There aren’t many people around football who believe Clemson will turn things around. The past 12 months would suggest they won’t, but history says they will.

Let’s not get too over the top here. Clemson is still a very talented football team, and losing to the consensus No. 1 team in America didn’t change that.

However, they need to start playing better. There’s no debating that. They’ll have an opportunity to do so on Saturday against an App State team that could beat them if they come out flat.

Emmitt Smith, the former Dallas Cowboys all-time great, shared that message. He spoke with Derrian Carter of The Greenville News about how important it is for them to come together and go on an impressive stretch.

“The good thing about having an early loss (is) as you start to gain momentum, and your team comes together, you get some wins on your belt (and) you get on the run, you never know how the end of the season may end,” Smith said. “They started off with the best, the No. 1 team in the nation. … Now, it’s about not having a mental let down (Saturday) and allowing Appalachian State to come in and shock you.”

Smith will attend Saturday’s game at Clemson, giving him a first-hand look at the team.

His advice to Clemson wasn’t the only thing he touched on. Smith also spoke about the potential conference change, as the Tigers are in a legal battle with the ACC.

“The SEC is already full, so don’t come there,” Smith said. “You’re better off staying in the ACC than going into the SEC because ain’t gonna be many more national championships. … I think being in the ACC, that conference has the ability to offer something that the SEC doesn’t offer. I think the ACC, whether you got Duke, you got Stanford now, you got great quality schools in there, I think it offers something different.”

His point is fair. The ACC has high-level academic schools, and while the SEC has a few, it doesn’t compare to the ACC.

However, all of this is about money. Whether Clemson wants to admit that or not is fair, but that’s the reality of the situation. If they believe they’d make more money in a different conference, that’s where they’ll be headed.

Nonetheless, it’ll be awesome to have a legend in the building on Saturday night.

Below you’ll find the top performances in rushing, receiving and passing from Dallas-area Texas high school football players in Week 2.

Rushing

Player, School, Yards

Moses Adelowo, Denton Braswell, 253

Sterling Schneider, Denton Guyer, 219

Cam Newton, Prosper Walnut Grove, 202

DeAngelo Perales, Garland Naaman Forest, 201

Christian Rhodes, Lake Highlands, 199

Micah Rivers, Northwest Eaton, 197

Travis Agee, Plano East, 191

Javian Osborne, Forney, 187

Kelden Ryan, DeSoto, 175

Watson Bell, Argyle, 170

Legend Bey, North Forney, 169

Rodney Franklin, Mesquite Horn 163

Receiving

Player, School, Yards

Vincent Aparicio, Princeton, 226

Carterrious Brown, Arlington Seguin, 187

Quentin Gibson, North Crowley, 180

Trantan Miles, Arlington Martin, 171

Xavier Green, The Colony, 168

Ryder Treadway, Frisco Wakeland, 162

McKenzie West, Frisco Independence, 159

Paulo Jimenez, South Garland, 158

Samuel Williams, North Garland, 144

Zion Robinson, Mansfield, 139

Tatum Bell, Jr., Frisco Heritage, 132

Trysten Shaw, Mesquite, 130

Passing

Player, School, Yards

Carson Porter, Keller Timber Creek, 350

Jayden Maples, Frisco Wakeland, 330

Marcus Flowers, Princeton, 328

Keelon Russell, Duncanville, 325

Cornell McGee IV, Richardson Berkner, 324

Daylon Brooks, South Grand Prairie, 311

Noah Schuback, Melissa, 310

Jackson Hays, Plano East, 302

Braeden Imhoff, Prosper, 292

Edward Griffin, Coppell, 283

Presley Harper, Richardson Pearce, 278

Ziondre Williams, Anna, 276

Find more high school sports coverage from The Dallas Morning News here.

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Just six months ago, Cleveland Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski was awarded the NFL’s Coach of the Year trophy after leading his team to the playoffs despite starting five different quarterbacks throughout the season. It was Stefanski’s second time winning the award, putting him in a rare category of coaches.

Now, Stefanski will follow up that magical season by hosting the Cowboys in Week 1. This marks a full circle moment for Stefanski, as the head coach and offensive play-caller will be going up against the man who played a pivotal role in his rise to coaching stardom: new Dallas defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer.

Until Stefanski took the Browns head coaching job, the Minnesota Vikings were the only NFL team he had ever worked for. A Philadelphia native, Stefanski played defensive back at Penn, twice being selected to the All-Ivy League team. Upon his graduation, Stefanski spent a year as the assistant director of football operations for his alma mater. Then, at just 24 years old, he joined the Vikings as the assistant to then head coach Brad Childress. Stefanski was later promoted to assistant quarterbacks coach and retained in that role by interim head coach Leslie Frazier, who was named the full time head coach soon after.

When Frazier was ultimately fired, though, Zimmer was brought in to lead the franchise next. Zimmer made sweeping changes to the Vikings, but he opted to retain Stefanski and, in fact, promote him to tight ends coach. Two years later, Stefanski moved to the running backs room. A year later, he was the quarterbacks coach. And in 2018, when Zimmer fired offensive coordinator John DeFillippo halfway through the season, he turned to Stefanski as his interim coordinator.

The offense stabilized under Stefanski’s watch and, more importantly, Stefanski operated the run-first approach that Zimmer wanted. So Zimmer named Stefanski the full time offensive coordinator moving forward, bringing in coaching veteran Gary Kubiak as an offensive advisor to mentor Stefanski. A year later, Stefanski left for the top job in Cleveland, where he has a 37-30 record with two postseason appearances.

Stefanski’s story cannot be told without highlighting his history with Zimmer, but it also informs his own schematic preferences. Stefanski has worked under a wide list of offensive minds: Childress was an offshoot of Andy Reid’s West Coast spread offense, as was Bill Musgrave under Frazier; Norv Turner brought his signature Air Coryell offense that helped win two Super Bowls for the Cowboys back in the 90’s; Pat Shurmur offered a more traditional version of the West Coast; and Kubiak led a masterclass in the offense he and Mike Shanahan popularized in the 80’s in Denver, which has since evolved into what Kyle Shanahan and Sean McVay are doing that’s taken the league by storm yet again.

It is this final schematic preference that is most prevalent in the Browns’ attack, but to call Stefanski a Shanahan devotee is a little too simplistic. From the top down, things look the same. Stefanski’s offense features plenty of wide zone run plays and lots of play-action with deep crossing routes. But Stefanski has a much more diverse run scheme, which he has pieced together over time from all the different coaches he’s learned under.

You’ll see just about every type of run concept in Cleveland, all of which has been fine-tuned to operate efficiently behind one of the league’s top offensive lines. Nick Chubb has long been the face of Stefanski’s electric rushing attack, but last year tested their ability to still produce without him when Chubb tore his ACL and MCL. The results were a mixed bag: the Browns finished fourth in rushing attempts and were just outside the top 10 in rushing yards for the year, but the efficiency fell quite a bit. Cleveland ranked 25th in yards per carry, 23rd in run DVOA, and 28th in EPA/rush.

Chubb won’t be back for this game – he’s set to miss at least the first four games of the year while on the PUP list – but they’ve bolstered their running back room in preparation for Chubb’s absence. They return Jerome Ford, who ran for 813 yards last year, and also added bruising runner D’Onta Foreman, who tallied 425 rushing yards last year as part of a deep running back rotation in Chicago.

The hope for Cleveland is that the run game gets back to its normal self – top 10 in DVOA in Stefanski’s first three years as head coach – because quarterback Deshaun Watson has struggled mightily in his time as a Brown. Without even discussing the off-field factors for Watson – who has played just 12 games in two years between suspensions and injuries – the quarterback’s play has been severely lacking.

Still, though, Stefanski’s offense is designed to put minimal pressure on the quarterback. Like many other schemes from the Shanahan tree – an offense that Zimmer himself has done well against historically – this scheme aims to give the quarterback layups in the passing game. Having a route running aficionado like Amari Cooper, who will face his former team for the first time since being traded away, also helps.

Now, Stefanski will get a chance to show what he can do against his former boss. He’s faced Zimmer once before: the Browns played the Vikings in 2021, Zimmer’s last season as head coach, and Cleveland won 17-14. A win for Stefanski’s team, but not a banner day for his offense against Zimmer’s defense. The head coach expects a similarly tough challenge for Round 2:

“Preseason obviously is not a great indication for any team in terms of the scheme. Coach Zim, obviously I know really well, is an outstanding football coach so we know that we’ll have our work cut out for us. Personnel wise… they have a bunch of really, really good players from the d-line back through the secondary.”

The Browns should present a similar challenge for Zimmer, too, as the new coordinator aims to beef up a unit that struggled far too often against the run last year. There’s few teams who pose a taller task in that respect, but perhaps Zimmer will be able to pull one over on his former protégé.