How Clemson offense is preparing for tough crowd at FSU

For several starters on the Clemson offense, Saturday’s game at Florida State will be the toughest road environment they have played in.

Doak Campbell Stadium is one of the loudest venues in the ACC, and it is likely to be rocking this weekend when the Seminoles host No. 4 Clemson.

Dabo Swinney and the Tigers have taken steps in practice this week to get the offense ready.

“A lot of noise, for sure. That’s the best thing you can do is try to make it as unrealistic in practice as you can, so that when they get there they’re not overwhelmed by that,” Swinney said. “It’ll be loud and all that. It’ll be a great environment. But just try to prepare them for the type of focus that they have to have to execute what we need to do.”

Clemson has two true freshman starters on offense in Antonio Williams and Blake Miller who have only played road games at Georgia Tech, Wake Forest and Boston College thus far in their college careers.

The attendance for each of those games was less than 50,000. FSU’s stadium holds about 80,000.

Even last year, the biggest crowd Clemson played in front of was at South Carolina, which holds about the same as Florida State. Prior to last season, Clemson played in front of small crowds due to COVID-19, so even upperclassmen could face the loudest crowd of their careers on Saturday.

“Any time you’re in competition and you have the opportunity to go play in a great environment it’s fun,” Swinney said of preparing to play at Doak Campbell Stadium. “You love a challenge like that. I think they’re definitely looking forward to it.”

The last time Clemson was set to play at FSU, the game never ended up taking place.

Clemson had a player test positive for COVID-19 after traveling to Tallahassee, and FSU opted to not play the game.

Due to those circumstances, Clemson has not played in Tallahassee since 2018 when the Tigers earned a 59-10 win.

That will change this weekend, and Swinney expects a much different game.

“We don’t have many guys that have been there. It’s kind of weird, just like the BC game. We only had a couple of guys that had been there, as well,” Swinney said. “It’ll be an awesome environment, and I’m sure it’ll be a great game.”