a 21-0 first quarter lead against outmatched Charleston Southern en route to a 31-0 win.

Against LSU the Tigers couldn’t pass the ball and they couldn’t run it. The run defense was equally bad and it looked lifeless. Clemson had minus-4 rushing yards in the first half and finished with 40 while yielding 290. LSU held an astounding 644-148 yards advantage in total offense.

In his post-game press conference Swinney, to his credit, offered no excuses.

“We got our ass kicked,” said Swinney who has been Clemson’s head coach since 2008 and has won two national championships. “It’s an embarrassing performance, coaching and players. We’re going to have to own that.”

Swinney’s critics, and he has many despite the success he’s enjoyed, will be pointing out the lopsided loss is another example of how he has failed to adjust to today’s game.

In a sport transformed by NIL payments, revenue sharing and unrestricted player movement Swinney has chosen to go with home grown talent although he does have 15 transfers on this team.

That approach was exemplified in last Saturday’s game when the Tigers started senior Christopher Vizzina at quarterback. It was his first start in his four years at Clemson. LSU countered with Sam Leavitt who had started the last two years at Arizona State after playing at Michigan State as a freshman.

Backing up Vizzina, who completed 10 of 16 passes and had one interception for a pick six, is freshman Tait Reynolds who is expected to be the eventual starter. A dual-threat quarterback he completed four of six passes for 22 yards in two quarters.

“The pick six (first quarter) hurt, I mean, that hurt,” Swinney said. “It was a killer. I think CV made some nice throws. It was good to be able to get Tait in there, get him to play, let him get hit a little bit.”

Clemson is not bereft of talent. It has experienced receivers, speed in the backfield and one of the best players in the ACC in linebacker Sammy Brown who is the conference’s pre-season Defensive Player of the Year.

Wide receiver TJ Moore has now caught passes in 28 straight games and he teams with Tyler Brown and Bryant Wesco to give the Tigers a talented trio who can do big things if Vizzina and Reynolds can get the ball to them.

While the stats against LSU certainly don’t indicate it running backs Gideon Davidson and Miami transfer Chris Johnson, Jr., are breakaway threats who will test the Eagles.

Whether the loss to LSU was an aberration or a harbinger of things to come remains to be seen.

“This one is over,” Swinney said. “Next week’s (Georgia Southern) the biggest game of the year. That just has to be the mindset.”