We officially know who the real Death Valley is after the 51-10 beatdown LSU handed to Clemson Saturday night. I’m not one to just read off a box score, but the Clemson-LSU score doesn’t paint the full picture of how putrid the Clemson’s offensive performance was in Baton Rouge.

The numbers across the board do tell a story of complete domination by LSU on both sides of the ball.

Clemson had eight first downs compared to 37 for LSU. Clemson went 1/13 on third down compared to 11/16 for LSU. Rushing yards was 40 to 309, passing yards was 105 to 335. Defensively it was two tackles for loss compared to 11 for LSU. Every single category was a blowout within a blowout. And the only word I could write down watching this game was embarrassment. That’s it. Embarrassment.

This was concerning for Clemson and could be the starting point for a big change if it’s not fixed

The whole time leading up to this game, we sat there and listened to Dabo Swinney talk about how Clemson was just a bunch of nobodies, how they were the underdogs. And we all know he wasn’t being honest in that. We understand that he was putting up this facade, bringing in Morris as the offensive coordinator, talking about how they were going to have a good team, how they were going to play it the right way. And then they got smacked down by LSU in a way no one expected.

If this isn’t the epitome of what the modern college football world has become, I don’t know what is. You can’t just talk a good game and expect to compete at this level without adapting to the reality of NIL, the transfer portal, and everything else that has reshaped this sport. Dabo has been resistant to that evolution for years now, and Saturday night was what happens when philosophy meets reality on the field. And who knows where this program goes after a loss like that. Maybe they should start with looking in the mirror.

Now, to be clear, I’m not going to sit here and say Clemson is cooked forever. I do think they will bounce back at some point, unless this is the final nail in the coffin and Clemson finds itself looking for a new head coach. But that’s a conversation for down the road. There’s a lot of football left to play.

Don’t overreact if you’re LSU, but don’t ignore what you just did either

And you may say, what about LSU? Yeah, they looked unstoppable. I understand what they did. But it’s Week 1. You always have to remind yourself that it is Week 1 and things can drastically change. Alabama lost to Florida State last year to open the season and still went on to win a college football playoff game. A lot of ball game is left.

One night doesn’t define a season, but 51-10 is the kind of result that forces a program to look in the mirror and LSU should be doing the same.

LSU looks like a team built to compete in the modern era and contend for a national title, but they can’t get too ahead of themselves either. Whether Clemson actually makes the adjustments necessary is what I’ll be watching the rest of the year. And for LSU, how you respond to winning is just as important to how you respond to losing, something that’ll also be important to watch over the next few weeks.